Can you edit with a netbook?

I’ve decided that when my MacBook meets its demise, I want a netbook. What the heck is a netbook? Think “shrunken notebook.” A typical netbook has a display smaller than 12″ (diagonally measured), is pretty cheap (the average netbook can be had for less than $500), doesn’t have an optical drive (but it’s pretty easy to get an external DVD burner, really,) is pretty power-efficient and cool-running, and, let’s face it, is as cute as a button.

There’s not a lot that I need to do that a netbook wouldn’t be able to handle. I generally live in iTunes, OpenOffice.org, Apple Mail (though I’d have to pick a different mail client because I refuse to use Outlook Express) and occasionally open up a few other apps. I’m covered for audio, because most netbook spec sheets list an audio controller that is HD Audio ready. OpenOffice.org would likely be less pleasant to use on a small display, though (particularly for big spreadsheets), but a netbook’s small size would probably mean I would actually use it more, e.g. making a shopping list on the computer, taking notes on products I’m window shopping for, etc. (And, of course, if a spreadsheet would be painful to use on a netbook, the thought of trying to edit video with one seems positively agonizing.) Although the little keyboards that are common on netbooks would probably take quite a bit of getting used to as well. And my previous lament for a MacBook Pro with a 10-key? Well, forget having a 10-key pad on a netbook–there’s no way one could be crammed onto the chassis without making the keyboard even tinier.

One port that is pretty rare among netbooks, though, is a FireWire port (er, IEEE 1394 or i.LINK, depending on the marketing person you’re talking to at the time). The only family of netbooks I’ve found that is FireWire-equipped is the Sony TZ series, although these are difficult to find on Sony’s web site at the moment. So capturing HDV or DV video would be largely impossible with a netbook, and editing other HD formats could probably not happen easily either (like I said before, these machines are designed to be efficient, not powerful per se.) Then again… is 1394 worth considering anymore? Even Apple, historically one of 1394’s biggest cheerleaders, seems to be turning their back on the interface–note its omission on the most recent version of the MacBook. And the interface is also rare on non-DV/HDV camcorders too–the typical DVD-Video or AVCHD camcorder will include a USB 2.0 port instead. As tape fades away, it could well be that 1394 will also ride off into the sunset as far as video production is concerned–its use as a disk interface being supplanted by eSATA and its use as a video capture interface being supplanted by USB 2.0 (and faster future permutations of USB as well).