In this article we will discuss the features included with netbook’s as well as provide you with the best advice in choosing the right netbook for your needs..

Size of screen?

Typical netbook’s have a minimum screen size of 8 inches going up to 12 in some cases. With so many brands available on the market you are sure to find a great deal of sizes of various screen resolutions. Again resolution varies from model to model, but as a guideline you want to make sure your netbook has a minimum resolution of 1024×600.

Connectivity available

The main appealing feature for many who decide to purchase a netbook is the ability to use it to browse the internet. Peoples uses vary so it is important to make sure your new computer has the features you require. As standard you want a netbook with wifi capability installed to allow you to browse the internet via wireless. Other points to take into consideration are the amount of usb ports included. More usb ports mean the more devices you can connect to your netbook such as an optical drive or printer. You will find many netbook’s come included with some form of card reader, although not as comprehensive as larger notebook models.

Storage capacity.

If you are looking for a computer for light weight usage then a smaller hard drive will suffice for many. Cheaper variations of netbook come with a small hard drive such as a 20 – 40gb hard drive. If you intend to download a lot of stuff like music, video etc then it is advised to choose a model with a larger hard drive. A minimum of an 80gb hard drive will be great for everyday usage. As well as netbook’s that come included with a standard hard drive you will also find newer models installed with a flash type drive. These drives are fairly new and are designed to conserve space as well as power output from the computer. Although this might appeal to many, it must be noted that these type of drives usually come with a smaller storage capacity than your standard laptop hard drive.

Choosing the right operating system

When choosing a netbook you have 2 choices of operating system, Windows and Linux. Windows is clearly the most popular operating system of choice for many as it is easy to use and comes with many features. Linux is a more light weight operating system that is also fairly easy to use and does not require more system resources. If you intend to purchase a netbook with windows vista installed be sure to check the system has suitable ram allocation of a minimum of 2gb and a good processor to run it smoothly. Although a 1gb ram system can run vista with a standard processor, you will find it can slow the system down quite a lot.

Related posts

• Understanding Operating Systems (0)
• Sound Card For Your Computer (0)
• Software Piracy : It’s Best To Avoid It At All Costs (0)
• Selling Your Computer – Looking At Alternatives (2)
• Remote Computer Services to Save Time and Money (0)

Earlier computers didn’t have an operating system and if you have experience with the computers of the early eighties, you’ll remember that most to them didn’t even have a hard drive! These old computers booted an MS-DOS type operating system from drivers stored onto a floppy disk, and in order to use a program, users would remove the boot floppy and then insert a new floppy that contained the program. The floppy not only stored the program (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), it also stored the drivers that the program needed to communicate with the computer’s hardware. As you can imagine, the cumbersome process of switching from floppy to floppy prompted the birth of the operating system.

An operating system is a software program that controls how the computer’s hardware (and installed software) works. It manages the activity of every component and then displays that activity as a user-friendly interface (GUI). It keeps track of where things exist on a computer’s hard drive as well. But perhaps most importantly for the end-user, the operating system is responsible for translating commands issued with a keyboard and mouse into binary code (010110101 stuff) that can communicate with a set of speakers, a printer, a scanner, and more.

With an operating system installed onto a computer’s hard drive, users no longer need to boot a computer with a floppy disk, nor do they need to run programs from a floppy disk. All the drivers of a program are stored onto the computer and used whenever a program is started.

Apple’s Macintosh computer was among the first of a couple systems to establish a user-to-hardware relationship through a user-friendly interface. Today, we have quite a few operating systems. Some of the more popular ones are Windows Vista, Mac OS X, ZETA, IBM, Unix, and Linux. But even still, operating systems have extended onto to non-computer devices such as game consoles, portable music players, and PDAs. Regardless of the device, the operating system installed onto it serves the same purpose across the board: to enable user-to-hardware communication.

When you think about upgrading your computer to a new operating system, be careful to make sure that you have the necessary hardware components. We tried to upgrade one of our Windows 98 machines to Windows XP, but we were cautioned that the former may not be hardware compatible with XP technology. Apparently, the Windows XP operating system requires components that weren’t developed at the time Windows 98 was distributed and if we were to install Windows XP on this machine anyway, the new operating system would look for hardware that the computer didn’t have. And that would be an instant recipe for failure.

Also be careful about installing operating systems that are incompatible with existing hardware. The hardware of Macintosh computers is extremely different from the hardware of Windows computers and under no circumstances will a Windows operating system work on a Macintosh machine!

Related posts

• Customizing Your Computer with Preferences : Making Your Computer Work with You – Not Against You (0)
• Software Piracy : It’s Best To Avoid It At All Costs (0)
• How to Choose the Right Netbook For Your Needs (0)
• Cheap and Fast Software : An Introduction to Shareware (0)
• Automating Stuff with Batch Files : They Work on Today’s Computers Too! (0)