Crashed Pips - Computers, politics, emetic trash

There’s no denying it. They’re everywhere. Those cheap and cheerful little notebooks that seem to small to physically exist are taking over the notebook computer market.

They’re cropping up everywhere. Apple’s young MacBook Air is, whilst expensive, still cheaper and smaller than most of the bigger subnotes out there. Asus’s Eee PC (who on EARTH thought of that name?) was the most wanted Christmas present stateside in 2007. I put in an order for my Eee PC earlier this week (the 4G webcam-enabled black model), and I’m expecting it to arrive sometime next week.

There are many other ultra-subs out there, but these two in particular (the MacBook Air and the Eee PC) have been selling like hotcakes. They are, by no means, full replacements for full-blown PCs; however, almost all seem to be targeted at the entry-level market. That is, at people who have no experience using computers.

Machines like the XO-1 are precursors to this market - they are designed to be easy to use, small, portable and drop-proof. The Intel Classmate PC, a similar computer, sprouted into the Asus Eee PC (pronounced E-PC). This little machine is tiny: it’s no bigger than two stacked DVD cases when closed. It also uses a solid-state disk drive, which more than compensates for its puny 900mHz Celeron processor (which, to rub sodium chloride into the proverbial wound, has been underclocked to 630mHz.)

However, the killer characteristic of the Eee is simple: it’s cheap. The cheapest model costs £199 in PC World, even if it is tucked away behind an aisle end-plate where you can’t see it. (Like the Macs, then: it’s hidden away where fewer people can see it.) Also, what bought it for me was that it ran Linux by default.

The Eee originally only came with a custom distribution of Xandros Linux on it, with IceWM as the window manager, and a tabbed menu interface replacing the desktop. Obviously it’s designed to mimic a mobile phone more than a conventional desktop, presumably to make it less intimidating to someone who’s never touched a computer before. A version with Windows XP is now available, and it can also be installed on the Linux Eee. The machine is capable of running just about any OS you can throw at it bar Vista, and some brave souls have even been able to maul that sufficiently to fit on the Eee’s miniscule 2-8gB solid-state hard drive.

Meanwhile, Apple had been working on its subnote for some time: the MacBook Air. It’s thinner than Victoria Beckham on a hunger strike and is far nippier than the Eee, although still not up to the standard of the MacBook Pro, or even the normal MacBooks which are long overdue a revision.

Like the Eee, it comes with a non-Windows OS by default. It comes preinstalled with Mac OS X, my own favourite Unix variant. It shares a lot in common with the Eee - no Windows, one-button trackpad, VGA webcam (available on the more expensive Eees) and no optical drive.

However, the Air being around five times more expensive than the Eee, there are many differences: it’s got a bigger screen and a full-sized keyboard, along with a multi-touch trackpad (which is in the pipeline on the Eee). There’s also a built-in system (using Bonjour) by which CDs and DVDs can be used with the Air without an external drive.

A major problem with the Air is its poor I/O. Its speaker is of the mono variety, and seems like something of an afterthought. It’s got no FireWire, and an irritating Micro-DVI port instead of the proper DVI port found on the MacBook Pro (and the mini-DVI port on the MacBook), no FireWire and only one USB2 port. No Ethernet. No PC Card.

Whilst the MacBook Air is an exquisite computer, it, like the Eee, fails to replace a full-blown computer. This isn’t surprising, and seems to have been misunderstood by the hordes of computer manufacturers now rushing to introduce kid-friendly ultra-subs. Indeed, these machines are more correctly ‘netbooks’, only properly designed for browsing the Internet on the go. That is my concern: that is a rather pointless category, better served by Internet tablets and PDAs. Heck, even the iPhone is better at browsing the Internet than some of these ‘netbooks’.

The manufacturers have somewhat missed the point, leaving AsusTEK and Apple to reap the rewards: Asus because it got there first, and Apple for its effective advertising and the halo effect from the iPod. Whilst the others have simply made a crippled subnote, Apple and Asus have made proper (if not full-featured) computers in a very small package.

With that in mind, you can expect a review of the Eee sometime next week.

Photo credits

• Asus Eee image by Red on English Wikipedia. Modified under licence (thumbnailed).
• MacBook Air image by Tim Malabuyo on Flickr. Modified under licence (thumbnailed).