Notebook Computer

Netbooks with their small size have become the number one choice for people who have no high expectations in terms of the performance and those who need to work while they are on public transportation.

The small size obviously results in a few shortcomings that may put people off from buying one, but most of them are easy to work around. One of these problems that people seem to be rather worried about is if they are going to be able to use their programs on a netbook since there is no optical drive what so ever. There is no space for a DVD reader in the casing so there have to be other solutions to get programs on the device. There are several, actually.

1. First one comes from the name, netbooks are born to get online. Most programs are now available in the form of digital download, which means that when you pay for the software, you can download it right from the site of the retailer. Some programs are not like that, so you will have to come up with a more ingenious solution.

2. Movies and music albums are still distributed on optical disks, but there are a few retailers who sell them on memory sticks. Netbooks just love to work with USB sticks, there are usually 2-4 connection points for those, so if you have the chance buy software on USB sticks. Using big enough pendrives you can put the content of your DVDs on them using your main computer, or another laptop.

3. External USB optical disk drive. Asus, the most important netbook manufacturer, realized the problem, and they constructed their own line of DVD writers that can be connected to any mini notebook using a standard USB cable, which is the part of the package anyway. These devices cost $40 to $50, but when bought as a package with the computer itself, the retailer often gives some discount, so if you still haven't got your mini, think about getting an optical drive as well.

4. External hard disk drives are easily connected to any computer through USB, you should have no problem hooking one up with your mini notebook computer. If you already have a drive, you can put your favorite software on it using your main computer, if you don't expect to pay up to $100 for a good big capacity model. It is also an effective way to increase the capacity of the internal HDD multiple times.

You shouldn't be scared when it gets to putting programs to a mini notebook; the lack of integrated CD drive is not the end of the world. You have several options to work the problem around and most of them are so cheap and versatile that you are going to be able to do so without breaking the budget.