Comments on: What's Under Three Pounds, Under $500 and Underpowered? http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20080804/whats-under-three-pounds-under-500-and-underpowered/ by John Paczkowski Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:08:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Mac Beach http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20080804/whats-under-three-pounds-under-500-and-underpowered/comment-page-1/#comment-1716 Mac Beach Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:06:54 +0000 http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=2950#comment-1716 It's sort of like saying "We've invented a new SUV. Its target market: people who want to use less gas. Our claim: this vehicle gets 3 miles per gallon on the highway." The problem with these things isn't the target market (of which I am a part) but how far they fall short of meeting it. Almost ANY laptop will run for 3 hours on a charge. Given smaller everything, solid state disks drive, and a processor from Intel specifically aimed at low energy use (maybe there is your problem right there) this thing should be shooting for 3 DAYS not 3 hours. Of course running Windows, which likes to busy itself with all sorts of things in the background even when the computer is sitting "idle" doesn't help. The word "boot" has gotten a dirty name where users are concerned. We want a machine we can turn on, use, turn off and that can go at least all day on a charge (charging overnight, but no more frequently than that is a minimum requirement for such a device). I think one or more variations on Linux will be the right OS for this thing which only needs a capable web browser and simple word/text processing. Approximately 12 people out of 10 that I know need nothing more than this and are in fact baffled by the complexity of what our industry has been able to produce so far. I'll be so glad to finally no longer be asked to help people with their machines that "worked just fine yesterday, I don't know what happened since then". I'll be giving these as present by the dozens if they can finally get their heads out of Microsoft's behind and produce a computing APPLIANCE that just works. BRING THEM ON! It’s sort of like saying “We’ve invented a new SUV. Its target market: people who want to use less gas. Our claim: this vehicle gets 3 miles per gallon on the highway.”

The problem with these things isn’t the target market (of which I am a part) but how far they fall short of meeting it.

Almost ANY laptop will run for 3 hours on a charge. Given smaller everything, solid state disks drive, and a processor from Intel specifically aimed at low energy use (maybe there is your problem right there) this thing should be shooting for 3 DAYS not 3 hours.

Of course running Windows, which likes to busy itself with all sorts of things in the background even when the computer is sitting “idle” doesn’t help.

The word “boot” has gotten a dirty name where users are concerned. We want a machine we can turn on, use, turn off and that can go at least all day on a charge (charging overnight, but no more frequently than that is a minimum requirement for such a device).

I think one or more variations on Linux will be the right OS for this thing which only needs a capable web browser and simple word/text processing. Approximately 12 people out of 10 that I know need nothing more than this and are in fact baffled by the complexity of what our industry has been able to produce so far. I’ll be so glad to finally no longer be asked to help people with their machines that “worked just fine yesterday, I don’t know what happened since then”.

I’ll be giving these as present by the dozens if they can finally get their heads out of Microsoft’s behind and produce a computing APPLIANCE that just works.

BRING THEM ON!

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