Random thoughts about using netbooks in the Enterprise.

OK. So in preparation for a talk I'm having with a certain large software company based in the Puget Sound area I thought I'd jot down my thoughts.

The topic is primarily around netbooks and what our interest in them is.

Well here goes:

1. They're attractive to business - they're cheap to buy.
2. They're attractive to people - most folks who see a netbook go, wow isn't that cute. It could almost fit in my pocket.
3. They have lower power consumption.
4. Portability.
5. You can still rig them up with a full-size monitor and keyboard / mouse.
6. They're designed for comms on the go (practically all of them have built in webcams).

And what's not so good.

1. The screen res doesn't lend itself to most enterprise apps. Try running SAP GUI on a netbook.
2. Apps like Office 2007 take up a ridiculous amount of space with the ribbon.
3. Because of the low spec of the netbooks there are questions about performance, especially when doing lots of things like encryption / decryption. How well does a netbook run when doing a video conference over an encrypted link on a netbook with an encrypted HDD / SSD.

I'm not so worried about wear and tear and robustness of the actual hardware. I saw a Lenovo S10e this week and it seemed sturdy enough. My worry would be that the low powered nature of the machine would mean it would have to 'go in for servicing' more often for tunes ups or even complete rebuilds. This might increase the overall TCO.

Would a netbook actually be used more than a laptop (even a sub-notebook) though? I still see a lot of situations where laptops are left on desks or in drawers. They're still too big for some people to want to carry them.

Posted via web from gazcoop