The other day I had a discussion with a guy on a computer forum and he basically told me that netbooks are useless. He used an expression to describe these mini notebooks that I won’t repeat here, but he really got me thinking. It’s not about whether netbooks are useful, but why people think so.

Now it was a topic about Apple’s latest tablet, but because of similarities in screen size, netbooks are often compared. Note that I’m not against the iPad, or the people who buy them, but they are intended for a completely different use, and this article is about netbooks anyway.

This guy told me that he had tried a netbook once and it was cramped, the keys were too small and the screen was just not readable. According to him, you can’t do any serious work on a netbook. Now that’s what it got me thinking as I type about ten hours a day on my 10″ EEE computer. If I was right I would have died from the massive pain caused by RSI but I’m here writing this so you can use a netbook for such activities obviously.

The really interesting thing about this is that many people still think that a small computer necessarily has to come with fewer functions, or even be so limited that using it is no longer a pleasure. Okay, I admit the screen isn’t too big, but guess what, I use the computer on my lap, so it’s always about 1 foot 6 inches away from my eyes. At this distance I can easily read size 10 and 12 fonts and on a netbook that’s all that really matters.

What most people who hate netbooks don’t realize is that these computers are far from the single-function toy they think they are. Obviously, the first and most common use for them is to browse online content because browsers are very widespread applications, they are used by everyone and do not consume all the processor resources. It makes perfect sense to sell a computer running a browser, right? But then there are the movies and mp3s that need to be played as well, people like to listen to music while browsing.

While the built-in speaker is of poor quality, no laptop comes with better, mind you, I’ve never had a laptop or desktop motherboard have better sound through my AKG headphones. I once had an NF7-S Abit motherboard with a really wonderful SoundStorm audio chip, but it had a low power output, so it lost a lot of its dynamics at high volume. It’s as loud as I want it to be and no noise is transmitted from the CPU. There is no buzz.

It is very useful when you are watching a movie on the way to work or on the way home. DVD-quality movies can also be viewed on the small screen. Most people think that 10″ is too small to enjoy a movie. Well, I disagree, the resolution is higher than a DVD, so everything works fine, because the screen is never too far away. I would say it takes about two weeks to get used to the size and resolution.There are now netbooks that come with HDMI, so connecting it to the big LCD is no longer a problem.

This person also told me in his strongly worded rambling piece that the processor is not fast enough. Not fast enough for what exactly? I can play most flash games and some older titles with no problem. I’m glad I can’t play World of Warcraft on it, so my productivity is higher than ever and my addiction is shattered.

I guess people hate netbooks because they don’t want to spend the time to get used to it. The first week I thought I was wrong and my girlfriend wanted me to return it. When the second week passed, I had no doubt that I would keep this mini notebook, even if I finally bought a bigger one. There are so many things I can do with it more comfortably that the next thing is probably a desktop system.