Shelly wants to know the difference between netbooks and laptop computers
Can you explain the difference between netbooks and laptops? Thanks, Shelly

Our Answer
Laptops (Notebooks) these days have become portable desktops. They feature huge hard drives, lots of RAM, CD-ROM/DVD burners and so forth. The line between desktops and notebooks/laptops is so thin there is virtually no difference except for the price and the portability factor. In fact, we've been seriously considering going exclusively with laptop computers when it comes time to replace our aging desktops.

Netbooks are much smaller and lighter than laptops and they're also cheaper. Netbooks are small and lightweight and ideal for email, browsing the Web, chatting and social networks but lack the power and features of laptops and desktops. They usually don't have built-in CD/DVD drives or burners and they usually don't have more than 1GB of RAM. The hard drives of most netbooks are much smaller than those available with most desktops and laptops, averaging 80GB compared with 320 - 500GB for a decent laptop or desktop. Still, netbooks make a lot of sense if you travel a great deal or for a second computer for light computing tasks like email, Web surfing and chatting.

As time goes by, however, netbooks will evolve just like laptops did, and there may come a day in the not-too-distant future when miniaturization gets to a point where everything you want can be had in a computer the size of a netbook. For now, however, if you're only going to have a single computer, you won't be happy with a netbook. As a second computer that you can take with you wherever you go, they're great.