Netbook

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

A netbook is a class of notebooks that are specially designed for mobility and a low price, and which therefore make significant compromises in terms of performance and equipment; although, particularly as mobile Internet - clients are designed, few models have a built-in Mobile - Modem . Netbooks were popular from 2007 to around 2011, tablets and convertibles largely replaced netbooks.

concept

Size illustration (small to large, front to back):
Nintendo DS Lite , Asus Eee PC and
Apple MacBook (13 ″ notebook).
Usual 17 ″ widescreen notebook (HP Pavilion DV9769eg, 2008) compared to the “mini notebook” Toshiba Libretto 100CT from 1997

Netbooks were designed to surf the intranet or the web with browser functions or to use web applications. They are less powerful than conventional notebooks and subnotebooks , e.g. B. with small hard drives and weaker processors. This enabled price advantages to be achieved compared to the more expensive subnotebooks, which have a similar display size.

The display of netbooks usually has a screen size of 18 to 30 cm (7 to 11.6 ″), an optical drive is generally not integrated. In contrast to the UMPC , netbooks rarely have a touchscreen , but a full QWERTY keyboard and touchpad .

Different Linux distributions and later Microsoft Windows XP were originally used as the operating system , because the computing power of most netbooks was not sufficient for Windows Vista . With the sales stop of Windows XP on October 22, 2010, the delivery of new netbooks with XP was no longer possible, so that from now on netbooks were mainly equipped with the relatively resource-saving Windows 7 starter .

However, since most customers simply perceived and used the netbook as a cheap notebook, there was already a trend towards stronger components in 2009 in order to meet customer expectations. With this new device class, the line between subnotebooks became blurred. With newer, more powerful models with more than 2 GB of RAM and a high-resolution 12.1 ″ display, Windows 7 Home Premium was also used at the time .

history

2002, Sony VAIO with external DVD drive
Size comparison between the Asus Eee PC 701 and a packet of tissues
The first device called “Netbook” from Psion next to an OLPC

In the second half of the 1990s, notebooks below the standard size were referred to as “mini notebooks” (see e.g. c't 15/1998: “Movement in the mini notebook market”). The first-known in Germany Type was the libretto by Toshiba , which cost in publishing over 5000 DM. In East Asia there was a trend towards mini-notebooks in 1998/99; these could not prevail in Europe. The category then disappeared from the market for a few years , with the exception of a few Acer , Toshiba and Sony models. This device category, still expensive and powerful according to the price and performance definition, was still marketed as a subnotebook .

The idea of ​​offering a very small notebook with only limited performance existed long before the netbook, but such devices only played a subordinate role on the market. An example of this is a device from the manufacturer Psion from the year 2000, which used the term “ netbook ” for the first time .

Other devices comparable to today's netbooks in terms of their small size and limited performance were Intel's Classmate PC and the OLPC XO-1 . Both devices are initially intended as inexpensive and robust notebooks for use by schoolchildren in emerging countries ; a sale to private customers was not initially planned. However, the devices are now also available in Europe and the USA; sometimes only on condition that you donate another one.

On a very similar basis, but intended for adult private customers, the devices known as netbooks emerged in the late 2000s. The first such netbook was the Asus Eee PC 700, which was introduced in Taiwan in October 2007 and has been available in Europe since January 2008. The manufacturer initially struggled with availability problems due to high demand. Various providers then presented similar devices. In the first half of 2009, around 13.5 million devices were sold worldwide.

Litigation between Intel and Psion

The term netbook was used by chip manufacturer Intel in February 2008, although Psion had been marketing its " Psion netBook " since 2000. There is also a German word mark registration from October 2, 2008. Psion Teklogix claims the name "Netbook" for itself. In a letter to websites and portals that use the term in their reporting, the company instructed not to do so in the future - the right to the brand would be theirs. At the beginning of February 2009, Psion obtained the blocking of the term on Google AdWords . Dell and Intel had filed a lawsuit to delete the term netbook as a trademark, as in their opinion it was a generic term. On June 1, 2009, Psion announced on its website that any company was allowed to use the term netbook. The company "peacefully settled" in the legal dispute with Intel, the statement said.

Market development

According to a study by the market research provider Gartner , netbooks already accounted for 3% of the global PC market in the second quarter of 2008, before many of the major suppliers even offered such devices. In the third quarter of 2008 this share rose to 10% in the economic region of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and to 5% in the USA. Another study reports 7.7% for EMEA and gives concrete figures for the first time with 2.2 million devices.

The netbook concept was seen by analysts as a challenge for the market-dominating position of the operating system manufacturer Microsoft , as the concentration on basic functions and Internet use could make the operating system less important and thus the further development of more user-friendly Linux systems could also be of broader commercial interest. This can be seen, for example, in Intel's efforts in the Moblin project. However, this vision did not come true until 2012: originally a pure Linux domain, the Windows share of netbook sales with a pre-installed operating system, with Windows XP being available as an option in 2008, increased to over 90% by 2009. Netbooks with pre-installed Linux distributions had to struggle with disproportionate return and exchange rates by buyers.

After the introduction of tablet PCs , the sales volume for netbooks fell well below the manufacturers' expectations. Microsoft noted a 40% decline in netbook sales in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter last year. Large netbook manufacturers such as Acer and Asus have announced the end of production.

Furnishing

software

The choice of operating system for netbooks differed significantly from that for other PCs, as the performance is limited and license costs are relatively more significant.

When the netbooks were launched on the market, Windows Vista , which was current at the time, was ruled out as the operating system because the performance of typical netbooks was only slightly above the minimum system requirements and, above all, the license costs would have made the devices significantly more expensive. In Europe, most devices were still equipped for a long time with the previously discontinued Windows XP , whose availability had been extended by two years to June 2010, especially for ultra low cost PCs . Depending on the performance of the system, the license was further reduced in price and the permitted equipment was limited upwards. A maximum of 1 GB of RAM was permitted; above this, Microsoft believes that Windows Vista should be used. In fact, this limit was either ignored or systems with more than 1 GB of RAM were not offered with Windows at all. Netbooks were only allowed to be preinstalled with Windows XP by the OEM manufacturers until October 22, 2010, after which the newer operating system version Windows 7 Starter was licensed.

Many netbooks were shipped with different Linux versions; the Eee PC, for example, with an adapted version of the Linux distribution Xandros , the Fedora derivative Linpus (for the Acer Aspire One ) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 from Novell were also used. The devices from Dell and Toshiba used an adapted Ubuntu version. In connection with the presentation of the Atom processor , Intel set up a developer portal under the name Moblin and made Linux kernel patches available that enable longer battery runtimes using the platform's power-saving functions.

Another Linux-based operating system that before in mobile phones and tablet PCs used Google Android , established in February 2009 by Google announced for use in netbooks. But instead, Google launched Chromebooks .

hardware

G3 netbook with Bluetooth mouse and - headset , 110/230 volt power supply , 12 Volt - DC Switching Converters vehicle power supply, solar cell and 17- Ah - Power Station to power-grid energy supply

The hardware equipment of various netbooks differed only slightly. A processor that is very slow compared to normal notebooks was combined with an older notebook chipset with an integrated graphics unit. Solid state disks were sometimes used as data storage, but for the most part 2.5 ″ hard disks were used. The displays used mostly have a (rather unusual) resolution of 1024 × 600 pixels; some netbooks had HD-ready displays.

Netbooks, which have been offered subsidized by contract with cell phone providers, generally contain a built-in cell phone modem with a corresponding SIM card . Usual remained partially Bluetooth and an integrated WiFi - Modem .

processor

The Intel Atom N270 with the 945GSE chipset is used in many netbooks .
The Skytone Alpha 400 uses a 336 MHz MIPSel CPU.
An OMAP 3 processor with either 800 MHz or 1 GHz is used in the T800 from Elitegroup .

The Eee 700 and 701 was based on a Celeron - ULV processor , which is slowed down by the original 800 or 900 MHz again to about 1/3 so as to reduce power consumption. Later models then used processors that were specially designed for these devices and the requirements of very similar UMPCs .

Most netbooks use the Intel Atom processors , which have since been improved several times. In some cases, these were combined with Nvidia ION graphics cores due to the very low performance of the integrated graphics unit .

Later, however, energy-saving Core i processors specially designed for this purpose were also built into high-end netbooks . Although they were more expensive, they achieved higher performance and usually offered additional functions such as Turbo Boost or integrated graphics processors .

Netbooks were initially rejected by AMD, and the outdated Geode processors or various AMD Neo versions were occasionally used . At the beginning of 2011, however, AMD Fusion was a suitable architecture for this area, which also spread on the market.

Some providers, including Hewlett-Packard , also rely on a C7 processor from VIA , which was considered to be cheaper, but significantly slower than the Intel CPUs. The successor to this was the pin-compatible VIA Nano , which should at least catch up with Intel. Around this, VIA and Nvidia have developed a complete platform for netbooks and UMPCs.

There were also netbooks on the market that used a particularly energy-saving x86 SoC . At the same time, processors that used the MIPS architecture were also found in particularly inexpensive devices .

Data storage

Due to the optimization for low power consumption, low price and compact design, common notebook hard drives for netbooks sometimes appear oversized. For this reason, the first devices in this class only had solid-state drives (SSD) with a capacity of a few gigabytes . Hard disks were no longer offered in these sizes and would take up considerably more space in the devices. With the advent of larger netbooks with a screen size of 9 to 10 ″, however, more and more conventional 2.5 ″ hard disks were installed - usually with 160, 250, 320 or 500 GB - which offer some advantages of solid-state drives such as the better one No longer offered shock resistance, but offered significantly more data storage for the same price.

communication

The WLAN standard was intended for mobile use . Also Bluetooth modules were relatively often installed. However, integrated UMTS modules that are required for mobile Internet access outside of hot spots were rarely found (example: Samsung NC10 BH) . Due to the built-in UMTS module, no USB interface was required for a UMTS stick.

Nettop

Nettop "Aspire Revo" from Acer
Mini-ITX motherboard from Zotac

The term nettop is used for similarly equipped desktop PCs , such as those used in 2008. B. in the form of the Asus EeeBox b202 or the MSI Wind PC were offered. Nettops can be bought either as a complete system or as individual parts. Mainboards for nettops are mostly available in mini-ITX format with a soldered-on processor and a cooler already attached.

Depending on the case and mainboard, the devices were often based on the components known from notebooks and netbooks, such as 2.5 ″ hard drives or SODIMM memory modules , as well as on different versions of the Intel Atom and Celeron M processors, respectively their successors. Numerous companies such as Intel offer Mini-ITX mainboards that are equipped with a firmly soldered Atom processor.

As a rule, nettops can only be upgraded to a limited extent (hard disk, RAM ) and, like netbooks, only have sufficient performance. On the other hand, they are very inexpensive and are characterized by very low power consumption.

In models from around 2010, the further development of the chipset made it possible to further reduce power consumption. A fully equipped nettop, based on the Intel motherboard D510MO , which was equipped with the Atom D510 processor, required only 27 watts even under load. Nettops with the widespread predecessor ( Intel Atom 330 ) still required an average of 35 watts under load.

In addition, nettops work very quietly or, with passively cooled components in combination with a solid-state drive, completely noiseless. For example, the EeeBox b202 from Asus , released in 2008, only caused a noise level of 26 dB under full load  . In addition, special housing shapes with a maximum volume of two liters are available on the market for these devices. Some variants can even be mounted on the back wall of a monitor or are integrated directly into the monitor housing.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Notebook vs Netbook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQgiZd0-DxI igerDirectBlog from October 6, 2008
  2. ↑ ITWissen Netbook : "A netbook is a slimmed-down subnotebook with smaller dimensions, a smaller display, the size of which is 10 ″ and below"
  3. ↑ a b Stan Beer: Windows crushing Linux in netbook market: Acer ( English ) itwire.com. December 17, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2011: " […] Acer and other leading vendors have confirmed that Microsoft Windows XP now dominates the emerging sub-notebook market with more than 90% of new sales. Meanwhile, Linux, which had the netbooks market to itself until April this year, has seen its share of the space eroded to less than 10% in a breath-taking decline. "
  4. ↑ As of October 22, 2010, no new computers are shipped with Microsoft Windows XP. ( Memento from September 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: gulli.com
  5. ↑ Barry Collins: Are netbooks losing their shine? ( English ) guardian.co.uk. May 29, 2009. Retrieved on November 19, 2011: “ […] it is the failure of the netbook idea. You were supposed not to need a big hard drive and a powerful processor running Windows because all your applications would be on the net, and you'd access them via a browser. But it seems most people preferred the system they already knew. "
  6. ↑ "The distinction between netbooks and subnotebooks is not clear, Context counts all notebooks up to 12.1" as netbooks. "Heise c't 1/2009, page 26
  7. ↑ https://shop.heise.de/katalog/kurzmektiven-552
  8. ↑ Florian Müssig: One laptop per child in turbulence. In: Heise online . January 21, 2008 . Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  9. ↑ Asus Eee PC 4G sold out for now. In: ComputerBase , February 6, 2008
  10. ↑ Werner Kurzlechner: Mini-computers whirl up the PC industry. Market leader overslept netbook trend. In: CIO. IDG Business Media GmbH, October 2, 2009, accessed on March 10, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Psion netBook review in May 2000
  12. ↑ DPMAregister - Official publication and register database , German Patent and Trademark Office: German word mark entry "netbook" of April 19, 2019 for the trademark classes 09, 35 and 42
  13. ↑ IDF: Intel shows Classmate PCs with 9-inch screens. In: ZDNet , April 3, 2008
  14. ↑ Netbook is a trademark - allegedly there is a threat of warnings. In: Spiegel Online , December 26, 2008
  15. ↑ Psion wants to prevent the use of the term “netbook”. In: DerStandard.at , December 25, 2008
  16. ↑ Google to Psion - “netbook” is indeed a protected trademark. In: jkontherun.com , February 6, 2009
  17. ↑ The dispute over the term netbook ends peacefully. ( Memento from June 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: futurezone.orf.at , June 1, 2009
  18. ↑ http://www.eeepcnews.de/2008/07/17/Netbooks-machen-ca-3-aller-pc-verkaeufe-aus
  19. ↑ http://www.golem.de/0810/62953.html
  20. ↑ Matthias Parbel: Thanks to netbooks, the European PC market is growing by double digits. In: Heise online . November 10, 2008 . Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  21. ↑ Jürgen Kuri: IT analysts: Windows collapses. In: Heise online . April 11, 2008 . Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  22. ↑ "Linux Congress: Intel promotes intuitive access to Linux"
  23. ↑ Paul McDougall: Microsoft: 96% Of Netbooks Run Windows - Gains in PC market's hottest category come at the expense of Linux, Redmond says. ( English ) InformationWeek. April 6, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2012: “ […] United Kingdom's Car phone Warehouse dropped Linux-based netbooks after seeing return rates as high as 20%. "
  24. ↑ Development of the netbook market in 2011 ( Memento from July 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ The end of the netbook. In: comsmile.de , May 13, 2015
  26. ↑ Jürgen Kuri: Microsoft extends the availability of Windows XP. In: Heise online . April 4, 2008 . Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  27. ↑ http://ht4u.net/news/1903_je_schwaecher_der_ulpc_desto_billiger_die_windows_xp_licence/
  28. ↑ Will Microsoft Vista push into the ULPC sector? In: HT4U.net , October 10, 2008
  29. ↑ Windows XP - No more netbook sales from October. ( Memento from June 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Chip.de , accessed on June 20, 2010
  30. ↑ Test: Asus Eee-PC in practice. In: golem.de
  31. ↑ Christof Windeck: Acer announces the cheap Aspire One notebook. In: Heise online . March 6, 2008 . Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  32. ↑ MSI Wind Updates: SUSE Linux, delivery date, prices. In: eeepcnews.de
  33. ↑ Technical data HP 2133. In: hp2133.de
  34. ↑ Oliver Diedrich: Ubuntu for Netbooks. In: Heise online . June 4, 2008 . Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  35. ↑ Xandros Adopts Moblin for 25 Percent Battery Boost on Netbooks. In: marketwire.com , June 3, 2008
  36. ↑ Android vs. Windows: Google attacks Microsoft. In: stern.de. February 23, 2009. Retrieved February 23, 2009 .
  37. ↑ Alpha 680: Android netbook is coming in summer. In: pro-linux.de. April 27, 2009, accessed May 3, 2009 .
  38. ↑ http://www.eeepcnews.de/2008/04/12/via-isaiah-und-nvidia-der-intel-atom-killer/
  39. ↑ http://winfuture.de/news,45625.html
  40. ↑ . In: Heise online . . http://www.heise.de/mobil/Linux-Netbook-fuer-179-Euro--/artikel/119375 ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  41. ↑ Joachim Kaufmann: IDF: Intel relies on cheap computers. Netbooks and nettops are said to be available for under $ 300. In: ZDNet.de . April 3, 2008, accessed June 14, 2019 .
  42. ↑ Do-it- yourself mini-PCs - Part 1: The Nettop. In: pcfreunde.de . July 14, 2010, p. 2 , archived from the original on July 9, 2018 ; accessed on June 14, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Netbooks  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Nettops  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Netbook  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations