I've noticed that they pretty much stopped selling netbooks and there doesn't seem to be any new models in the horizon, or for the long term these days.

I would not miss them in any way, then again. Extremely underpowered CPUs make them easy pickings for even not-too-vintage desktop CPUs circa early-to-mid 00s. Add to the usually unusable graphics, barely enough RAM, and... yeah. Slow disks didn't help, either. Low resolution screens OR PPI too high, neither are ideal, either.

Or do you believe that they've become something else entirely?

Yeah, they're dead since they have been replaced by tablets. The main problem was people were buying them expecting to do everything with them but not being aware of their limitations and buying into the fad *looks at Cat*.

For their purpose, they are good systems. In my case I just needed a small light system to carry around school to type up notes during class and browse the internet during time off (and they were the cheapest systems you could buy at the time, which was a nice bonus for me ) . For what I need it for, my netbook is just fine. Yes there are a few times when it acts a bit laggy (90% of the time when watching videos on my school's sluggish internet) but I'm still happy with it.

Now they have been replaced by tablets with even smaller form factors and touch screens. My favorite part of all this is most tablets actually have WORSE specs then netbooks (for example: most tablets only have like 1-1.5GHz processors while most netbooks had 1.66GHz and most tablets have 1GB of RAM while most netbooks could be upgraded to 2GB) but they just run faster due to more stream-lined OSes. If Android were able to work fully on a netbook, that thing would certainly have some performance increases over the tablet. The problem there is most netbooks were shipped with Windows 7, which can be a bit of a resource hog. I have Lubuntu Linux (a "lighter" version of Ubuntu) installed on my system and I certainly got some performance increases.

If given more of a chance and had a more of a faster OS, they certainly could have lived on longer.

It seems that most companies that make computers (laptops, netbooks, etc) are going mobile or have some kind of tablet or oversized smartphone. So since the thing now-a-days is to have one of these tablets they are probably going to focus on those and continue to try to make a profit from them. Yeah, they are dead right now (IMO), but who knows, they might come back from the dead. (Haha, like with a touchscreen netbook thing...)

My first computer was a netbook. It gave out after 2 years of good use. Now it was a little pitiful on size and durability,so I doubt I would buy one any time soon just because my last one didn't last.

Another thing, since tablets are basically (Yes, with a few minor differences) netbooks when they have a pop-on keyboard, I don't think I would buy a new one. I would buy a tablet since that would be easy and a new experience.

I use a basic Dell Inspiron with Windows 8. Since a lot of the things I need are in the Store I can just go there and download that on a windows tablet. So I know what I am using right now is a lot like a tablet, but isn't.

I do think a tablet would work just a well as one a laptop.

Tablets are the new cliché of this generation, although I don't like them myself. They are more portable and stylish (I think this matters the most to most people nowadays). But laptops are now more efficient to buy; they can be as small or a bit larger; better capabilities and at a relatively cheep price. Plus, operating systems and other software are more demanding in terms of capacities and such.

Netbooks are probably going the way of the dodo since its minimalist concept is easily fulfilled by tablets. Even more extreme, I've been hearing people make predictions that tablets will eventually replace laptop and desktop computing.

The serious problem I see with tablets is that they're more of a toy and it's somewhat difficult to get actual work accomplished with one. If there's one thing I dislike, it's trying to type using a touch screen: it lacks the tactile feedback a keyboard offers, so hitting the wrong keys and smudging up the screen is a given. There is no way I could see myself typing out a paper on one. I'm aware you can have keyboards for tablets or covers similar, but I shouldn't have to lug more things around if it's supposedly offering the convenience of mobility.

It might be that I'm always late to trends, but I've never been too big of a fan of tablets.

Yoshi is indeed correct. I got tired of my netbook because it was far too slow for me. I think the hard drive might have been what really held it back because I'm currently running on a laptop with a similar-specs processor. Heck, netbooks were mostly released about five years after similar laptops (which were top of the line at the time).

They really are great for folks who only (don't stretch the meaning of that!) need one for:

• Typing documents (main advantage over tablets)
• Light web browsing
• Minimal interest in playing any type of game
• Quick banking
• E-mail
• Long battery life

Quote:

Originally Posted by hinorashi The serious problem I see with tablets is that they're more of a toy and it's somewhat difficult to get actual work accomplished with one. If there's one thing I dislike, it's trying to type using a touch screen: it lacks the tactile feedback a keyboard offers, so hitting the wrong keys and smudging up the screen is a given. There is no way I could see myself typing out a paper on one. I'm aware you can have keyboards for tablets or covers similar, but I shouldn't have to lug more things around if it's supposedly offering the convenience of mobility.