the quarterly magazine of ILTA
43
Peer to Peer
Y
ou don't have to look at research data to see how
popular netbooks have become. Just walk into your
local starbucks, and you're likely to see a few people
with them.
Seeing all of these new, smaller computers made me
wonder if the legal industry be willing to downsize their
computers this radically? Would legal-specific software run on
netbooks? And are we ready to change our "bigger is better"
thinking and embrace the "do more with less" concept instead,
or is this just a passing fad? I went in search for answers from
ILTA members, legal technologists, the Twitter community and
from personal experience — yes, I made myself a guinea pig for
30 days. The experience wasn't always pleasant, and at times it
was tempting to fall back on my old technology.
What's the difference?
Let's start with the most obvious questions: what are netbooks,
and what makes them different than laptops? There are generally
four common characteristics of netbooks: they are inexpensive
compared to laptops, compact, connect easily to the Web and
offer extended battery life. Netbooks are, by definition, smaller
by Donna Payne
Netbooks Are
Adorable, but
Will They Last?
