This seems like a very incomplete comparison. Is there any way to show comparative results for a few programs? I see that the HP has about double the performance number, but what does that mean for actual applications?

You make a good and interesting point. I've stopped running endless "real world" tests on PCs, because, in my experience, such PassMark's Performance Test, based on focused components tests, generally run pretty close to the results you get from tests such as FutureMark's PCMark or 3DMark. Also, remember that Tom's Guide is oriented toward a less technical audience, looking to get a quick take on consumer electronics products, even at the business computing level.

I think what is important about the findings in this review is that the future of all workstation-based computing is very likely to be significantly different from what we have know in the past. Think more cloud, more nearly thin client. Sure, there will always be a place for smarter workstations, but, in my opinion, that is going to become a smaller and smaller piece of the pie.

I can't resist the following. My newest desktop is an HP Pavillion with a Core i7 920, 12 GB of memory, an ADM-ATI 4850 graphics card, 1 TB HDD and another 1.5 TB of removable HP Media Drive space, and a Blu-ray burner and DVD player. So, I've not bought into the low-end, cloud computing model yet.

Further comments on the HP Pavilion: First, this is the first desktop I have every had that I didn't build myself. Second, this PC costs me $2,100. No it was not a freebie from HP. Third, I'm using Casper 5.0 to make a regular image back up the 1 TB drive's boot/applications/data and Factory_Image partitions.

Now for the other side of the story. I have my own personally purchased ASUS Eee and find in useful in a number of situations. But, between the desktop, ASUS Eee, a Toshiba laptop (again personally purchased) and my Apple iPhone 3Gs (upgraded from the original iPhone in June, upgrade and monthly fees paid by me), I find myself doing most of my mobile computing, including accessing the HP Pavilion, on, drum roll .... the iPhone. The world is definitely changing.

Enough said.

Barry, you're wrong. We're not going to get pissed off now, because you told us that we were gonna get pissed off, but once you told us tat you were expecting for us to give angry negative feedback, there was psychology play going on in our heads where you sounded very empathetic (or was the term sympathetic?), so we were prepared to restrain ourselves from being pissed off and actually enjoyed your article (or at least found it interesting).

computabug, I am speechless. )

I have a 5 year-old Thinkpad T40P with 1.5 GB RAM and a 1400x1050 display. I'd like to think I'm still better off than with a netbook. Regardless of performance, I just can't handle a low rez. display

i think barry is a chaty kathy, because half of your stuff is just speculating on the future of computers how is it relevant. Why are you talking about your HP

quote:Why are you talking about your HP.....
cuz this is a paid infomercial....lol

Who cares about windows? Which is better for Linux?

I have Asus 1000HE Eee PC - was easy to add another gig of memory, and no flimsy plastic doors on the IO ports. I think casual users would be fairly happy with the performance until it comes to watching online video (youtube, nba.com, etc) - where it skips lots of frames.

That is one of the major draw backs on a netbook, SLUGGISH performance when it comes to simple things as watching streamed video. An ultra light notebook that dates from 3-4 years ago would beat any netbook today. Toshiba Protégé R200 or Dell Latitude X1 anyone?

In answer to the question, I think a Netbook CAN do business. I only wish our IT department realises that so I don't have to lug around my heavy Thinkpad with cables and accessories whenever I travel.
Think about it. Most jobs, it’s just checking and responding to emails. Also every company I know runs ERP systems that are entirely web-based. You can login from anywhere including public access machines (though that is not advised). The days of heavy-duty client-server apps are truly gone. We have legacy client-server apps – but we run that through a Citrix XenApp/Metaframe environment and so can you.
Unless you are working in places like a design-house, the CAD field or some very specialized industry, then Netbooks do “do business” and very well at that. Most importantly businessmen TRAVEL and I am sick to death of lugging a heavy notebook around all the paraphernalia

Well,I do have to say out of all the netbooks that perhaps this netbook is a first where you find a hard time connecting a USB device.
Also,a lot of netbooks are easy to upgrade to 2GB DDR2 ram.

Can a Netbook Do Business? what a silly question, it's totally mental to believe the really productive people use designed-for-business notebooks? it depends with what are you dealing, the most amazing and great designed-for-business laptop for sure you cannot do business with it if you are for example an architect and you want to render plots like two minutes high definition video with 5 millions polygons to show your work to your customer but for sure you can use this notebook just to show to your customer the rendered video but you can do the same and with a $160 netbook, I have got dozen of the same kind examples, netbook are great if want to use your company's online platform to manipulate data to communicate with your partners by email or by videoconferencing, tek people do not want to caring 3kgs while the can caring less than 1kg and with a double life battery, you do not need expensive designed-for-business notebooks to right a latter or a presentation or even to build a website in other word even if you are high level executive you can use your netbook to buy or sell $2b in fx market . ages ago I use to work productively only with my calculator and my 1TB disk use to cost $30000 ten years ago and I bought is just $80 and it's completely useless... I wish to had my calculator back