netbook usefull?

Have run a netbook running Lightroom for nearly a year now, added an extra gig of memory so 2 gig in total.

Speed is not so much an issue, however screen size is. Due to the window positioning in LR the image you see on the screen is very small, so it is difficult to check images for sharpness.

I took mine to the festivals last year & had a few images rejected for softness from the agencies, this was due to the small screen.

If you are shooting for hobby I would say get one. Mine fits in my bag & is ideal for backing up, at a festival I shoot between 32 to 40 gig of images per day so between bands when I can I upload memory cards to my netbook, which now has a 500gig hd installed.

500gig hd

Not the secondhand ones. An IBM Thinkpad X31/X32 can be bought used but in pristine condition for well under £100 on eBay. For that you get a Pentium M machine with comparable CPU power to a dual core Atom that has - admittedly subjectively - the best keyboard around, which I personally attach great importance to. You also get Windows XP thrown in for free for those who like linux and use virtualisation elsewhere all for less than the price of a new OEM XP Pro license; who said markets were efficient?

For £200-300 you can get an X61 with a Core2Duo processor that you could run a Hackintosh virtual machine on (I wouldn’t try to install OSX natively on any old machine), and has more than sufficient processing power to be used as a desktop replacement for practically all ‘normal’ applications.

However, I think you need to consider your requirements more carefully; if you want something to actually do significant photo processing you should probably be looking at a different class of laptop altogether with a bigger screen. If you just want to back up raw files on the go pretty much anything will do.

It is also fairly easy to set yourself up to take advantage remotely of whatever computing power you have at your home base, with a fairly limited investment in time and effort. Pretty much all cheap off the shelf home routers can be hacked with a variety of firmware allowing you to do all manner of fancy things. I personally run something called dd-wrt on my router where I have set up a ssh server. That allows me to initiate a secure encrypted connection to my router via IP, wake on lan any hardwired machine and remote desktop in including to virtual machines via the secure connection.

The graphics rendering performance is more than adequate if you have a halfway decent internet connection at both ends, and for my usage I find it a huge advantage since it eliminates the need to constantly file sync between laptops and desktop. For this reason I have not found the need to set up shared directories/drives via the connection but I believe that is also possible.

In almost 18 months of using this set up it has only failed once early on, when I discovered the need to set up a scheduled job to reboot the router to clear out garbage having been locked out after two weeks travelling. If you want more details let me know and I’ll find some links for you.

Thank you.

@Cabster I've a small portable harddisk and that will be used for most of the storage and will be sure to check out the screen before i buy.

@Shaky, I would used it most as multimedia laptop and beside that I want to do basic photo editing. That's why the ASUS 1201N looks interesting with his ION.

As for creating a network that might be a good idea but ain't sure that's a solution, tried it already once and found it pretty slow sadly

Just a heads up re: netbooks.

Currys and PC World currently have the Asus (which apparently is pronounce aSOOS, rather than AYsus) 1001HA for £199 (£100 off) until Wednesday. It comes with the 6 cell battery which gives 8.5 hours battery life, and the usual netbook spec.

My sister has used one for 6 months for basic tasks (including backing up photos, but not editing them) and swears by it.

Stefan,
A lot of netbooks will run Apple OS X to some degree. I had a compatibility chart, but I think it got trashed a few days back in a clear-up session.
From memory, you would either need a version of OS X that was not model-specific, or one of the hacked versions that are available on the net. Different netbooks have different issues with specific software after the OS is installed.
If I can find the chart, I will post the URL here.
Geoff

Well, that did not take long ...
URL is http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/12/mac-os-x-on-net/
almost makes me want to get one (netbook, that is).
Geoff

And another URL for those who really want to play with netbooks rather than cameras:
http://osxdaily.com/2009/04/26/creating-a-hackintosh-installing-mac-os-x-on-netb...

Anyone who wants to look at this may have to paste it in to get it all on one line into the address box. Gives links to a lot more resources.
Geoff

If I wanted a Mac OS I'd go for the Macbook. It's not much bigger than most netbooks, though a good deal more expensive.

But then I'm not a Mac user, and am never likely to be.

Thank you Geoff, those are certainly helpful.

Indeed so it would be great to have Mac running on a €200 netbook and then also legally ^^

Might consider a dual boot system, one for watching movies and the other for editing if it works better.

Well I have my netbook. I am using it now. Taken forever to set up, but I am getting there. I have put Irfanview on here for now, rather than Elements.
So far I am pleased with it, but the keyboard will take some getting used to.

I am pleased with the screen, but I couldn't use it for editing!

This Samsung comes with a sleeve, and due to a special offer a free bag as well which will arrive in a couple of weeks.

Now all I need to do is go on a trip to really try it out .

Great to hear Gwyn, have great fun with your netbook and hopefully the trip wouldn't wait long to come.

I have a Lenovo S10, and am trying CS4 + Lightroom on it ... but it is best for backup and view/sort, since the editing can be a drag ... also, some plugins like those from Topaz flow off screen and you can't do much with them due to the screen resolution/size ... but i feel backup/sort/share is great enough when you are traveling ...

Sadly no because it would have been 4 months...
Sadly the trip is cancelled and when I get accepted to at a new study over 4 months I'll get a Macbook so the Netbook is out of my mind right now.

Still thank you for your response

Btw new Atom processors are on the way, maybe they are a bit more capable of running the heavier software?

A friend has CS3 on a 450 Atom processor powered Eee. He upgraded to 2GB Ram on it and full Windows 7.
Quite why he put PS on it I have no idea, as the screen is so small, but it seems to run fine for most things, just a bit slower.

I'll stick to Irfanview for now.
Mine will get used in anger when we go away next weekend. No internet though so I shan't be keeping up with events here, unless I find a McD.

Netbooks are good for storing/backing up images when travelling, and of course they have internet capability. But they're no good for editing.

G