Need a new computer? ...– "NO!"

This is the most common response lately because A. Everybody has a computer. B. Nobody has any money in this recession. And C. Even if we kinda want a new, smaller, lighter weight laptop and have the money, nobody wants to end up with Vista just to do it. Understandable. Completely understandable. But, we feel sorry for the computer industry, right? (it’s not their fault the new version of windows makes computers as slow as ten yrs ago) and we’d like to help stimulate the economy by buying something, right? What if you could get that sexy new, high-tech, 3 lb, 10” screen, lonnng battery life laptop for ~$300? – AND, it runs on XP!!! It’s true. -It’s the best kept secret in the computer world right now. Microsoft has allowed sales of their (best) operating system for a select few “netbooks” (because they know that Vista is such a hardware hog, it won’t run on anything but big machines). And the best news for us normal, daily computer users is that, Intel developed a small, super-efficient, low-cost processor, called the Atom, with these netbooks (and entry-level desktops) in mind! My favorite is the Asus eeePC1000 that is getting great reviews for build quality, and everything, actually. It comes with a 6 cell battery that results in a run time of about 5 hours! No, really, 5 hours really. They claim 7, but you know how these guys always rate these things – very best case scenarios (screen fully dimmed, wireless off, etc.). But the user reviews are saying they’re really getting five hours! 5 hrs! I could do that. 160GB hard drive, dualtouch touchpad, bluetooth, webcam, the works. So this could be our main computer, hooked up to our large monitor, with our large keyboard, and then when we need to travel-it, all our files and bookmarks and stuff are there. I’ve read the test reviews, and this processor runs 98% of everything I need (even Photoshop, though it takes a second to do a huge graphics job). Then if I need to edit video or something, I could just hook up my old computer for the day. The only thing this doesn’t have is an optical drive. So you just buy an external dvd burner (~$40) for when you need that at home. You can dump movies into it’s hard drive to watch on trips (which is another way to help batt life, by not spinning a disc). And it’s less than three lbs! So if you know anyone thinking about a new machine, tell them about this one. Remember, friends don’t let friends buy Vista. http://usa.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=15498 It comes in black, blue, or, for those, “i” people, - white!