EDC Laptop!!!

Well, I purchased a new laptop last week. Even though the one I was issues is doing fine, I wanted something more. Three reasons were:
1. Corpororate IT has my big laptop security configured in a way that limits some of the things I want to do on it.

2. The big laptop weighs 15 lbs. It is a CAD grade machine.

3. I wanted to be able to use it on the internet wherever I went, within reason.

Enter the new Acer Aspire One micro laptop. I did some shopping around and read the reviews, and settled on getting one from Radio Shack configured for 3G and Wi-Fi ops. Admittedly, I could've put a 3G card on the big laptop, but that only solved one of my problems. I do not like hodding the extra 15 lbs around every day on the commute. The little Aspire One weighs in at 2 lbs. Yes, there are compromises, but the trade off is well worth it. I also don't have to deal with the corporate IT limits either, which prohibit any sort of IM functionality and allow corporate to spy on my usage and files any time they want.


The Aspire One from Radio Shack comes with 1 gig of ram, Windows XP SP3 loaded, and All the other basic software that makes it work. There are also the usual trial versions of McAffee and Office pre-loaded with a 30 day expiration. It also has a 160 gig HDD and a 9" SVGA-X TFT screen. The keyboard is 3/4 size, so it takes a bit of geting used to. However the mouse pad has some cool scroll and zoom features that are quite handy. Here's the link:

Radio Shack Acer Aspire One

My price on the unit out the door was $50 with a two year AT&T 3G service agreement at $60 a month. That is competitive with what I was going to have to pay monthly for the external 3G on my big laptop anyways, so that was a wash. However, adding the 3G allows me to access the internet while riding the train to and from work, and at speeds high enough to watch You Tube videos and watch news video from the local channels, so far without any pausing effect. That is exactly what I wanted. In addition, since I have a sim card installed in the unit, I can also SMS text the wife and kids, so from an emergency comms perspective I am now able to place a regular voice call by cellphone, email, text, VoIP, IM, etc from anywhere I can get 3G coverage, which is considerable.

I do need to get an external CD drive (USB) so I can load external programs that I can't download off the internet yet. I also should probably upgrade to the 6 cell battery pack, with an advertised nominal run time of about 6 hours. The 3 cell pack is good for about 2.5 hours the way I use it. Other than that, this little unit is going to remain part of my EDC for the foreseeable future. It sure was nice walking out of the store with a new laptop in my hands for around $80 after all was said and done.

For anyone with commuting computer needs like mine, I hghly recommend this littl unit.

I like the ultra mobile computers.. though I cary a 15 inch HP with Verizon card.

The one thing that I have learned is that as soon as you attach a USB hard drive or CD/DVD ROM to the ultra portable computers the battery starts to quickly discharge it's battery. But then again how often do we run the externals.

That sounds like a perfect EDC Computer..

I won't run the peripherals unless I have ac power on. No need to really as an external drive use is a planned event.

I looked at Sony, Samsung, Dell, HP, and this Acer, and they're all pretty close on specs, but with the package deal on this unit and the big discount, I had to nod to it. I think I chose well.

Yes, they are amazingly reasonable nowadays. Even "full power" laptops are getting cheaper in many cases to compete, so the gap between netbooks and full size laptops is narrowing some.

I've been thinking of getting a netbook lately, too. Although not very powerful, for things like email and web browsing, you don't need a ton of processing power. Even for work, we all use Terminal Services anyway, so all the heavy lifting happens on the server, and not on our end, so there's little need to have oodles of RAM and hard drive space to run today's resource-hungry apps like Office.

Netbooks are definitely more grab 'n go friendly these days. Why simply store important documents on a thumb drive when you can also take a computer to actually read that thumb drive with you?! (Sorry, benjammin's excitement for his netbook is rubbing off on me.)

OH I would say you did chose very well.

I am looking into getting about 30 of these for a mobile lab for the school I work for.

How is the battery life?

How capable would such a unit be for running MS PowerPoint slideshows with embedded video clips, with the outputs being piped through to an LCD projector and externally powered speakers? This little Acer setup would be great for my training sessions if it could do this task well.

Wonder what is the smallest of these small computers that could double as your edc digital television using a usb device/antenna?

++1 On the Acer, it's a really solid performer for basic tasks, and the price - man that's a good price.

In terms of other makes and models, the ASUS series of netbooks are good too, the Dell Mini-9 is good.

The 3G data plans @ $60 a month works out to about $90 a month with all the taxes here in PA, so the true cost of the Acer is quite a bit more, but if you're gonna buy wireless broadband, and you only plan to use one device, it's a good deal and AT&T 3G is widely available and good, except in New York metro, where Verizon is a lot better.

The think I like most about the Acer is that it's got a decent screen & keyboard.

In related news - ASUS will soon be releasing an all in one Monitor/computer/TV for about $500 - it's a netbook stuffed into a 22" LCD panel with a bluetooth keyboard.

Great time for cool hardware.

One more thing about a netbook as EDC. You'd be amazed at how well OpenOffice 3.0 works as an MS Office Suite.

I also recommend using Truecrypt on your traveling files and if you DO decide to let your browser save passwords, use Firefox and set a "master password" which will encrypt your password store. If you don't set a master password your stored passwords are stored as plain text.

Battery life is my concern as well.

I agree with the Open Office 3 recommendation. I have never needed MS Office. But I seldom do any "office stuff" so I can´t tell if MS Office suite is worth the extra money or not. I bought only MS Office OneNote because it´s one of a kind software.

As for the passwords I would reccomend KeePass. Open source, strong encryption, a lot of advanced security features, ...

By the way, it looks like decent subnotebook. I hope it will serve you well.

+1 on Keypass, it works well. I use it on a usb stick so that it is portable.

There is an old saying Benjammin, They say that great minds think alike, but it's really scary when i think like you.

My new Asus 1000HE just arrived today from Amazon. A lot of these small netbooks seem to have very similar bells and whistles. I went with this one because of the battery life, advertised as 9 1/2 hours. Online research says realistic run time is 6 to 8 hours depending on use. Have not had a chance to play with it to find out how long it will really run. But it is a really cool toy, know that it will get a lot of use.

Here is a link,

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=2792&l1=24&l2=164&l3=0&l4=0

And the keyboard works well enough to easily type this while i am laying in bed.

I have been watching netbooks as well, and they're coming very close to my perfect system. I really like the keyboard on the Acer Aspire One but I want the battery life of the Asus 1000HE. Hopefully the next generation will get everything right.

Battery life is always the killer for school computers.

If you need network/Web access, you don't have much choice.

But if you're just teaching typing and writing, maybe check out the Alphasmart Neo at www.alphasmart.com . It's nothing more than a digital typewriter with a great keyboard and a USB connector. I own two of these myself (no affiliation) and love them. Battery life: 700 hours.

I picked up an ASUS 900HA a couple weeks ago to replace my old Dell Latitude C400. I have to carry my work laptop back and forth but can't do anything with it, load software, plug in a usb drive, etc so I needed something that could easily go with me. The 160G drive was a little small so I swapped in a 500G and now have some free space again.
If you don't install a lot of software or need to take a drive with you look at just getting a usb enclosure and stick whatever drive in you want. I've had aboue three different cd/dvd burners in one over the years and have used it in multiple laptops and even a customer's server one time.
I couldn't find any but the windows models so I just bought one and installed my Linux myself and left a few G for windows and setup a dual boot as I can't get Garmin Basecamp running under wine and its a little slow under virtualbox.

I agree with this 1000% percent!

But (there are always buts), if you want to keep your geek cred up all document creation has to be through VI or EMACS. Formatting is for the masses!

I have an Asus EEE 900 as my personal go-to computer when not home (don't store anything locally on the pc other then the OS, and use 32gb SD cards for my 'storage'). Currently using eeeBuntu for the OS (http://www.eeebuntu.org/) and loving it. Much better then the days of getting Ubuntu (or what your favorite flavour of OS is) and spending a few days getting everything to work on the Eee's.

I also have a huge 17" work laptop that I carry with me that weighs 12-16 lbs (depending on battery layout) but to use it its a pain. Thats where the Eee comes in for personal use.

I even have an SD card with a form of ubuntu, and complete app and db server, and other things... that is also saved as an image to redeploy at will for whatever odd ball personal project i'm working on. Next on my project list is to get vmware working the Asus 900 and see if I can get a couple VM's working off it (curious if it has the mustard to do it - doubt it, but going to try!).

I've actually made mine my main machine. I don't really do anything I need a big display for and if I do I can always just buy a monitor to plug in. I just do forums like this, store and organize my pictures, keep my calendar, all my inventory spreadhseets, etc.

I've had the Asus 1000HE for about 2 months now, and the battery life is amazing. I can get 5-6 hours easily while using the internet.

I have tried turning off the bluetooth and wifi, and it gets close to the 9.5 hours claim.

I am very happy with it, and I EDC it every day as well in a Countycomm Bug out Bag. I hardly notice the weight, and I hardly noticed the smaller keyboard.

By the way benjammin, I have successfully copied CD's to a flash drive and installed them that way. I will most likely get the external CD drive eventually too, but for now, I haven't had any problems just copying to the flash drive and then installing directly from it onto my netbook.

I picked up a Dell mini-9 about a month ago. They had a special running, so I got myself one with Ubuntu, 1GB RAM and 8GB SSD; one for the wife with XP, 1GB RAM, and 16GB SSD. Came to a little over $600 for both, after tax and shipping. So far, we love them. In fact, I was so impressed with the Ubuntu Linux distro I've gone and redone my webserver with Linux after 8 years on Windows Server.

I occasionally throw this in the bag with my 15.4" work laptop, since it gives me more flexibility. The total lack of moving parts (and noise) is very nice...

Yeah, but don't you just hate it when some non-geek asks you what :wq means at the end of the email you just sent (no, it's not a smiley!)

Like I say, the stock batt pack is good for a nominal 2.5 hours. I plan to upgrade to the 6 cell pack soon, which will give me a solid 5 hours of run time off the grid. That is plenty for my commuting and incidental work.

It does okay for Powerpoint, though embedded video could be over the top for the little fella. It will handle SVGA output for projectors quite well, although you'll have to scroll the LCD screen separately in order to see as much as the projector will show.

All in all, I find it an exquisite complement to my LGH laptop and would also do well supporting a main workstation or home desktop. It wasn't meant to replace what we'd consider a regular unit, but it fills a niche that I needed filling for a couple years now.

BTW, since I added the 3G to my existing AT&T account, I got an 18% discount on the monthly fee, so even with taxes it would still be pretty competitive.

Just snagged a Dell Vostro 15" for $650.
35% off Coupon
35$ instant off
Free shipping (called and asked)

Regular price was way more than I would have spent... I get by without a lap top but my "business" requires me to be online. Now that I like 1hr away from the city I've come to realize every time I leave my house I need to have access to a computer and the internet... so I decided to get the laptop I already have 2 air cards.

For 650 this laptop screams.. dual core 2.5ghz, 3gb ram, wxga+ anti-glare 15", etc, etc. oh, and the best part, 3yr warranty! So in 2years I can sell it for 350 or so!

Now I just need to pay my Verizon bill with my amex to save 5% off!

I may add a 3rd Air card ( I have 1 from verizon now and 1 from millinicon [uses vz network but no contract]) just so I don't go over the limit.. darn 25cent/mb overage SUCKS! And its cheaper to add more cards than upgrade.. lame.

Anyway.
Where I live Verizon is the ONLY network that gets service.. cell and internet.

Where do you get millinicon cards?

https://members.millenicom.com/members/signup.php?clienttype=18&package=53


I haven't used it much but so far so good.
Depending where you are I believe you can use Verizon or Sprint network

They say unlimited but it's a soft limit and they WILL cancel if you use a TON of transfer they said, so that part is lame... but hey no contract

I'm using a Bastard Dell Inspiron 1100, that I got for free from a friend.

I upgraded the memory, partitioned the hard drive, took out a USB slot (for more cooling on the one I kept), put in a small fan, and took out VISTA and installed windows XP and linux (which I'm still learning about) as a dual boot.

I use an At&T 3G card, and get reception everywhere here in suburban PA. And I burn things to CD rom. I have two batteries, and a 12 volt adapter.

So yeah, this I think is a useful device for a while. It crashes all the time, as it is so Frankenstein, but I can pretty much fix it without help as I know its quirks. I just hate viruses. I've spent many a night after getting infected picking through screens of process monitoring trying to find those damn DLLs.

I'd probably grab it, at least for the car in a BO situation. If I could drag up a printer, I'd have publishing capability for manuals, guides and a newspaper. Valuable trade goods.

So Ben...It has been about a month since your purchase. How is it working out? It looks I will be going back to school in the fall, compliments of Uncle Sam and the Post 9/11 GI Bill. I was looking at one of these micro/minis to use on campus for the word processing mostly.

This little unit is going great. I have been using it on the train with no problems. I use it as an alternate when my main computer is VPN connected. I am gettting used to the smaller keyboard, and the screen size. It sure is nice carrying 15 lbs less to/from work. For $50, this has been the best computer investment I think I've ever made.