The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/4983
the quarterly magazine of ILTA 45 Peer to Peer Netbooks Are Adorable, but Will They Last? Dale Qualls from Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP uses Windows XP on his netbook, but sees advantages for other operating systems as well. "Linux boots so quickly that I'd like to have people use them for travel when they simply need to quickly boot up at an airport to check or send an e-mail message and don't have the time to wait for XP to load up. This is why Moblin is so cool — they're pushing for two- second boot times." When I purchased the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE model, it only came with Microsoft Windows XP Home, but given the option I would have selected a netbook with Windows 7. On Twitter, I asked the community how many people had installed Windows 7 on their netbooks and was surprised at how many people had done so. Brett Burney, an e-discovery and litigation support independent consultant, took this route and installed Windows 7 Ultimate edition on his Dell Mini 9 (2 GB RAM). He said, "After only a few minor hiccups, I've had no issues at all with running Windows 7 on the netbook." Burney has also experimented with other operating systems, namely Ubuntu, Mac OS X and Windows XP. Sean Brady, Applications Integration Manager for Vinson & Elkins is on his third netbook. His current model is the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA with 2GB of RAM, and it runs the Windows 7 Aero Glass UI without issue. In May, the blogosphere was upset over "supposed" proposed Windows 7 netbook restrictions that would impose a three application maximum as well as other restrictions on netbooks running Windows 7. More recently, however, these restrictions have been allayed by Microsoft. There is a starter version that is only available in a 32-bit version, just like Windows 7 Home Basic, that is designed for entry levels and that is missing features found in the full versions. For instance, absent are Aero Glass, taskbar previews in Aero Peek, personalized desktop, fast user switching and XP mode. That said, those using Windows 7 at home or in the office will find a familiar interface which will ease the learning curve. Since ILTA members need to run more than just an operating system, I decided to load up the netbook with some popular software and contact vendors to see whether they had experience running their products on the scaled down netbook computers. Microsoft office enterprise 2007: • Whether you use Office XP, 2003, or 2007, you will need the netbook to be capable of running some type of desktop application software. When running Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Word simultaneously, there were no problems. When I added PowerPoint (or a third application) to the mix or when Outlook was open alone and I used the search feature, the netbook slowed down. The verdict is that if you are using Microsoft Office for reading a document, checking e-mail, or quickly reviewing a presentation (e.g. one process at a time), a netbook will serve this purpose. Metadata Removal tools: • According to the ILTA's 2009 Technology Survey, most firms have either a commercially available metadata removal tool installed or one that was created in-house. Alan Fraser, President and CEO of Workshare Inc. reports that they have tested their products on netbooks and they work fine. PayneGroup Metadata Assistant 2 and 3 both work well on the netbook, too. I ran Metadata Assistant both through e-mail and as a standalone, again without any problems. other legal and Productivity software: • Linda Sackett of Legal MacPac and I had an great conversation about how tedious it would be to edit complex legal documents (like pleadings) on such a small screen, but we agree that it could be done. Her company has not had occasion to test its product on a netbook yet, but they welcome the opportunity should a customer request it. For the purpose of this article, we installed PayneGroup's Form Assistant and Numbering Assistant on the netbook, and they ran without any problem. The ribbons for the pleadings were visible; and, while you had to scroll to see the document, you could edit as you would on any other computer. DocsCorp reports that all of their products work fine on a netbook, too. Said Jim Lim, Global Research and Development Manager for DocsCorp, "We even have one of our developers using a Windows 7 netbook by HP to develop pdfDocs Desktop on transit to work." Other vendors were contacted but did not respond. connectivity: • I installed BlackBerry Desktop Manager and Verizon's VZ Access Manager to keep in touch with my office and connect to the Internet. Both worked without any problem, although on the Windows 7 computer, I did have to install a new version of VZ Access. Ben Weinberger of Lathrop & Gage LLP bought an ASUS Eee PC that came with a Linux distro and OpenOffice pre- installed. His firm uses a Java-based SSL/VPN for remote access, and he had no problems linking up to it. His only negative experience was with finding drivers to enable the netbook to tether to his BlackBerry (he uses a TMo device that has unlimited data, so it's ideal for accessing the Web when on the road and would otherwise be forced to pay US$10 a day for access). Sean Brady of Vinson & Elkins pointed out that as more firms move from installed applications to cloud computing (OWA, wikis and knowledge bases, case management tools, document management), the netbook is becoming a better option. Are They Our Future or a Fad? There is no denying that netbooks are popular. According to market forecaster DisplaySearch, which is a part of the NPD Group, one in five portable computers out of all portable computer shipments worldwide in the second quarter of 2009 were netbooks. These are impressive numbers, but that doesn't guarantee that netbooks won't suffer the same fate as the pet rock, lava lamp or the Hustle. Netbooks have a few things going for them, and one of the biggest is that, because of their popularity, large computer