off the wagon

For a long time my G4 Powerbook has been my primary laptop. It was the last line of laptops from Apple prior to switching to the Intel chips and was also my first full entry into the Mac Culture or Cult depending on how you look at it.

It was a bit more than a comparable Windows machine but I was willing to spend the extra money to experience what so many have been raving about. It has served me well over the years and for a while it seems that I may become a full fledged Apple Acolyte, especially after acquiring my iPhone (3G). I told myself I would definitely purchase a Mac as my next laptop, and I'm all for the extra portability, but Apple didn't offer any small laptops in the Intel flavor. My current G4 is 12 inches by the way.

Over the past year my mood has changed and I grew less fond of Apple after becoming keen to their business practices. While they do provide the quality that I adore in a company they tend to charge too much, not for the quality but for features other companies provide for free. They created the culture and aesthetic and charge a premium for specs you can find cheaper in other products.

At WWDC they finally introduced their 13 inch MacBooks, and I was excited until I saw the price tag. 1200 bucks!? I don't have that kinda money any more, heck most people don't have that kinda money anymore and this basically forced me to look elsewhere for my mobile computing needs.

I want to dedicate more time to improve my writing and tend to have that time while commuting to and from work. I also have time after work, but the only mobile device I have to write with is my iPhone and it doesn't allow for typing long blogs comfortably. The next option, a netbook. I narrowed it down to the Asus Eee PC 1005HA and the Toshiba NB205. Both are awesome machines and provide insane battery life, which is a plus for me. The Toshiba has a design I really enjoyed but the battery sticking out at the back bugged me. They both basically had identical specs.

In the end the Asus won out with better speakers. Yes, I spent the time to go through every detail comparing the two cause I really liked both. I plan to add a gig of ram in the future as well as install Windows 7 and see how that works out. There will be no Hackintosh here. Word is the Dell mini is the best netbook for that and I'm not a fan of Dell's.

In light of the recent economic downturn, I've come to realize there are many companies out there who are willing to deliver on quality without draining your wallet. I'll follow up with my experience with the 1005HA in a week since I hope to get it before the holiday weekend.