Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Hacks, Odds and ends, Road Tested
Road Tested: Why the hackb00k is a fail
A tweet this afternoon pointed me to a post by Dave "MacSparky" Sparks titled The Netbook Experiment, in which he talked about his disappointment with a Dell mini 9 netbook. Since I was about to send out a tweet to the world at large announcing the sale of my Dell mini 9, I found it fascinating that Sparks had a similar experience to mine. I wrote about creating a hackintosh (AKA hackb00k) out of a Dell mini 9 in a long post back in October of 2008, and at that time I was fairly impressed with the low cost and capabilities of the device. However, after actually using the mini 9 for six months, I find it almost useless as a "real computer" and have decided that it needs to go. The moral of the story? You definitely get what you pay for, and a $499 computer is not going to be a productivity tool. Even if you delude yourself into thinking that since you're only going to use it for email it will be a worthwhile investment, you're wrong. If you want to know how I came to these conclusions, read on.
My first real work with the mini 9 began in November, when I decided to acclimate myself to its diminutive keyboard by using it during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to work on a novel. Sure, it was easy to carry, especially in the tailor-made Dell bag. Yes, it had pretty good battery life. It booted quickly with the 16GB SSD inside it. But other than that, it was a total pain to work with.
To begin with, I'm accustomed to using the trackpad on my MacBook Air with multi-touch gestures. After reading how some other hackb00k users had been able to get multi-touch gestures working, I applied the appropriate patches and gave it a try. Sure, it worked for a little bit, and then began to irritate me when the gestures would fail. I decided to use a cheap micro-mouse instead, which meant that two of the USB ports were now filled -- one with the cable for the mouse, and the other for the Sprint wireless broadband dongle that I use when I'm on the road. I suppose I could have used the Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse instead, but it just didn't seem right spending $79 for a mouse for a $499 computer.
Next, I found the keyboard almost unusable. I have relatively small hands, and even my little mitts had difficulty typing on the cramped keyboard of the mini 9. One problem I kept having over and over was trying to type an apostrophe (single quote). Every keyboard I've ever used to touch-type has the apostrophe in the same place -- just to the left of the return key in the home row (ASDF...) of the keyboard. On the mini 9, it was located down two rows near the space bar. Since I have been touch-typing for about 40 years, my finger kept hitting the Dell's enter key every time I wanted to type an apostrophe.
When I ordered the Dell mini 9, I debated whether or not I wanted to get the solid-state disk option. I finally decided to give it a try for a few reasons. First, it allegedly provided even more battery life than a mini 9 with a standard hard disk. Second, it was supposed to boot faster, and third, I thought it was kind of a cool thing to try! Well, the only option available from Dell was a 16GB SSD (they now offer a 32GB model).
That was a big mistake -- I should have gone for the standard hard disk that was available at the time of purchase (Dell no longer offers a standard hard disk; only a SSD is available with the mini 9). 16GB is not enough capacity to load an OS, a complete office suite, and actually do some work. Fortunately, I was able to pop a 16GB SD storage card into the slot on the side of the device to store my work, but the SSD was quickly at capacity after a few OS and software updates were downloaded and installed. I suppose I could have spent $300 to pop a third-party 128 GB SSD into the Dell, but that would have defeated the purpose of having a "cheap" computer.
Next, the limited screen resolution (1024 x 600) of the mini 9 made it virtually impossible to use some Mac apps that have default minimized screen sizes that are larger than that. Those apps simply had to be removed from the device, and I was stuck with a somewhat crippled hackb00k that didn't have the software tools I normally use.
At this point, about mid-November, I ended up going back to using my trusty MacBook Air as my NaNoWriMo computer and loaded Dell's special mix of Ubuntu Linux onto the device. I like Ubuntu; in fact, I found it to be the most worthwhile OS to use on the mini 9. It's designed for the device so most, if not all, apps are sized for the small screen, and it's fast. However, it's not OS X, and I once again found myself reloading OS X as I prepared for Macworld Expo 2009 in early January.
I took both my MacBook Air and the mini 9 with me to Macworld Expo 2009, thinking that I would use the MacBook Air for video editing and the mini 9 for writing. Wrong. Once again, my fingers and the horrible keyboard on the mini 9 conspired against me, so I used the MacBook Air for almost all of my work.
As you may recall, the main reason I purchased the Dell mini 9 is that my wife thought that it wouldn't be a good idea to take the expensive MacBook Air on a trip to Africa that we had planned for February. By the end of the trip, both of us were wishing that we were using the MacBook Air instead. My wife quickly found out how hard it was to touch-type on the mini 9 as she began helping me blog the trip.
We also ran into capacity problems with the 16 GB SSD again. While I was using a tiny external bus-powered USB drive to back up our blog, photos, and video, the temp files that were being created by the various applications threatened to fill up the drive. I kept having to dig around the SSD to find things to delete in order to free up space.
Well, we made it back from the trip intact and without having the mini stolen. Basically, the last day of the trip was the last time I used it. I absolutely refuse to use a tiny keyboard again, so the Dell is going on eBay.
What about an Apple netbook?
Of course, one of the things we always hear rumors about is an Apple netbook. To quote Apple's COO Timothy Cook on April 22nd, "When I look at what is being sold in the notebook space today, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens -- just not a consumer experience, not something we would put the Mac brand on." Cook went on to say "If we find a way where we can deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, then we will have some interesting ideas in this space."
Most of the appeal of the Dell mini 9 and other netbooks is that they're cheap. Although you can't turn a bare-bones one into a hackb00k, the bottom price for a Dell mini 9 is $279. That's even less expensive, and in my opinion less useful, than an iPhone 3G. The entry-level Dell mini 9 has 1 GB of RAM, a 4 GB SSD, no wireless connectivity of any kind, no built-in camera, Ubuntu Linux, and the same tiny screen and keyboard. Apple's Cook is right -- there's no way that Apple could put their logo on something like this without giving the entire line a bad reputation.
There are a couple of ways that Apple could go, and they've been debated endlessly. First, Apple could just keep the MacBook line as the "Apple Netbook," since it is the least expensive laptop although not the lightest. Of course, even a $999 white MacBook is over three times the cost of the entry level Dell mini 9, but you're getting so much more! That $999 buys you a pretty impressive 1280 x 800 screen, 2 GB of RAM, a 120 GB hard disk, a SuperDrive (there's no CD/DVD drive in the Dell mini 9), the iSight, iLife, and much more. How many times do we have to repeat it -- you get what you pay for!
Next, Apple could make the iPhone the "Apple Netbook." It may not have a huge screen, but it does have over 25,000 apps that have been written for it, as well as wonderful connectivity. If iPhone 3.0 adds the ability to use Apple's small, but useful Wireless Keyboard with the iPhone, the combo would make a very useful netbook. The total cost for iPhone owners? Just $79 to add the keyboard. As for useful software, apps like Quickoffice make compatibility with MIcrosoft Office possible, and there are more apps coming out every day.
Finally, Apple could decide to come out with a groundbreaking product that combines the touch screen and thin profile of the iPhone with the power of the full-fledged Mac OS X. It would need to be a larger device, just so you could comfortably type on it, and would probably need haptic feedback to create a virtual keyboard that is as comfortable to use as a real one. If this device could run all Mac OS X software at a reasonable pace and had an entry price level less than that of the white MacBook, that would come close to the "interesting ideas in this space" that Timothy Cook was referring to.
In my personal opinion, I think that netbooks are a fad that is going to pass. Sure, they're cheap. But cheapness means making a lot of sacrifices, and I think others will find that netbooks are just too limited to be everyday useful tools. If Apple can balance a reasonable price tag with "coolness" and functionality, they could own the market for lightweight and relatively inexpensive computing.
I'd be interested to hear from other TUAW readers who have netbooks. Are you happy with the devices? Are the limitations driving you crazy? Leave your feedback in the comments.
Thanks to Dave Sparks at MacSparky.com for the inspiration for this post.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
rm said 12:35AM on 4-27-2009
This could also be titled: Why Steven Sande's ability to adapt to a new keyboard is a fail. Or: Why Steven Sande's ability to foresee hard drive space constraints is a fail. etc etc
PS: Which Mac apps did not fit your resolution? An indication of what exactly you consider to be "somewhat crippled" might prove useful in a reader's evaluation, no?
Reply
ak said 7:40AM on 4-27-2009
I agree with this reader. The lack of a list of applications that didn't work at the low screen resolution was suspicious, given the very good detail in the rest of the article. I'm sure if I uninstalled a bunch of standard mac apps that I used on a regular basis, I could name a couple of them.
I'll point out this question remains unanswered. I don't think we are jerks to want to know the whole story.
Megarain said 10:56AM on 4-27-2009
Yeah, I've got to agree too. You got some POS hardware and tried to run a rather heavy OS on it. I mean, say you had a decent deck, like the XPS m1530 I'm typing on right now. Would it still be fail if I turned her into a hackentosh? My specs are just about those of a macbook. My res is better, my keyboard works, and I've got drive space to spare. Would that still make me fail?
rm said 11:12AM on 4-27-2009
megarain, OSX actually runs perfectly fine on a netbook, given enough RAM (1.5GB). Provided you are not trying to run something it is clearly not designed for, ie: Photoshop, Final Cut, Crysis in VMware (not that VMware runs on the current-gen Atoms)
And hey, if you find running MS Word too sluggish, use something like Google Apps (which is the intention with netbooks).
When my MBP died, I used an Aspire One for a few days and it served me well. You have to maximize everything, but this is standard with the netbook Linux distributions I've tried too.
As for apps that don't fit the resolution, the only one I've had a problem with so far was the additional row of preferences in System Preferences (third-party prefpanes) and if memory serves the Skype setup wizard was tricky. Obviously I would not be crippling my system by not installing extra preferences. I have Skype working now so clearly that was not a huge issue.
hansning said 12:08PM on 4-27-2009
@ megarin: this article isn't on the performance of OS X on a netbook. it's on whether or not netbooks are a viable option for computing, and to an extension, whether apple would explore this market.
Brian McClure said 2:39PM on 4-27-2009
I agree. This TUAW article is an epic fail and the author does not have a clue. Netbooks are not meant to be used in all circumstances. You have to be a dumbass to use the Mini 9 to write anything longer than 2 pages (and you went to a damn NOVEL writing convention and used this? ROFLMAO).
If you want to type extensively, use an external keyboard or another machine. I mean... I assume you have another machine, nobody uses a netbook as their main computer.
go back to your MacBook Air (which is overpriced and is more of a fad than netbooks) and get on with your precious life. haha... OSX runs great on my MacBook Mini 9 and I am loving it!!
JD said 4:40PM on 4-27-2009
So for all you netbook defenders: what does such a thing offer to someone who already has a real laptop, and an iPhone? You concede that it's no good for doing real work on (ie, writing more than a couple pages; using complex applications; etc), and mostly is just good for an email here or there, web-browsing, etc. My iPhone is fine for that. So why would I need another device -- no matter how cheap -- that adds no real new functionality? What good is a keyboard that's hardly any easier to use than my iPhone, particularly given the overhead of minor hack-related glitches that everyone seems to put up with? This blog post was quite useful to me, in making it clear that a netbook offers me very little use that I don't already have. What remains unclear is what use (besides "it's cheap") it provides its defenders -- and why they object so vociferously to an opinion piece expressing a point of view that is quite common (though of course not universal).
sodapop said 5:13PM on 4-27-2009
I have to agree with reply. This guy wanted a laptop experience, not a netbook experience. A true net book user would use web apps rather than desktop apps. As for the size of the keyboard compared to an iPhone -come on dude - how in the world is one finger typing faster than two finger typing on real keys. Just like the virtual keyboard on the iphone, the netbook keyboard is simple a means to enter limited amounts of data. To try to do professional typing on a mini keyboard is simply dumb.
I also think that an iTouch the size of a paper back book is the ideal Apple netbook rather than running OS X. That will allow for a bigger keyboard and ebooks. Netbook users don't need the same features as laptop and desktop users.
These were the good points: limited disk space, out of place keys, some limitations on the available apps (but we knew that would be because this is a hack, not a production piece).
Thanks for the review because I want one of my own. I'll buy yours for $250 plus shipping. Contact me.
JKT said 5:02PM on 4-27-2009
@rm and @Brian: You are the ones who just don't get it. Why do netbooks have keyboards if they are not meant to be typed on? And why should someone who has been touch typing for 40 years have to relearn the keyboard just because Dell could not figure out how to put the apostrophe where it belongs? Devices are here to serve us--we should not have to make adjustments to them. How you justify in your minds defending the netbook over the quite experienced user (he's no noob-he has more computing experience than you) is baffling. As for you doubting that there are apps/dialog boxes that don't fit on such a screen, I've personally seen exactly that on Macs whose resolution was set to 800x600 (by connecting a projector.) In fact, there are several Preference Panes in OS X that are taller than 600 pixels, making them useless on such a small screen. Please try to gain some computing knowledge before you unfairly blast any more posts as you did here.
rm said 5:02PM on 4-27-2009
"What good is a keyboard that's hardly any easier to use than my iPhone"
I hope this is not the basis of anyone's dislike/disdain for the concept of a netbook, as it is incredibly ignorant.
Yes, the EEE 700/701's keyboard is tiny. I thought this may be common sense, but as it is not, let me state it here for the record: NETBOOK KEYBOARDS ARE NOT ALL THE SAME. I can state with 100% certainty that there are people out there who are perfectly content with their netbook keyboard. Some might even _like_ it.
There is a huge intellectual gap between stating that a product can be useful to some people (but not necessarily everyone), as do the so-called "netbook defenders", and making a statement like this on a respected(?) technology site: "Even if you delude yourself into thinking that since you're only going to use it for email it will be a worthwhile investment, you're wrong." This is doubly true when, instead of what a reader should reasonably expect (well-researched and informed analysis/opinion), we get the above article.
It's not enough to say "well this is my opinion and I am entitled to it". If you want to write this sort of baseless opinion piece, write it on stevensande.com, where there are no expectations. I can only assume your employers here expect you to have put some time and effort research and analyzing your pieces before submitting them.
As for JD's question: If the only time you ever use a computer is when you are working, then chances are you won't find a use for a netbook. But if you are the type of person who uses a computer casually throughout the course of a day, separately from your work, then you may find that it is incredibly convenient. Another excellent use-case: traveling. Yes, some people might not be able to live without their 17" displays, but there are also other people who put a premium on portability. I myself find it much nicer to carry around ~2.5lbs of computer instead of 5+. I don't need to do much beyond email, a few websites, Google Reader, maybe Google Maps, a few other travel sites and maybe ordering tickets or something. Yes, I could theoretically do all of those things from my iPhone, but to state that the user experience of doing so on my iPhone is as good as or _better_ than from a netbook is delusional. It's just not, no matter how many times you ignorantly claim so in the comments section of a blog.
rm said 5:11PM on 4-27-2009
@JKT I hope that is an extreme example of sarcasm. If so, bravo.
If Mr. Sande has indeed been touch-typing for 40 years, then he had to make adjustments to all sorts of technology, like, say, the invention of personal computers, laptops, mice, trackpads, the internet...
Stephen Moore said 4:13AM on 4-27-2009
In the household we have a MacBook, MacBook Pro, and a Dell Mini 9 running OSX.
The Mini 9 is fine for what I use it for, which is a computer to throw in the car in case I find myself in dire need of a computer (to give an emergency presentation in work, fire off an email, check something, convert an Office 2007 document to Office 2003 for someone who doesn't know the difference and left their laptop at home).
It's a fine computer for what it is, but it isn't a main computer. The full sized notebooks are faster and have bigger keyboards. But they don't fit in my pocket and they don't fit in my glove compartment. And I worry about them when I have them out and about. The Mini 9 is tiny and cheap.
What the Mini 9 does have going for it is its battery life, which passes 4 hours.
Also, try ScaleResolution for the mydellmini.com forums, it uses the OS X scaling tech to make a virtual 1280x750 resolution screen, which fits all the applications that fall off the bottom, not perfect but it works.
Reply
michael Berba said 1:27PM on 4-27-2009
Fianlly,someone that understands expectations. I have a Dell Mini 9 hackintosh. Guess where it lives ... under the front seat of my car with a kensington car power strip . When I plug my jailbroken iphone running pdanet into it when waiting for an appointment or while on a roadtrip,its exactly what I wanted and expected. Its a fun ,cheap NEVER have to worry about getting it stolen, machine. Its a perfect compliment to my MBP,Imac,Appletv,Mac Mini media center and Iphone.
Productivity machine? I suspect a little netbook bashing after comments on the recent conference call. Now if Apple actually makes a revolutionary device that does all the same things in a better,more APPLE way,then I'm sure that I would seriously consider it,just like any self-respecting fanboy would! Just don't EXPECT me to toss the mini 9 up on e-bay;it's just too fun.
Joseph said 12:47PM on 4-28-2009
It is probably cheap because you paid $200 and not $500 like the article mentions. I have been pricing these things all day long and unless you got a $300 SSD, i don't get how you can pay $500 for a mini 9. Dell just sold a vostro a90 or whatever the mini 9 equiv is for $199.
For $200, no one is complaining that the iphone doesnt render 3d files.
Tom said 4:12AM on 4-27-2009
Agreed: I have an eeePC 1000H and had OS X running on it for a month or so. It worked... but it wasn't a particularly satisfying experience. I switched to the new version of Ubuntu, which runs much better.
Multiple apps didn't fit the screen properly, many aspects of the core graphics didn't work properly, the wifi situation was annoying, the computer just ran too slow. I'm happy sticking to Leopard on my iMac and using something lighter on my netbook.
Reply
Joshua Ochs said 4:37AM on 4-27-2009
The wifi card on the Asus is a cheap Ralink piece of ****. Replace it (with a genuine Apple card if you want) and wifi works perfectly.
CoreGraphics not working? I beg to differ - everything works perfectly, including Quartz Extreme, 3D, etc.
I've found exactly one (1) piece of software that doesn't run on 1024x600, and that's the abominable "Curse Client" for managing my World of Warcraft addons. And yes, I said World of Warcraft - it runs just fine. Extremely low framerates of course, but on minimal options it still squeaks out 10fps or so on the Eee 901.
http://www.joshuaochs.com/Home/Et_Cetera/Entries/2008/9/23_Mac_OS_X_and_the_Eee_901.html
Steven Sande said 10:45AM on 4-27-2009
As noted in the post, I thought Ubuntu's Netbook version was the best OS for the mini 9. It has a small profile in terms of disk space, boots up quickly, and there are a ton of applications that are available for free. It was a challenge trying to get my Sprint card working with it, but fortunately there were beta drivers that even made that work.
TUAWSteve
ahmed said 4:15AM on 4-27-2009
Do you have to be a jerk? This isn't supposed to be objective reporting. He's a blogger. He's blogging. He is describing his experience, you don't have to attack him.
Reply
Joshua Ochs said 4:34AM on 4-27-2009
Ah yes, the eternal justification for poorly-researched rants full of misinformation - "he's a blogger".
rm said 9:02AM on 4-27-2009
"He's a blogger"
He's also paid to write about technology on a "leading" technology site. Tech bloggers often criticize print reporters for being willy-nilly with details, not conducting proper research, etc and refer to paper as a dying industry, ostensibly being replaced by blogs et al. Well, if bloggers want to assume this mantle, they should take responsibility for what they are writing, because they have people's attention.