Nov 23

The short answer is Microsoft Vista.

It came pre installed on my last laptop and caused me nothing but problems, It encouraged me to make the jump to Linux and I haven’t looked back.

HP will have to deliver a pretty exciting machine for me to pay for a Vista license that I’m never going to get any value out of.

</rant>

Nov 16

Computer World Columnist Mike Elgan is arguing that HP invented the best Netbook 15 years ago when they released the Omnibook 300.

While he reckons the HP Mini Note is okay he’s campaigning for an update of the omnibook as the segment killer for Netbooks.

And I can see some merit in some of his arguments.

  • The Omnibook 300 runs on 6 AA batteries, easy to replace or buy spares and can get them anywhere without paying the spare parts premium that’s normally associated with spare batteries for laptops.
  • OS was on ROM, not really compatible with a modern OS, but SSD prices keep falling
  • Mike claims the keyboard was superb, I didn’t have a spare $3000 (imagine $3k in todays dollars) at that time to confirm this.

Personally I’ll take a color screen and the wireless connectivity of the modern Netbook, but I think HP might go forward by looking backwards.