Netbooks

My PC just died:( so am considering a netbooks rather than a full blown PC. My main use is going to be Processong and p5js. Any thoughts ... good or bad move?

Comments

  • edited December 2015

    If your "dead" PC is a desktop, you can instead look for which hardware are "burned" inside it and replace them w/ better new 1s! *-:)

    As said, if you really wanna buy some new computer device for general programming, you're gonna need a big monitor, comfortable keyboard, mouse & mousepad.

    That is, even if you opt for some modest netbook, it still needs to have some video port, so it can be plugged in another big monitor when you're home.

    For specs, strive for at least 4 GB RAM, 1.5 MHz CPU and some good embedded GPU.
    It's hard to find netbooks w/ such specs. It's dead easy to find such on laptops instead.

    Don't forget some HDD or SSD w/ at least 300 GB too! L-)

  • Ok, will think about it. It's a laptop that's died ... Backlighting on screen has gone. Might be worth trying to fix? Cheers.

  • edited December 2015

    After taking it to a technician, depending on the price to fix it may be worth.
    You can check it out whether it was just the screen gone by hooking it up to another monitor.
    I operated a laptop w/o its screen for a while this year! Until it was gone for good.
    Then I've removed its internal HDD and put it on a USB case and now I've got an external HDD!
    Been thinking about removing its RAM in order to increase for another laptop too! :ar!

  • +1 to keyboard and screen suggestions by @GoToLoop

    I do occasional coding - mostly p5js and JS based - on an old nettop: so similar specs. It's a bit slow, but for someone who has lived through zx spectrum tape loading and dial-up, perfectly acceptable... Unless the specs are particularly good I'd recommend running a lightweight linux distro rather than windoze in order to make best use of the available resources: at idle Peppermint uses ~250MB RAM whilst IIRC Windows 7 eats up almost 1GB...

  • edited December 2015

    Besides the aforementioned "cloud-oriented" Peppermint:
    http://DistroWatch.com/table.php?distribution=peppermint

    Another gr8 light distro, but more "desktop-oriented", is LXLE:
    http://DistroWatch.com/table.php?distribution=lxle

    Installed it just 1 month ago in a very old netbook my sister had bought from some friend.
    Even though it's an Atom CPU w/ a meager 1 GB of RAM, it flies!

  • Interesting ... I have used linux on the past but only ubuntu. May look further into that. Cheers Mark

  • edited December 2015

    Both LXLE & Peppermint are Ubuntu-based. More precisely Lubuntu-based:
    http://DistroWatch.com/table.php?distribution=lubuntu

    There are some buncha Ubuntu-based distros. And Ubuntu itself is DebIan-based:
    http://DistroWatch.com/table.php?distribution=debian

  • @GoToLoop Thanks for the links. I will try them.

    My laptop is kind of reviving ... screen has dark shadows spreading from the left that make reading anything impossible, except today it has gone! My guess is a worn/wearing connector in the hinge somewhere, so I can struggle on for a bit. I have a spare HD I can plug in to try out those distros though before going ahead with buying new. Very interesting that even an old atom netbook my be usable!

    Mark

  • @blindfish Thanks for you input too ! I also lived through the days of zx spectrum tape loading ... I still have one that works, although it is just on a box most of the time now. Occasionally get it out to play Manic Miner :)

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