So, I purchased a netbook over the holiday — an Acer AspireOne to be precise. It came with XP Home loaded on an internal 8GB solid state drive…Which lasted about an hour while I downloaded Kubuntu which I’ve wanted to experiment with for a while.

The whole idea behind a netbook is that all your data exists somwhere online and that the device itself — stripped to essential apps and functionality — is an easy way to get at that information. It’s more “read” than write — from a usability standpoint one wouldn’t want to create large spreadsheets or documents on its comparatively small screen. The specs: 16GB storage (8GB SSD; 8GB CompactFlash), Intel Atom processor, small keyboard, 1200×600 screen.

Kbuntu (the Ubuntu version of Linux with the KDE 4.1 desktop) is interesting. It’s very Mac-like in the way it arranges the desktop and applications, but it’s definitely a work in progress. My goal is to use the device and apps like Evolution and OpenOffice for email and documents. I don’t typically carry a laptop to meetings beacause of the heft, but I do occasionally need to look up information and pull up documents.