I was once given a netbook, ca. 2009, in the golden age of netbooks.
It was a Dell mini 10v. My boss at the time wanted to upgrade to a larger screen laptop, so I got the netbook.
I thought I would hate it, the keyboard was much smaller than I was used to, and I initially hated the 10in screen.
I used it for 3 years and ended up loving it. Reasons:
- the fact that it was so small and light. It was a pleasure to carry it around in my messenger bag, it weight about 1300grams (2.9lb)
- I got used to the keyboard fairly quickly
- it ran Ubuntu (and later Ubuntu netbook remix); while Ubuntu isn't BSD, I prefer it over Windows/Mac OS
- best of all: it had Dell's equivalent of a retina display, the screen was ultra sharp and colorful
I never noticed it being slow. In fact, the only downside to it that I remember was that the screen (10.1 inches) was sometimes too small to view a page in Firefox. But I only noticed that sometimes.
It was work hardware, so I didn't pay for it myself, but the pricepoint ($300) was great as well.
But around 2010, the netbook market died. Mostly for two reason:
- newer versions of Windows couldn't handle the slower Intel atom processors and smaller screens of netbooks
- tablets came in and mostly supplanted the category
Dell discontinued it's mini line, and so did everyone else. The last time Asus made an Eee PC was in 2013, and it was dead for a few years before that.
A shame, a netbook would be perfect for me right now. I mostly just live in a terminal with Firefox running. That's about it.
But alas, everyone stopped making them. The closest thing I can find are 12.5" laptops. They are okay, but netbooks would be better.
Oh well.