And I'm online using my little HP Netbook that I got back in 2011. Yesterday, I was wondering if this was any faster than the Dell laptop I got back in 2004 or 2005, so I right clicked on the computer icon on the desktop for each one and wrote down the specs.
The laptop is 1.86 GHz, the netbook is 1.66 GHz, so the laptop processes information more quickly. But the difference is negligible, so that's not a deciding factor. The harddrive (where all the programs and information go, all of those photos, all of the games, all of the things that you absolutely need - or don't - to make life easier when computing) on the laptop is 70GB. On the netbook, it's three times more. 216GB. Netbook wins this round.
Next is RAM. RAM is Random Access Memory and the more of this the better. Everything that runs on your computer uses RAM. I know in some of our older computers that I needed to install more RAM when the virus software was upgraded. The existing RAM that came with the computer wasn't even enough to install the software! And the less RAM you have, the slower things will go. The laptop has 512Mb of RAM. The netbook takes round three with four times as much RAM. 2GB.
So, last night I cleaned off the harddrive on the netbook, getting rid of the Angry Birds games, the QuickBooks software, some pre-installed bloatware, quite a few things that really aren't needed. I uninstalled Chrome (I absolutely hate that they have taken it upon themselves to prevent me from running programs that might be a danger, like the webcams and the weather stuff, excuse me, if I blow up my computer, that's on me, I don't need a net nanny), installed Firefox, updated the virus software (taking the license from the laptop and setting that up on the netbook), used ccleaner to clean up the harddrive, ran the ccleaner registry fixer, got the Silhouette software upgraded to the latest version, installed the Make the Cut software I got a few weeks ago, and updated the eCal software (these three programs are for the cutter).
I looked up how to save my Silhouette library and with the V3 of Designer Studio that was a snap.I didn't realize, though, that all of the work I'd done on the Disney decals last week were saved to a different file on the laptop, so I had to start it up again this morning to transfer those files to the netbook. And I was thrilled when they opened right up when I checked them out.
So far, it appears that this may have been a great idea. The keyboard on the netbook is more friendly, the system is WAY more responsive than on the laptop (waiting, waiting, waiting on the laptop and not even sure if the stuff was loading) is going to help loosen the stress load. Even shutting it down was a chore. It would freeze up when I was working on cutlines and it was very frustrating at times. When it worked, it was good, but it wasn't consistent.
I can use the netbook anywhere, so this is a win-win situation. Yay!
(Allyson, if you were reluctant to try running your cutting software on your netbook, I say go for it!)