Why are THESE laptops dead? (Netbooks)

Netbooks were quite popular during the late 2000s and early 2010s - so why is there no longer a market for mini-laptops that are primarily focused on online services, seeing as we're so dependent on the cloud these days?

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[ZTenski]

I remember dad got one of those in 2010 or so on a business trip to video call us. He's like 6'4 and 250lb, looked like Mr. Incredible working at his computer lol.

[TheBritishPatriot]

I’d argue that Netbooks still live on today, just under a different name: “Chromebook”. While Chromebooks have gotten better, more flexible and powerful in recent years, they certainly started off as glorified netbooks - low spec, cheap, small form factor laptops that basically required an internet connection to do anything half-useful.

[SiberCatLP]

I finished my entire Comp Sci degree on my netbook. Little thing did great once I replaced the stripped down Windows with a lightweight Linux distro.

[honestgoat]

Man I sold truck loads of these things. And ONLY really to two types of people students and boomers. They were cheap, small and light and they handled word processing no worries so students loved them. This was also right around the time that boomers started retiring on mass and wanted to travel the world. These tiny laptops were lightweight and small so they fit in luggage easily, didn't tip you over your weight limit and were perfectly suited for checking emails, booking tours/motels/hotels etc and for video calling friends and family while you traveled around.
But smart phones and tablets replaced them.

[BillyAoki]

They didn't die off, they just evolved into Chromebooks.

[jumco]

I loved my EeePC 1000H! I got it in 2008 for about £300. It was one of the bigger 10" ones, ran Windows and did everything I needed it to. Battery life was immense for those days too - I could pretty much get a full day on it (my previous laptop lasted about 2 hours with a P4 inside).

Technology always moves on and netbooks are a fondly remembered part of my tech history. They weren't high-powered, but you have to remember that at that time, few people had as convenient a way to get online away from home. I didn't have a phone that could email or get online (aside from WAP websites, which were basically glorified Ceefax) and I had a desktop for heavy lifting. Netbooks came at the right time for me.

[sharpfang]

I still have one and use it actively. I regret their passing as they were genuine x86 PCs capable of all a PC could do, albeit slowly. No jumping through hoops with ARM, no sandbox of Android, just an honest-to-god PC, cheap and small.

[_MasterLink_]

Back in 2010 when I had an ISP call center job for a year, I remember customers calling in with these Windows CE based laptops they picked up at CVS. I *hated* those awful things. Never handled WPA quite right and in the end I had to inform customers that while we could use WEP, it was advised against. Of course the customers insisted on WEP.

[InterlacedTech]

I actually still have an EeePC 701 4g surf sitting in my drawer, that thing is still alive and in a kinda good condition despite getting abused by young me back then.

[MaebhsUrbanity]

chromebooks are effectifly a brandification and slight scale up of netbooks.

[ViviSectia]

I had an Acer Aspire One that was perfect for college after I upgraded the ram. It worked fine for my college work and in between classes, I was able to emulate games up to the PS1 era. It's such a convenient form factor that even with the battery not being able to hold a charge, I still drop it into my bag whenever I need to travel so I have a laptop on hand if I ever need it for anything.

[JSRphones]

If you can believe it, there are still netbooks being produced as recently as 2023! The HP Stream 11 is an example: it was $150, ran Windows 10, and had 32 GB of storage, making it effectively useless as a computer because of how little space was left for the user... many programs didn't even function due to the lack of storage space. For a while, Gateway also made some.

[shoego]

I still have two working Acer Aspire Ones.
My then-girlfriend-now-wife and I used them to take notes in class when we were studying law.
It was the perfect device for watching class and taking notes. I was able to type everything the teacher said, plus the blackboard, plus pay attention to him (I can basically type without thinking about it).

They were light, small, smaller than some books I had to carry at the time, and the battery lasted over four hours, enough for a day of classes.

Outside the classroom, I don't have much use for them anymore due to the small screen. Working as a lawyer nowadays I usually have 2 or 3 screens to do my work.

[owen_tl]

Video disliked for not flying dankpods back out just to say “eee pc”

[rohitdeb]

Yeah, I miss my HP Mini. I had one towards the end of my law degree. I needed a word processor to type out papers, something that could log on to the college wifi so I could do my research (JSTOR and LexisNexis), and save ripped DVDs to to watch later. It was in a backpack that got stolen while I was on vacation, along with my PSP and my iPod. It was the sum total of my digital footprint back then. Gosh, that loss still hurts!

[hubertnnn]

Netbooks disappeared from the market
Chromebook: Am I a joke to you

[justsomeguy]

Still have my EeePC in a drawer. Not usable for much today, but 10 years ago it was an excellent machine for carrying around campus, downloading assignments, typing up papers on the go etc. Decent laptops at the time were back-breakingly heavy, so these were ideal as a light machine for use on the go that was also cheap enough that you could buy one in addition to your primary machine.

[omryjs]

I bought a new Netbook just a couple of weeks ago.
Why? because we needed a really small form-factor windows PC for office work on locations without internet.
It's just is to run Office on location and not to be the main machine and it works perfectly for that task.
Funny thing is, when I bought it the sales man questioned me before processing payment to make sure I knew what I was buying.

[notbfg]

I had an Acer Aspire One ZG5 in college, it was my main computer.
All I could afford. Put Windows XP on it and did all my work and my art on it. Even ran Secondlife.
It still works as a makeshift security camera DVR. Very power efficient and does what it needs to do.

[delta_cosmic]

Bigger smartphone + Tablet + More portable 11inch-14inch laptops = the death of netbooks.