A netbook is essentially a small laptop. It’s often characterized by having a tiny solid-state hard drive, a processor that’s very efficient at conserving energy, and a screen just big enough to read on. Below is Clive Thompson on Netbooks:
But here’s the catch: Most of the time, we do almost nothing. Our most common tasks—email, Web surfing, watching streamed videos—require very little processing power. Only a few people, like graphic designers and hardcore gamers, actually need heavy-duty hardware. For years now, without anyone really noticing, the PC industry has functioned like a car company selling SUVs: It pushed absurdly powerful machines because the profit margins were high, while customers lapped up the fantasy that they could go off-roading, even though they never did. So coders took advantage of that surplus power to write ever-bulkier applications and operating systems.
[The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time]
Over is the time of “bigger is better”, welcome to the era of efficiency. I love how the author relates fast laptops to SUVs, and I think it makes sense. When fuel prices in the United States were on the rise, people started buying more efficient vehicles that better suited their real-world uses. With the recession in full swing, we’re seeing the same idea trickle down to consumer goods. This is a large leap in understanding the beauty of small and simple.
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