UMPC recommendations?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

My wife has a Macbook (not Air). It makes me scream "Intuitive, my ass!" at the TV when the "Hi, I'm a Mac" commercials are on. And all my programs are PC. Although that's less of a factor, since Vista has made me re-buy all my programs, anyway.

If it could act as a tablet, I might actually think about it, though.

Well, you could always run Vista on it. Still can't beat the form factor. (I won't get into a Mac vs Windows argument here. But, as a new Mac user I can appreciate alot of the Mac, but it is mostly the underlying Unix base.)

There are alot of UMPCs out there that are proprietary or linux too. So, I didn't know if OS mattered to you either.

BOb

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Well, you could always run Vista on it. Still can't beat the form factor. (I won't get into a Mac vs Windows argument here. But, as a new Mac user I can appreciate alot of the Mac, but it is mostly the underlying Unix base.)

There are alot of UMPCs out there that are proprietary or linux too. So, I didn't know if OS mattered to you either.

BOb

There are folks who just love Macs and I have no doubt with good reason. It's just hard for an old dyed in the wool PC user like me to make the transition, I guess. Vista is making it easier to consider, however, since I am hating that more and more every day.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

There are folks who just love Macs and I have no doubt with good reason. It's just hard for an old dyed in the wool PC user like me to make the transition, I guess. Vista is making it easier to consider, however, since I am hating that more and more every day.

Win XP then? Linux? They will all run on the Air.


Actually, the reason I got my Mac was to learn something new. Not because I thought it was "better" than the PC. Also, I think Vista has a bad wrap as most of the issues are due to drivers and apps which aren't really MS's fault. I mean vista took what 7 years to come out... you would think app/hardware vendors would have time to make their apps compatible. Believe it or not Vista compatibly apps are really XP apps written properly. Windows XP just didn't enforce the rules that developers were SUPPOSED to follow in the first place.

BOB

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Believe it or not Vista compatibly apps are really XP apps written properly. Windows XP just didn't enforce the rules that developers were SUPPOSED to follow in the first place.

BOB

Totally agree, Bob - people really should stop blaming the o/s and start blaming developers for not following the rules. My astronomy software, originally written for Windows 95, works flawlessly under Vista, and that's doing all sorts of nasty multi-threaded serial comms (to talk to telescopes), etc. I was meticulous in following the rules and as a result it works just fine.

[pshrynk]

Okay, but I use photoshop a lot and they must have ignored the rules, becasue I had to buy CS3 jsut to do what CS was doing just fine. And other stuff similar. I'm annoyed at my computer all together as a result. Just not as up to date as you guys as to at whom I should direct my vitriol.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Okay, but I use photoshop a lot and they must have ignored the rules, becasue I had to buy CS3 jsut to do what CS was doing just fine. And other stuff similar. I'm annoyed at my computer all together as a result. Just not as up to date as you guys as to at whom I should direct my vitriol.

Well.... there's another reason why people are upset about this whole Vista "thang"... Many vendors rather than update/patch current versions to work properly on Vista required people to update to a newer version. Which I think is BAD! Then again, at my shop all our customers pay annual maintenance to get our updates.

Although, I'll tell you the problem with photoshop was due to their DRM not working on Vista. They had to change the whole thing to work on it. Adobe's DRM is just a PITA! Adobe DRM even breaks true crypt... so don't even try to install that.

BOb

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Azayzel

One last thing, in terms of cheapest & best UMPC if you're on a budget, get a Khojinsha. Why? They're just as cheap as the Eee, come loaded with XP Tablet, and convert from traditional laptop to tablet-mode and allow pen-input. All in a nice package that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, plus the keyboard is actually large enough to be of use.

Sorry for the long post, but I've been researching the UMPC market for a long time running now and have gotten my hands on most. Bottom line though, get out and see what you can, chances are... once you take the plunge you're more than likely going to be stuck with it.

Azayzel, since you've done a lot of research, if one went with Khojinsha (or other tablet convertible type netbook computers - I can't believe that Khojinsa will be the only one.), what would be the best multiformat e-book reader software currently available? (commercial or PD) Thankx mucho-RSE

[pbananth]

Hello,
i am from india..i am using HCL mi leap vista version.(7 inch touch screen,weight around 1 kg)
it is nice..cons 1. 2 hour battery life 2. heat..
For using as a ebook weight will be factor.. so all the tablet PC out..
just my thoughts..

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by pbananth

Hello,
i am from india..i am using HCL mi leap vista version.(7 inch touch screen,weight around 1 kg)
it is nice..cons 1. 2 hour battery life 2. heat..
For using as a ebook weight will be factor.. so all the tablet PC out..
just my thoughts..

I'm not planning on using this as an e-book reader, just mobile PC. I already have a Kindle, so no need for anything else.

[khourianya]

I actually recently replaced my laptop with an Acer Aspire One. It was under $400 and came preloaded with linux (linpus lite). I don't care for that distro of linux but Ubuntu is releasing a new version at the end of October that has support for netbooks like this that run on the Intel Atom processor. I'll be changing it them.

I like the portability of the little laptop and the keyboard on it is larger than the eee pc (which is important if you plan to do any sort of typing for more than a sentence on it).

Alternately - the HP Mini-Note 2133 is more expensive, but it has an even larger keyboard and is geared more to professionals in appearance.

None of these have any sort of optical drive, though, which can be a major drawback - particularly if you do go with a windows OS. At least with Linux, most of the programs are free and can just be downloaded and installed from a USB key.

[pilotbob]

I just read today that they dropped the price of the Eee 100H to $449. 1GB ram, Win XP, 6cell bat.

Certainly not a UMPC though.

BOb

[carld]

Probably more low-end than what you're looking for, but there seem to be a bunch of very low cost and really small notebooks coming out of China over the next few months.

Jointech

Hi Vision