Apple Netbook Coming Soon? I Hope He’s Right

Mobile tech blogger JKOnTheRun has a fresh post up today offering three reasons why Apple is likely to add a “netbook” to their laptop line in the near future. I have no idea if his arguments hold water, but I sure hope so.

It’s coming up on two months since I replaced my stolen laptop with an ultra-compact Linux notebook from netbook pioneer Asus, and it didn’t take long for the novelty of operating outside the operating system mainstream to wear thin. I’m still convinced that a netbook is all I need, but life as a second-class tech citizen isn’t for me; I want basic stuff like wireless network access and printer setup to just work, and to have access to the most current versions of the software I use every day (it’s a lot less fun to live in the cloud without Firefox 3 and Chrome).

The easy thing to do would be to pivot back to Microsoft and pick up a Windows netbook like the MSI Wind or HP Mini-Note, but for some reason Microsoft has come to symbolize the “anti-cloud” to me, so it feels like a betrayal of the whole idea. I’m no Apple fanboy (I’ve never owned an Apple product beyond the obligatory iPod), but I love their commitment to making basic connect functions almost invisible and the high level of polish they bring to the desktop user experience.

My Scottish heritage is screaming inside as I type this, but I’d happily pay a few hundred bucks extra if Apple can fulfill my cloud-based productivity dream while taking away the pain my Linux experiment has inflicted.