[vox] Dell Mini 9 back for just a bit at 240 bucks

[Norm Matloff]

I have a Mini 9, which I bought in April to take advantage of a great
temporary sale--$199, Ubuntu installed.  I upgraded to 1G of RAM for
something like $25.

The machine is great, except as noted for the keyboard.  The size of the
keys is not much of a problem if one types with a light touch, except
that the Right Shift is about 20% of the size of Left Shift, very
annoying.  But for Linux/C users, the problem is more that so many of
our frequently used characters require the Ftn key--[, ], `, ~ etc.
For keyboard size and feel, HP and Acer are better.

Nevertheless, I love the machine.  I'll be using it all afternoon today.
It's wonderful to not have to haul a heavy laptop around in an airport.
The screen is bright and clear, and the size is no problem for me at
all.  Speed has been quite acceptable so far for the work I do on it,
mainly LaTeX and R.  

Battery life has been excellent, nearly 5 hours.  That is partly due to
the fact that the machine has a solid state drive, not a hard drive.
I've been disturbed to see that someone seems to have convinced
consumers that they "must" have a hard drive, so that most netbooks one
sees in the stores now have one.  To me, that defeats the purpose of
having a netbook, which is meant to be a very mobile supplement to one's
main machine.  It also consumes more power, and is a moving part which
might break.

It's amazing how successful the netbook concept has become.  One can now
buy netbooks at Target (not one but 3 different brands, Asus, HP, Acer),
and believe it or not, Toys 'R Us actually sells a Disney edition of the
Acer.

Norm