Going Mini

We all know I am something of a computer nerd. I try to keep this aspect of my personality to a minimum, but I find it necessary to own both a laptop and a desktop because, to me, the two types of machines serve very different functions in my daily life. My laptop is my me computer. I like to use it to type, lounging on the sofa or arm-chair in my pajamas. Also, as my business grows, it is necessary for me to be able to stay in touch with my clients and possibly make small changes to their websites when I am away from home.

On the other hand, when I'm actually working seriously on a website, I need to be at my desk. I often sketch out ideas before turning them into their digital manifestations, and I like my good speakers, my large monitor and the easy availability of my external hard-drive, scanner, printer, and my wireless mouse.

Still, part of me craves the simplicity of one computer. I try, on a fairly regularly basis, to find a way to give up one or the other. My most recent attempt was last week. My fairly antiquated HP laptop, which has been on the verge of possible catastrophic failure for months now, broke some important internal part of the jack that connects the power source to the computer, and I find I can no longer unplug the one from the other. This is a problem, for obvious reasons, not the least of which is that the battery is so shot, my computer can only run for a very short period of time whilst un-plugged. And so, the knowledge that the next time I unplug my laptop from its power source will likely mark fifteen minutes before the end of its useful existence drove me to try to answer the "what next" question.

I began to hunt for laptops. Ok, fine, I'll be honest. I've been secretly keeping my eye on what's out there for many weeks, but I didn't really know what I wanted. I cruised over to Lenovo, and nearly got seduced by a sleek, powerful model they've just released. But as I tried to justify spending many hundreds of dollars on a computer I would basically use to type and check email, I knew I'd never talk myself into it. I spent a long while researching docking stations, trying to determine if I could buy a nice laptop that could be the best of both desktop and laptop for me, but I found something unacceptable about every option, so I gave up.

Discouraged, I decided to think in the other direction. Instead of the fastest, most versatile laptop I could get, I wondered what the cheapest, simplest solution might be. Enter the Dell Mini, 10v. It weighs 2.5 pounds, and has a ten inch screen and a nearly full-sized keyboard. I had heard about netbooks, of course, and read some reviews and initially wasn't all that attracted to the idea of a tiny computer with one-eighth of the processing power of my desktop. But, the more I thought about and read about the Mini, the more it interested me. The main selling point, finally, came down to the fact that it has no fan. Since it is so small and so simplified, it can cool itself passively. I've owned probably four laptops in my life now, and in every single case, the fan has degenerated over time from annoying to, in one case, intolerable. No fan seemed like a great idea to me, and since the Mini I decided on is actually twice as powerful as my old, dying HP laptop, I realized it would still feel like an upgrade.

Won over, I settled on the best deal I could find and placed an order, paying less than half of what I payed for my HP when it was new. The Mini arrived yesterday. It's tiny, light, adorable, and so far I find the keyboard totally adequate. And the peaceful silence of its fanless design is going to extend its lifespan by a lot, I think.