Home » Archives » September 2008 » If only it could run OS X... [Previous entry: "Photo Coolness"] [Next entry: "Designer Catharsis..."] 09/04/2008: "If only it could run OS X..."
Dell came out with an interesting, and heavily speculated-upon, little piece of technology today; namely, their new Inspiron 9 "Mini" Notebook.

For those of you who read this site and don't know, it's what is called a "NetBook" which is basically a laptop so small that it's extremely light, portable, and a little skimpy on the storage and processor. It's intended mostly for use with The Internet and the various webApp sites out there; like Google Docs, Flickr, and mobileMe.

Because it's intended for use with things that get stored "in the cloud" as the kids are fond of saying, it doesn't need a whole lot of storage. And, because it doesn't need a whole lot of storage, it can have normally expensive and impractical things, like Solid State Drives. It also doesn't need a whole lot of processing power, as it'll do bunches of stuff through a web browser; and as such, can get a low-power processor like the Intel Atom.

The overall concept of the NetBook is something I've always found appealing; a cheap, light, low-power machine for doing e-mail and web surfing and blogging. It's a laptop for most people that I know, who, frankly, don't do much on their computers at all. Until now, however, the netbook has either been a)built by companies you've never heard of, or b)sold as super-compacts by the mainstream manufacturers at an insane premium. (Can you say "MacBook Air?")

So, this is great. A mainstream manufacturer, with a good reputation, selling a super compact machine for about the same price as the oddballs. (About $400.)

Now, if only it could run OS X. (Legally)