Do more with your netbook

Store more
When it comes to storage, netbooks either feature a traditional hard disk or a solid-state drive (SSD). Using Flash memory, SSDs have no moving parts and are therefore more durable than standard hard disks.

Another advantage of SSD, though one that’s up for debate, is speed. A netbook with an SSD will, in general, boot faster than a traditional hard disk-based model, but it all depends on the make and model of the hard disk – some can give SSDs a run for their money. At present, the main drawback of SSDs is their price per gigabyte. For example, an Acer Aspire One with an 8GB SSD can be purchased for around £199, but for the same price you can get the same Aspire One with a relatively gargantuan 120GB hard disk – we know which we’d prefer.

Of course, you can always boost the storage of your netbook at a later stage. Even with a 120GB hard disk, if you use it for more than just surfing the web and emailing it won’t take long before you’ve eaten up all the storage. The neatest way to add more storage is to upgrade the hard drive itself, but depending on the make of your netbook this might be either tricky or almost impossible. It’s therefore far easier to use some form of external storage, such as a USB hard drive. A 160GB USB hard drive costs around £60 and most will draw all the power they need from the USB port, so you won’t need to drag around a separate power supply.

Operating system
Perhaps the biggest decision to make when purchasing a netbook is which operating system to choose. Being free and with relatively low hardware requirements, Linux is an obvious choice for a low-cost netbook. With a wide selection of free applications such as Open Office and Mozilla, Linux is able to cater for most netbook users’ needs.

Some netbooks come with their own, tailored versions of Linux distributions, but you can always download and install new applications. Although this requir es a bit of Linux knowledge, there are plenty of online resources to help you out (the forums at www.linuxforums.org are a good place to start and there are plenty of other model-specific forums around).

Certain netbooks are only available with Linux, while with others you have the option of choosing Windows XP when you purchase – obviously, the latter is more costly. Which operating system suits you best will depend on your needs. Those wanting to do little more than word process, browse the internet and send emails should be happy with a Linux operating system – it won’t look quite as pretty as XP, but it gets the job done.

However, if you want to install a lot of third-party software and don’t want any driver problems when adding hardware, XP is a safe choice. Needless to say, the current crop of netbooks baulk at the hardware requirements of Windows Vista and, unless you’re happy with a slow netbook, we wouldn’t recommend trying to install it.

It is possible to install a different operating system (either Linux-based or XP) onto a netbook, but it isn’t always plain sailing. We’ve had readers emailing in saying that it’s difficult to revert the netbook to its original state, with the second operating system clinging onto disk space and not letting go. If you want to install a new operating system, it’s worth considering going down the virtualisation route. It might sound a little daunting, but virtualisation is easy and there are various free packages available (see Virtual OS box, right).