The Mac world is abuzz with an article about how crappy the Dell Mini 9 is as a “hackbook”. Basically, the article reads like this:
I bought me a nifty new screwdriver. It doesn’t drive in nails very well. I’ve not really tried it on screws, but because of it’s shortcomings as a hammer, I declare it’s crap.
Please. If you’re going to write an article about how crappy the Dell Mini 9 is, write about how crappy the Dell Mini 9 is. You took a modestly priced netbook, shoehorned Mac OS X onto it, and now you’re complaining about how poor the experience is.
I have a Lenovo IdeaPad S10. I bought it for a specific reason. I knew when I purchased it exactly what I wanted to do with it: write emails, surf the net, chat. Does it work for that? Exceedingly well. Did it meet my expectations? Very much so, especially here in Viet Nam where I spent over a week having to rely on wifi in coffee shops to get any work done.
I have two computer bags. One is a laptop backpack that houses my ThinkPad T61, it’s brick and a few “necessessities” for computing on the go. It weighs 25 lbs and looks like I’m carrying a data centre on my back. The other is a small leather pouch, looking like a typical purse. It has my S10, it’s brick and a few “necessessities” for computing on the go. It weighs 10 lbs. Which do you think gets hauled around to more coffee shops?
Can I do all of my job on the S10? No. But I can keep in touch with clients and friends on those days when DSL to the house doesn’t quite make it the last mile. That’s what I bought the S10 for, and that’s what it excels at: driving screws. Not hammering nails. Had I wanted to hammer nails, I’d have bought a hammer.
The argument that the Mini 9 was turned into a hackbook because Apple doesn’t make such a beast is specious. If Apple doesn’t make a netbook and you must have Apple, you can’t have a netbook. Figure out where your priorities lie.
Finally, addressing the keyboard, which seemed to be the largest part of the complaint: I don’t have direct experience with the Mini 9 keyboard, but the Lenovo keyboard works very well for me. It’s pretty close to full size and I can hit pretty close to my full speed on it. Keep in mind, though, I didn’t buy a tiny laptop with a tiny keyboard, shoehorn an OS it wasn’t meant to have on it, and then try to write a novel! Were I a novelist, I’d have a dedicated keyboard to attach to whatever computer I was working on–for a novelist, the keyboard is the ultimate interface and no corners can be cut there. I don’t write system documentation on my S10–I save that for when I’m on the ThinkPad. I’m saving up quite a bit of it for when my desktop arrives with my wonderful Logitech G15 keyboard.
For those who are curious, my S10 dual boots into Windows XP and Ubuntu Netbook Remix. 98% of the time, it’s in Windows. 98% of the time, I’m surfing the net (Chrome), reading email (Chrome) or chatting (Pidgin and Skype). Windows XP is a seamless experience for this. The right tool for the job, folks. The right tool for the job.
