Although everyone and their first cousin twice-removed has dished out their own netbook at
Computex, Dell's
wee darling (it's still unnamed, officially) still has the attention of most. At a recent media briefing at Dell's HQ,
APC Mag was able to get a little time with the unit and grill execs with a flurry of questions -- many of which weren't answered. Still, a few key tidbits did seep out, like the "due out by the end of this summer" thing and the omission of Fn keys on the keyboard. Wait, wha? You heard right -- Dell has decided to make the alpha keys roomier by nixing the line of Fn keys entirely, and while this definitely won't matter to some, it'll really get under the skin of others. On a more positive note, it was suggested that the little fellow would boast a VGA output and three USB ports, but outside of that, Round Rock is remaining mum.
[Via
Liliputing]
posted Jun 5th 2008 11:01AM
Bah, i dont like it. At all
"netbook"... I reject!
Bah 2 you Negative Nancy
It looks so sweet, I'd love to have one. I'm just too cheap to spend a lot of money on a netbook. At least it'll have a nice port assortment, it seems.
If it looked like candy to you.........then similar machine from HP recently announced should be honey over candy ...
Mm, that's a pretty little number. On the wishlist it goes.
But I need function keys to function!
+1 (thumb down) for function key
Alt + F4 will be history =(
i don't buy llǝp
Netbooks are good for parents who wanna get their kids integrated in technology - but don't have alot of money to spend - or, don't wanna risk giving their child a very expensive system as their first computer.
But, I think these should ONLY be used in Primary School and Middle School.
Kids in Primary school only need living books, kid pix, and the internet for access to STARFALL, or ACUITY services. 5th grade needs mostly WORD and POWERPOINT.
For High School, I could not buy one of these for my kid. The programs required for that level of school will eat up whatever Hard Drive and Memory they have - not to mention kids experimenting with video gaming.
And once lil' Johnny realizes he can download porn, I can already see a 1 TB drive being asked for as a Christmas present.
Last time I checked, the only thing I really used for my coursework in highschool was MS Word and Google, followed by a few text books.
I just graduated high school last week, and I never used my computer for more than word, powerpoint, google, and sometimes wikipedia.
high school was not hard at all and my 5 year old computer had no trouble handling the enormous stress of my schoolwork.
Netbooks are getting increasingly popular in businesses where the user primarily needs to use MS office and work with general documents.
They aren't watching or burning movies and playing games.
Netbooks work well as cheap and efficient little business machines for use on the go.
You forgot the most important app for primary school kids: Oregon Trail.
So your argument is that they don't have enough memory and hard disk space for school (although businesses find them fine!) and then that they'll want a bigger hard disk for porn? So are you arguing that they should have the space for porn, or that you don't want to have to upgrade the hdd?!
And how much hard disk space do you think you need for word, powerpoint and a web browser? The Wind has 80GB....
I got through university with a computer that wasnt nearly as powerful as most of these netbooks - big deal, man. unless you are in a fine arts program you have to use cs3 for or some audio engineering class these netbooks get the job done in style.
I am in highschool right now and Word, Powerpoint and internet are exactly what I need, I also need something lighter than my 5lbs laptop (with the fancy graphics card and vista I use for gaming and my various art programs) that I can take everywhere, connect to the network across the street because their tech. people are not smart enough to password protect it and type up all my notes (my family has a history of graph and motor disorders and dyslexia. And yet my dad is an engineer. Hm.). Which would make my life 10 million times easier.
IDK, i think i would be ashamed to be seen in public with a dell notebook.
I'm sorry you base your entire social attitude on what brand of notebook you have.
No it's just that every expierence i had with Dell sucked, so i don't like the brand, that's why i'll probably go with the Wind. I had a customer bring in his dell to me, and the thing (a desktop pc) had no ps/2 ports for mouse or keyboard? wtf kind of a motherboard is that?
"I had a customer bring in his dell to me, and the thing (a desktop pc) had no ps/2 ports for mouse or keyboard? wtf kind of a motherboard is that?"
One that's not made in 1999? Hi it's 2008 now, we have USB peripherals.
A modern one?
So what? every decent motherboard has them, and i still use them for fixing computer as i dont want to disconnect my regular keyboard, and so i just use my old compaq.
The Asus P5E only has one for Keybaord. As a general rule motherboards are moving away from legacy ports.
I feel you, man. The other day I was trying to install a 14.4k modem in my cousin's Dell, but it didn't have any ISA slots! WTF?
I'm sorry your experiences with them have sucked. My family has a dell desktop from when Win95" was current and now it has XP on it, Explorer 7, Microsoft Office (home and student) '03 and is wireless. Its got a 20GB hard drive! Honestly its not fast but it works perfectly fine for average stuff. I find it impressive and kind of want to keep it around just to have as a sort of legacy (like my old dimension that runs XP and ran the Sims 2, no small feet on that computer, same with Photoshop Elements 2.0). Maybe its because of a difference in country - I live in Canada.
When did we decide on calling them netbooks?
Screw what Intel calls them, I like sub-notebook or umpc. Most people (non-nerds) just call them the "toy" laptop or small laptop.
when did people stop "surfing" the internet?
cheaptop?
budgetbook?
You're fighting a battle that can't be won. Engadget seems determined to cram this term down our throats whether we like it or not. First they say "netbook = under 1kg, SSD based" then 2 articles later they are calling 12" laptops with SATA HDDs "netbooks".
Someone's been drinking the Intel koolaid.
Sub-notebooks are for surfing the information superhighway, but netbooks are for mobilising our connected user experiences.
gotta have those function keys, using a mouse is too taxing
Big pencil ever!
F5 and F6 are core to my web browsing. will they at least be accessible through a fn key modifier?
FN key won't be there either.
F5 I can see, but try Alt + "d" to reach the address bar instead of F6. It's a wonderful thing, as your thumb slides to Alt from the space bar and "d" is already on the home row.
why is the DELL sign upside down ? ...
That's a good question. Usually the logo is oriented so people can read it when the notebook is open and being used - a little extra advertising. Maybe Dell isn't as keen on advertising with this unit? Maybe they just screwed up the render? Who knows.
True, it's upside down relative to the one on my m1210.
These are the Fn (Function keys) not the F keys above the number keys. F1, F2, F3, etc should still be there.
" with no facility to call up the usual F1-F12 keys. “This was a trade off so the rest of the keys could be bigger”, Gruzen says".
I'm guessing this means no F1-12 either? No wonder Dell sucks.
Since I'll be running Ubuntu on this, I can just assign an Alt+F4 keystroke. no big deal.
Sub $500 and its mine , even just for a toy .. I am a desktop man so i wont touch a full sized notebook , but this is perfect for on the go
I'm in favor of eliminating all legacy keys. Who ever uses "Scroll Lock" or "Pause Break"? Personally, I think the OLPC 2.0 touch screen keyboard is the way of the future. Mechanical input is so 20th Century.
how the hell do you touch type on a touchscreen? it's going to slow us down significantly because we would have to look at the scren the whole time. and F1-F12 are not legacy keys.
Dell is not doing it correctly. When removing legacy keys they should remove the oldest batch, like the alphabetical, numerical, backspace, enter, shift, space, and few others.
wait a minute....how will i rename files without my precious F2 Key...and when i get lost in windows Call up help without my F1..AND HOW WILL I SEARCH FOR FILES WITHOUT F3!!!! AND AND AND....how will i enter alternative booting modes before windows loads!...bye bye safe mode!
This may not be that bad, why couldn't they just move the function keys to an alternate feature of the number keys (blue keys) just like many notebooks have for number pads?
What the heck is a "netbook"? If this is a "netbook", does that mean people are going to starting using the term "netty" like they use "lappy", as in:
"d00d! i almost pulled the trigger on that netty!" ?
I hope not...that would be sad.
Netty v Netbook....
Netty wins!
Silly names like netbook are not perceived as silly for very long when it's officially released. People were up in arms about Powerbook and iBook suddenly becoming Macbook Pro and Macbook. People were pissed, they called it silly, they jeered and booed and hissed and whirred in their stupid little swivel chairs upset with Apple that they tarnished the name of the Mac laptop.
Now, they all sit there, whirring in their swivel chairs in Macrumors and Apple Insider going "I can't wait to get my quad core Macbook Pro!"
Netbook is not like HelloKittyFunkyHappySuperLaptop. It'll pass along and just be another name.
I'm not jumping to conclusions re the function keys. I bet there still there, but you will have to use a key combination to get them. If so, it would be similar to the differences between a standard keyboard and a laptop keyboard how the number pad is accessed with the Fn key.
I don't think that would be such a bad compromise really, as with a machine of this size there has to be compromises. If you work in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc... a lot with hot keys, then this probably isn't the right machine for you. But if that's your needs, then you're probably going to be on a Mac anyway, or a Wacom pen-enabled tablet, or are going to want a bigger display.
Presumably, the idea of a netbook (I like that we're going with netbook to describe these sub notebooks) is that it's not going to be your primary machine. You're going to use it on busses, trains, in coffee shops, in the car, generally on the go, with wireless broadband, or wherever you can get wifi. And you're going to be using it for browsing, email, social networking, and light document work. And migrating to relying more on web services such as Google Docs and less on loaded software with one of these machines.
If you go from Windows at home, to Linux on one of these, you're going to have to leave behind some software you're probably addicted to. But it's doable for most people for most of what they need to do on the go.
I don't like to compromise and I use a lot of small utilities that I can only get on Windows, and I am quite happy and comfortable with XP, but I have used Linux a lot too and would consider Linux on one of these machines. As a writer / blogger, I'm really anxious to jump into a netbook, as I think they would be great for my needs. But I'm waiting to see what all the manufacturers come up with.
What I don't like about what I've seen so far is that manufacturers seem to think that if you go with Linux, it's because you are more price conscious and therefore, they also are often reducing the RAM and hard drive capacities on the Linux machines. I do want lots of RAM, because I do run numerous programs simultaneously, lots of browser tabs, and image editing tools. I can work in Linux, but that doesn't mean I want less power. On the hardware end, why the VGA port? That's something we can live without. If this isn't my primary machine, I'm not going to use VGA much if ever, and USB LCDs are cheap now. I guess they think you're going to need it to run projectors at client sites.
What I want, little compromise on performance, long battery life, a full or nearly full size keyboard, a display that maximizes the space, USB, and a slot for a broadband wireless card. I can compromise on hard drive space using web services, on the OS, and outputs, but not on input and performance.
I was hoping the function key would change the number row to F-keys, but:
"the function keys have been dropped *altogether*: the Fn modifier activates hardware-related shortcuts mapped onto the keyboard, with no facility to call up the usual F1-F12 keys."
And just like that this think is DOA to me. :-(
Here's what absolutely KILLS me about these devices. Who the FOCK puts out a notebook in 2008 that doesn't have a damn HDMI port? Or how about DisplayPort for that matter? It's 2008 for damn sake! Analog ports are GONE! No monitor on the shelf comes without a digital interface (ie HDMI or DVI) anymore, and every television made now has HDMI or DVI inputs as well. I don't want to plug this thing into my 52" LCD's lame-ass circa 1988 VGA port. Why don't they just throw in a parallel port, serial ports, and PS2 ports while they're at it!??!? Totally stupid. That alone makes me want to avoid this device entirely.
You make a lot of sense. Angry and a little rabid... but that appeals to me.
I agree with you totally. If we are talking about excluding legacy items then lets go the whole hog. Display port is coming in, by year end it will be the default.... but I think that this is how the PC business works... redundancy.
except...I would buy this in a heartbeat. It will have Dell's excellent service and reliability. I am happy to pay a $100 premium for the Dellness.
By March, this will be in my daughter's bedroom, and I will fork out another $600 for the latest one.
I am budgeting around $1800 per year for Netbook purchases. This will still be less than the $3500(CDN) (USD$ 90000) I paid in one shot for my Dell D600 way back when...
Yep. Vote from me: Move the Function keys to become a "Fn" of the first row of letters. (This will definitely stop me accidently hitting F1 when I never mean to).
I agree with the other comments regardning getting rid of other legacy keys too.
I would even get used to one of the "Ctrls", "Shifts", "Alt's".
I often swap between European Keyboards, UK keyboards and US keyboards... OK I sometimes lose track of the @ and the " but it's not so bad.
About time really.
bah they just ruined it.
DO NOT PASS GO. GO DIRECTLY TO FAIL.
there HAS to be something in there for the function keys. I mean if you ever need to go into safe mode you are screwed short of pulling out an external keyboard that is. Hell what about getting into the BIOS? Nope they have to have something hard encoded.
ok then. so when is Engadget going to stop refering to things as "mum" -there's no expression that creeps me out more than "mum", I just get imeges of what steve jobs' mother could look like in my mind.. freaky shit!
please, stop this nonsense....
Why do you only hear from Dell when they want to sell you something? I'd settle for a returned support call or email.
I keep wondering if everyone would be so jazzed about this if the one demo unit ever seen was NOT red; Ferrari picked that color for a very good reason...
Waaaiiiit, wait wait wait wait wait. A moment of silence for the fallen Function keys... okay, lets go.
If this little guy has a long battery life - say ~5 hrs or more, it would be a very nice platform for schoolers. performance is fine for the kind of work they do, but shlepping around all those power cords and fighting for outlets would be a distraction.