Matt’s Blog of Truth

In the era of social networks, twitter (the micro blogger), Word Press (blogging), blogger.com, Facebook, MySpace, Google Docs, RSS News Feeds, Flash based games, Buying and Selling online (endless e commerce going on), Wikipedia, Google.com and geez so much more.

The Web Browser, is by far, the most used software program of all time. The Killer App.

It is also the new dawning of Web Apps. With the maturing of JavaScript and tool kits like Dojo, JQuery, GWT, YUI and countless others, you can program your Web Browser to act like an application you installed locally on your computer. Yet, all of this is running inside, the once humble (Hyper Links, Images and Text), that the Web Browser once delivered. Web Apps still use traditional technology, but a simple addition to JavaScript, called AJAX, has transformed the Web Page from a static and non-interactive experience, into a lively and Dynamic experience.

This simple idea, of allowing a portion of the Web Page to update, without having to refresh the ENTIRE Web page, has spawned the Web App. It is always, the simplest concepts that make the HUGEST impacts. Ajax is a perfect example of this.

The Internet has exploded, people trust it for online shopping, via credit cards and merchants, like PayPal, Alertpay, 2checkout and more. Regardless, of a huge rise in credit fraud, mostly due to Spam and phishing for personal data, causing online fraud. But, the problems get fixed, the public gets informed to be more careful, and consumers keep on shopping.

TV media is now constantly mentioning Internet sites, and TV media is HUGE folks. I’ve heard the term, ‘just Google it’, on so many TV shows and in Block Buster films, along with, ‘I just updated my MySpace page.’.

In other words, the Internet has become tightly integrated in most aspects of life.

Gamers, that install their games locally on their machines, still refer to Internet gaming forums, to talk about their experiences. MMORPG’s, like Second Life, Ever Quest and EVE Online, all use the Internet to connect players, to interact as a single Gaming Universe.

OK, so what?

This is old news, right?

Well, the new big thing, taking advantage of this now, mobile reality, connected to the Internet, is a device called a Netbook.

A Netbook is a Laptop that is minified. It’s screen is usually, no bigger than 7-9 inches and about 2/3rds the size of a regular Laptop. Netbooks, run the Intel Atom CPU, which only used 2.5 watts of power. 2.5 compare that to a common laptops 25 watts.

• Desktop CPU - 65 watts
• Laptop CPU - 25 watts
• Netbook CPU - 2.5 watts!!!

What this means, is longer battery life, than a Laptop. I have heard reports, of the battery lasting an entire day of on and off use, without a recharge!

Netbooks also require less RAM, 500 megs average, with 1 gig tops. Compare that with typical Laptops, which universally come with 2 Gigs. The more RAM the more energy drain, on the battery.

A 16 gig hard drive, usually and SSD, or Solid State Disk, with NO MOVING PARTS. This means you can drop it on the floor, and the hard drive at least, will keep on ticking. We all known of the bumps and bruises, that our Laptops, on the go, receive on a daily bases. So, this is another huge selling point, for the Netbook. I have heard reports of people, typing away on their Netbook, while walking, because they do not fear the hard drive will crash, due to the installed Solid State Drive.

By the way, SSD drives are still very expensive, compared to traditional spinning platter drives (ATA, SATA, IDE, SCSI), but hopefully the Netbook will help bring down this cost.

Everything is just smaller, a bit more bump resistant, and less power (watts) hungry, on a Netbook.

Now, what does this all mean for Software makers, like Microsoft and Apple?

First Microsoft. Vista is so bloated, in every sense of the word. It simply can not run (very well), on a Netbooks minified hardware. Although, Microsoft will not be losing their tight lock on the whole Desktop Industry, anytime soon, it does allow Linux and Apple a chance to hop over Microsoft’s barbed wire, electrified fence, called a monopoly, and are installing alternative Operating Systems, on the Netbooks!

The release of Vista, could not have come at a WORSE time, than now.

Microsoft was betting on hardware just getting bigger and cheaper. Well, now that there are so many concerns about power consumption, a crashing global economy and a drain on earthly resources, industry is inventing new devices like Netbooks, to cope with the changing global outlook.

Netbooks, use less energy, less raw materials and are way cheaper than a modern laptop.

Netbooks, are now priced at $299 (down from $499) over at Dell and offered at Amazon.com. $299 for a laptop! That is less money than a Desktop! I would never have guessed, that laptops would become cheaper than a Desktop, literally out of the blue, with the arrival of the Netbook.

Netbooks were made popular by the arrival of the ASUS eeePC. Their default choice of Operating System, was Xandros. Xandros is a Linux Distribution. It is based on Corel Linux, a Debian-based distribution.

Seeing how well the eeePC was selling, in the millions, over night, sparked every other business to join in.

Now, Ubuntu’s Canonical has a Netbook, sold through Dell. Apple is announcing their own version. Microsoft has brought back XP, after announcing it’s retirement in July 2008, because Vista is simply too bloated to fit on the Netbook.

People, Business and individuals addicted to the Internet, are on the rise. You can add myself to the list of addicts. My whole life revolves around the Internet. I run a home based business, using Linux and the Internet. I read a lot of blogs and follow a lot of National and Global news. Ironically, I get my local news from my Wife’s dad (grandpa), that still reads the Newspaper! (OMG, he still reads the newspaper, I know!)

Anyways, I still prefer a regular sized Laptop. It is always plugged into the wall and generates ENORMOUS amounts of heat. A Netbook may be OK for using it to JUST browse the Web, which is a huge percentage of time spent, but for Development work, as a programmer, the Netbook might be a little TOO compact. It’s keyboard is very small, and takes time to get used it. It took me a while to get used to my HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop’s keyboard.

But, the reality is, the hardware, is finally giving Microsoft some competition, since it is introducing other Operating Systems, like Linux Xandros and Linux Ubuntu, into the Market, once dominated (and still is, and will be for a long time) by Windows only and the Microsoft World.

As, most of us know, competition is good, as it drives prices down, forces better quality products, fixes software bugs and benefits the End Users. Competition MUST exist, or the Market becomes corrupted.

Bottom Line — Netbooks are allowing alternative Operating System the ability to enter the Desktop Market.

UPDATE [Nov/6/2008]: An interesting article out of Australia. goes indepth on the netbook threat it plays to Microsoft. It is a two page article. On the second page, the last remark made was this…

Equipping Linux on a computer costs about $US5, compared with $US40 to $US50 for XP and about $US100 for Vista, according to estimates by Jenny Lai, a Taipei-based analyst at CLSA.

To cut costs, computer makers such as Acer and Asustek opted for slower processors and less memory. On these systems, Linux can boot up twice as fast as XP, according to Acer’s website.

‘’The engineers designing computers understand that if they want to cut costs, the only way to do so is to get rid of Microsoft,'’ IDC’s Chang said.