Test Center Analysis: Playing the Netbook OS Game

Notebooks typically have faster processors, more memory and are larger. In contrast, netbooks generally are outfitted with smaller, more energy efficient, yet slower chips, such as Intel's Atom-based processors. The first generation of notebooks primarily entered the market with 1 GB memory and are diminutive and lightweight - less than three pounds. They also have smaller, finger-challenging keyboards, screens and typically lack optical drives.

There's one major decision that hits potential netbook buyers right up front: can they get by with the lightweight performance credentials offered by most netbooks or are they better off spending a bit more for a full-blown notebook? And then, if the netbook is the system of choice, do they want a system based on Microsoft Windows XP Home or would they rather go the open-source route with a netbook based on Linux?

Extensive reviewing in the Test Center shows that netbooks and notebooks each fill a specific technological niche, and in addition, a netbook still cannot perform the same resource-intensive tasks that most notebooks can.

Netbooks have become the new "It girls" of technology. Small, sleek and often available in a variety of bright colors like "Blossom", "Snow" and "Onyx" (pink, white and black for the uninspired), perhaps what's attracting most devotees are the relatively low prices. Netbooks range from $300 -$800 for higher-end models, falling somewhere between smartphones and notebooks in functionality.

They are good at what they are designed for: surfing the Web, checking e-mail, using a word processor or perhaps creating a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Reviews of a variety of notebooks in the Test Center have proven that while netbooks are useful at doing the aforementioned tasks, they are not ideal for doing those tasks simultaneously.

Still, the Test Center set out to quantify the differences. To get an idea of how different operating systems would perform in an apples-to-apples comparison, the Test Center built its own hardware test bed to simulate a netbook performance experience. Not content to use standard, vendor-branded systems as our only means of benchmarking operating systems here, the Test Center used the Intel D945GCLF2 Essential Series Mini-ITX retail board, with Intel's Atom processor at 1.60 GHz, DDR2 support and integrated Intel graphics. With 2 GB of RAM (which the board supports), the overall results show nice improvements for the second-generation netbook platform. Doing fresh installations, each, of XP Home and Ubuntu 8.10 Linux-based desktop operating systems, reviewers used Primate Labs' Geekbench 2.1 cross-platform benchmarking software to measure performance.

As a general rule, netbooks provide about half the performance of notebooks, but at about half the price. In the lab, the XP Home-based netbook configuration ran up a score of 1185 while Ubuntu scored 1104, giving Microsoft a slight performance edge over its Linux-based peer. But by comparison, most dual-core, Vista-based notebooks the Test Center has reviewed over the past year have scored about twice as high as the XP Home netbook configuration.

Battery life in netbooks we've reviewed has ranged from about three hours to almost five hours; the notebooks the Test Center has looked at have ranged from about two hours to more than 8 hours with supplemental batteries snapped in.

In pricing, the bill of materials for our netbook test bed reached about $250 for the hardware alone. Most Vista-based, dual-core notebooks the Test Center has reviewed over the past year have been priced at at least $650 on the lower end.

Netbooks do have a nice edge in mobility. For example, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 we reviewed recently is easily stowed into a carry-on bag when traveling by plane. Most notebooks simply require their own, padded carry-on bags for separate travel.

But netbooks do fall short in even some simple tasks too familiar for most users to give up. For example, the Dell Mini 9 comes with an integrated Web cam. However, when trying to use that Web cam for video conferencing with Skype, for example, the half-GB of memory on the system means that the application crashes the minute video is deployed.

The Bottom Line

Windows XP slightly outperforms Linux in controlled, test-bed evaluation on standard netbook hardware, but both fall considerably short, performance-wise, when compared to almost all Vista-based notebooks examined by the Test Center in the past year.

The result: The CRN Test Center can recommend notebooks for many limited-function uses - - like PowerPoint presentations, word processing or light Web browsing that may not need a full-blown, dual-core notebook. But, in the end, common multi-tasking or multimedia use is still a game for full-blown PCs " and a game that netbooks will often lose.

A netbook could serve as additional tool for a mobile employee, but in the same way that a smartphone does not substitute as a notebook, a netbook would serve as a poor substitution if raw processing power is needed.

VARs that position themselves as the best resource to explain the differences between netbooks and notebooks to customers can help head off confusion and ensure customers get the best device to suit their purposes.

Brian Sheinberg contributed to this report.