Netbooks...

[Bluebird]

Am I right in assuming that most of these things don't have a CD/DVD drive ?
That being the case, if I wanted to install anything from a CD/DVD would I need an external CD/DVD drive [ or to save expense ] could I just use my Laptop and connect it to the netbook and install from there [ but specify the location as f:/ or whatever the netbook comes up as ] ??

Also do these things generally have some method of inserting a 3g card - is this normally via a USB?

Thanks

[FiveTimes]

Am I right in assuming that most of these things don't have a CD/DVD drive ?
That being the case, if I wanted to install anything from a CD/DVD would I need an external CD/DVD drive [ or to save expense ] could I just use my Laptop and connect it to the netbook and install from there [ but specify the location as f:/ or whatever the netbook comes up as ] ??

Also do these things generally have some method of inserting a 3g card - is this normally via a USB?

Thanks

Correct, they don't have cd/dvd drives.
I wanted to install office ultimate 2007 on mine, so I just inserted the dvd in my desktop and copied the contents to my network drive.
Then navigated to the network drive from the netbook and it installed fine.

Hope this helps.

[voodooflux]

Am I right in assuming that most of these things don't have a CD/DVD drive ?

Yep, although some of the higher-end ASUS models feature an optical drive, but these are moving beyond NetBooks really.

That being the case, if I wanted to install anything from a CD/DVD would I need an external CD/DVD drive [ or to save expense ] could I just use my Laptop and connect it to the netbook and install from there [ but specify the location as f:/ or whatever the netbook comes up as ] ??

You can always install from a USB stick as well.

Also do these things generally have some method of inserting a 3g card - is this normally via a USB?

A USB dongle can be attached as you say, while some models (like the Lenovo S10e) also have a Mini-PCle socket. Some newer ASUS models also have built in 3G adapters.

[d000hg]

Not everything will like being installed not from a CD/DVD... you might be better sharing your laptop optical drive on the network in these cases. Probably not normally an issue with business software though.

[LazyFan]

Most MS software does not have Disc protection on it. Thus you can make an ISO image of the Disc using another computer with a ROM drive.

This ISO image can then be transfered to the netbook using a USB stick. Once there you can then use virtulisation ROM software to treat a hard disc ROM image file as if it was a real Disc.

This allows you to be able to carry all your discs with you on the hard disk in case any of the programs want some driver files or whatever later on. Also installing software from the HD is much faster than waiting for a disc to spin up. Not to mention you can back these files up and use them on other computers later on.

Microsoft allow this functionality in some of its software programs. Such as TechNET where you can download all the ISO images and use them as described above.

This is the way to go.

[TheRefactornator]

I agree with LazyFan. ISO images are the way to go and this free software gets a big for mounting ISOs on any media / any location:
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/mi...c-overview.htm

[voodooflux]

I agree with LazyFan. ISO images are the way to go and this free software gets a big for mounting ISOs on any media / any location:
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/mi...c-overview.htm

WHS - great little utility that.

[Pondlife]

I agree with LazyFan. ISO images are the way to go and this free software gets a big for mounting ISOs on any media / any location:
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/mi...c-overview.htm

WHS. I use this with all my "backed up" film/TV DVDs copied to an ext USB HD when I'm travelling.

[stingman123]

WHS. I use this with all my "backed up" film/TV DVDs copied to an ext USB HD when I'm travelling.

What are these Netbooks like for watching vids etc? I've got a P4M dell and it really struggles to show video without stuttering every 30 secs. What is the Atom processor like in relation to the P4M or centrino? Are they single core? Aparrantly they will be good enough for windows 7?

[AtW]

What are these Netbooks like for watching vids etc?

They are fine - it will use big chunk of Atom CPU, however DVD resolution movies can be played fine.

Most common Atom in netbooks is single core but it support hyper threading which actually does work well for that case (due to slow memory).