The New Netbooks in My Family

A reader asks what kind of Netbooks I bought. Well, here's the product description from the website of the place we bought 'em (two books ran me $500):

Asus - Eee PC Netbook with Intel® Celeron® Processor - White
Intel® Celeron® processor features a 400MHz frontside bus, 512KB L2 cache and 900MHz processor speed.
1GB DDR2 SoDIMM memory for multitasking power, expandable to 2GB.
Note: Optical drive not included; optional external DVD-ROM drive with USB 2.0 interface available (not included).
8.9" WSVGA display with 1024 x 600 resolution.
16GB solid state hard drive.
Shock-resistant design for improved data safety.
Intel® GMA 900 graphics.
Built-in 1.3MP webcam.
Built-in media reader supports Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity and MultiMediaCard formats for fast and easy digital photo transfer.
3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports.
Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g); 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector.
Weighs only 2.2 lbs. and measures just 0.8" thin.
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
Software package included with Microsoft Works and Windows Live.

We picked out the most economical model. I figure, there's no reason to expect that any schools would purchase anything more than the base model, so we might as well see what these stripped-down little puppies can do.

Surprised that it did come with a webcam; hopefully Skype video will work on it. Optical drive needs to be plugged in externally, but I had one sitting around, so that's not an issue. Of course, between Hulu and iTunes, I am thinking that we'll be seeing less and less reliance on cds and dvds anyway as we roll on down the digital highway. The only things I really cared about were the processing speed and the amount of expandable RAM; both seem adequate for Web 2.0 apps. I probably won't be installing the MS software; instead, we'll just use Google Apps. I've heard terrible things about Windows Live anyway.