Netbooks And The Return Of The Small Computer

Personal computers have spent most of their history growing more powerful. Faster processors, larger screens, more RAM, stronger graphics: these improvements have been easy to understand and easy to market. The ASUS Eee PC, which launched in October 2007 at $299, is suggesting that another direction can be valuable: a computer that becomes useful by becoming smaller, cheaper, and simpler.

What the Eee PC is

The Eee PC 701 has a 7-inch display at 800×480 resolution, 4GB of SSD storage, 512MB of RAM, and runs on an Intel Celeron M 900 MHz processor. It runs a custom version of Xandros Linux in its base configuration, though ASUS also offers a Windows XP version. It weighs under one kilogram.

To call this underpowered by desktop standards is an understatement. The entire machine would struggle to run Vista at acceptable speed, and the storage is too small for a serious application library. But the machine is not trying to be a desktop. It fits in a medium-sized bag, starts in seconds, has no moving parts to fail, and costs about a third of a comparable ultraportable laptop.

This week at CES 2008, Intel announced the Atom processor — a chip specifically designed for low-power devices. Combined with the Eee PC’s market reception, this signals that the netbook category is not an accident. Manufacturers including HP, Dell, and Acer are expected to announce their own entries.

The question this raises

The Eee PC asks a question that PC manufacturers had largely avoided: what do most people actually need from a portable computer?

For writing, web browsing, email, and viewing documents, the answer may be surprisingly little. The tasks that consume most of the average user’s mobile computing time do not require the processing power of a Core 2 Duo. Battery life, weight, startup time, and price are arguably more relevant for this use case than processor speed.

Linux has found a practical role here. A lightweight operating system makes modest hardware feel more capable, and shipping Linux avoids the Windows licensing cost that would price a $299 machine impractically. Whether Linux-unfamiliar users adopt it, or whether Microsoft extends Windows XP availability (Vista being too heavy for these specs) to compete, is being watched closely.

The honest tradeoffs

A 7-inch screen becomes uncomfortable for extended use. The keyboard, proportionally smaller, creates fatigue during long writing sessions. Video editing, modern gaming, and memory-intensive development work are all impractical. The Eee PC is a supplemental machine or a sufficient machine for someone with modest needs, not a replacement for serious computing.

But the interesting thing is the philosophy behind it. Technology does not always need to grow upward. Personal computers began as smaller alternatives to mainframes. Laptops began as smaller alternatives to desktops. Netbooks are asking how small a useful laptop can become. Each iteration is not a downgrade — it is a machine that goes places the previous one could not.