Netbook/Web-book advice please

[FarmerPug]

as for office open office is just as good as the real thing and its FREE and still compatible with ms office stuff

[sirwiggum]

as for office open office is just as good as the real thing and its FREE and still compatible with ms office stuff

100% agree

http://download.openoffice.org/

Also, the IBM-Lotus (the software company, not the sports car maker!) repackaging of OpenOffice is free:

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotu ... e.nsf/home

[Archangel]

WEll said Teamy
anyone got any advice on the original subject

My 14 year old son has decided he wants a Netbook/Web-book off Santa this year so i'm after some advice about them.
From what ive found out there all 10.1" screen and around about the same sort of memory size.They all come with windows 7 as operating system, but no other software. Can downloaded software be installed on these without any issues, as curry's wanted about £100 for office software which seems excessive.

Yes downloaded software can be installed to a netbook. Buy one with an HDD (not SSD) for a bigger hard drive size. Download OpenOffice/LibreOffice or Lotus Symphony as office software for free.

I understand there is no cd-drive but dont think this would cause problem's

This is true, but it isn't as big a hindrence as you may think. Workarounds include USB Pens and drive sharing from a desktop CD drive.

As i said it's for my 14 yr old son to basically use on facebook, minclip and general surfing, the idea is for him to do schoolwork/homework on it as well but he's the 4th child so were not that gullible anymore.

Any Intel Atom system with 1-2GB RAM can do all that without any problem.

want a good deal as he's likely to break it,drop it, spill something on it so about £200 would be nice

Keep an eye on hotukdeals, maplin, keep an eye in the adverts for the likes of currys doing offers (but beware the pushy salespeople selling useless covercare - you get a years manufacturer warranty anyway).

any advice appreciated
Neil

I tried.

netbook screeens are too small, better off getting decent laptop with 15 inch + screen for not much more than netbook and have a built in cd /dvd drive as well.
Vista is slow ...... buggy
most new laptops come with Windows 7 now ........ much better

[teamster1975]

That should be a nice bit of kit Neil, your son's a lucky lad!
I'd fire it up to make sure it works but don't do any of the initial setup; you've got no security risk on it until it's connected to your wireless network.