Why every web developer should buy a netbook

By the end of 2007 I decided to buy a nice little gizmo for my 6 years old daughther, a tiny 7" laptop manufactured by Asus called the Eee PC 701. Nintendo had started with the funny sounding names a year before when launching the Wii.

Many thought there was no space in the market for a new kind of laptop. Boy they were all wrong, a couple of years later we have a new category added to the usual desktop and notebook line up, there are netbooks all over the place and if you're serious about web development you should be ordering yours just now. This is why.

What a netbook offers to web developers?

I think a netbook is a must for web developers because:

• It's highly portable: A netbook is really small. You can put it in any backpack or bag and avoid carrying an additional notebook case, it's easy to take it to meetings with clients or fellow developers and designers without breaking your back. For many lazy and weak guys, like me, that's a great benefit.
• Runs everything you need for web development: The first netbooks came with customized versions of GNU/Linux to take advantage of less RAM and hard disk space but now that we've got more of both several models include Windows XP, obviously a change to increase the appeal to a broader audience of non techie users. But don't worry about that, web developers who want to get the best of their netbooks can get one with GNU/Linux pre-installed or install their favorite distribution, with dual boot if needed. Once I got Eeebuntu running (an Ubuntu based distributed customized for Asus' netbooks) I got access to Gimp, vim, Apache, Django, Python, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Firefox; enough for most of my projects.
• Offers great battery life: Battery life in most netbooks these days is between five and seven hours. The Asus Eee PC 1000HE promises an amazing nine and a half hours and it seems it delivers. Now you can take your netbook everywhere and forget about finding a spot to plug the power cord. If you need more, an extra battery pack will have your precious little gizmo running well into the night, and your wife hating you even more.
• Keeps you online anywhere: This is 2009, most mobile providers around the world are already offering Internet access at affordable prices and modern operating systems (which include GNU/Linux distributions like Eeebuntu) support mobile connections. With terms like 3G and HSDPA starting to sound familiar there's no excuse, every web developer on the road can get a mobile plan, plug an HSDPA modem to a netbook and ssh into the development box whenever they are.
• It's pretty cheap: Most netbooks are below US$ 400. Every good web developer can easily afford one.
• Gets the job done: My daugther's Eee PC, which she named Samantha, was the first model in the netbook arena. With an 800 x 480 resolution and a very small keyboard, browsing the Net and typing is a little difficult for adults. Even so, the 701 is a usable and amazing little computer, I've replaced the pre-installed Xandrox Linux with Eeebuntu, plugged a Huawei E226 USB modem in and connected to my mobile broadband provider in Peru without a hitch. Damn! I wrote my last three articles for this site in the waiting room of my girls' doctor and coded a basic Django application in the car using that netbook. No doubt, you can do real work with a netbook. There are also solutions like Dell Virtualization, which are great for corporate users who don't need a lot of computing power to access their workstations from their netbooks while traveling.

Samantha comes from the first generation of netbooks, today's models have much more to offer: better and bigger keyboards, 10" screens with resolutions up to 1024 x 600, where you won't need horizontal scrolling for most websites, more powerful Atom processors and hard disks starting at 160 Gb.

A netbook offers me everything I need for web development duties while outside the house.

Which netbook should I get?

The best place to start looking what's out there is Amazon's netbooks section, browse around, read users's reviews and then come back to tell us what you decided and how it went.

Because memory, hard disk and CPU power are basically the same in most netbooks (at the time of this writing) the differences can be focused in keyboard ease of use, display quality, sound and battery life. In all those fields the Asus Eee PC 1000HE is clearly the winner and it's already in my wish list. Asus created the market for netbooks, the Eee PC has a huge community of users and I've used many products manufactured by Asus, including the original Eee PC 701 and my current notebook. I've been always satisfied with Asus and would purchase the 1000HE with closed eyes.

I also like what I've read about the Acer Aspire One, it has the looks, nice performance and a great price.

No matter what netbook you get I'm sure you'll later ask yourself how you managed to live without one.

What's next in the netbook arena?

Everybody is joining the netbook party. Hardware manufacturers usually hidden from the public view, such as MSI and Asus, offer some of the most popular models around, and big names like Lenovo, HP and Dell are in too. Even Apple is rumored to launch a netbook model soon, which I guess will cost five times the standard price and arrive in a nice selection of colors, right, pretty gizmos are so pretty (at least for those who care about such things).

Anyway, I'm sure the next generations of netbooks will include:

• Built-in HSDPA connectivity, ISP plans and Wi-Fi 802.11n.
• Better video performance, a must for designers and gamers.
• More battery life, including revolutionary methods in energy utilization that could be reused in other gadgets.
• Touch screens.
• HDMI ports.
• More CPU power and bigger RAM and hard disks.
• Incredibly lower prices.
• More and better GNU/Linux setups pre-installed.
• Millions and millions of worldwide users. From Tim the geek to your mom.

If you're a little like me you may already have a long list of amazing gizmos you want to buy as soon as your pocket or wife permits it, if a netbook wasn't on that list now it's a good time to add it, you won't regret it.