That’s what she said!
Bigger than a netbook, but still compact, and second hand…
Hmmm… choices could be limited, only because Netbooks have been so overwhelmingly popular as the small end of the laptop market within the pertinent timeframe (i.e. recent enough to be decent spec, old enough to be for sale second hand).
You’re probably looking for a 13 inch screen then - the Sony Vaio range has included some of these, as have Lenovo Thinkpads (I’d favour the latter of those myself).
There are some 11.6 inch Win 7 mini notebooks that will meet that spec. I have this one (see link below) (brand new in the box) that would probably meet your size spec but I’m not seeing how you’re going to get it to run Win 3.1 as I would think an OS that old and newer chipsets would tend not to cooperate with each other
Dimension & Weight
Dimension11.22" x 7.95" x 0.82"-1.09"
Weight3.05 lbs.
Pretty much the same size as the one I’ve got. The ‘7" deep’ dimension is the one that corresponds to my 9.5". The 10 and change corresponds to the 14" dimension. I’ve got about 2 inches and change more, in that dimension, which will give me a correspondingly bigger screen. The keyboard on the eeePC is big enough that I touch-type with it, just fine. so I don’t need a bigger keyboard, but a bigger screen would be nice, and that requires a bigger base. I’ve got 2 and a half inches more available. Since I can’t get the same model, anymore, I want to make use of the extra space, when I buy its replacement. I’m looking for ‘small laptop’ models, bigger than ‘netbook’ but smaller than full size laptop. If I can’t find one, I’ll just get Asus’s current eeePC model, but I’m hoping there’s something with a bigger screen out there, that will fit in the space, and do the map job.
YEAH! That’s getting in the ballpark! That’s what I’m looking for. Something with a bit bigger screen than the eeePC, that will still sit in the space it has to go in. But BTW, it doesn’t have to run win3.1. The map prog I’ve got is a win3.1 app I’ve been using for, well, over 20 years, now (yes my beard is grey), but I’ve been running it under 2k on my desktop for many years, and under XP on this netbook since I bought it, when XP was starting to get old. It will almost certainly work OK under 7, too, but if not, I can always run a VM, and do 3.1 or XP on that, and use it anyway. But I looked at your link, and that machine looks pretty good, but I’ve still got an inch and a half more space, than even that. I’m hoping someone can come up with a model that will just barely fit. That’s what I’m looking for. One that will just barely fit in that space, and will still do the job.
And not be quite so obsolete.
See this
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/laptops/ideapad/u-series/u260
Dimensions
4-cell: (WxDxH): 12.5" x 8.1" x 0.71"; 318mm x 204.5mm x 18mm
A Fujitsu Lifebook U820 should be small enough. I have one that has only ever been used for about an hour with Windows Vista. I’ll ship it to you for $400.
No, it won’t run under Windows 7 unless you get the 32-bit version of that OS, which is getting harder and harder to find. (Except, coincidentally in netbooks).
I’d do that rather than take the performance hit of a VM.
Sorry not to get back to this, but I’ve had to deal with IRL (mother in hospital) problems. I’m going to read this thread tomorrow, and I’ll get back to everyone.
Sounds good. What are the base dimensions, and can I torture it into submission, by filling it’s brain with XP? Or any other OS, including ‘7’. Vista has to be sucked out of it’s brains. It’ll have to come with 7 and not have the Microsoft standard: we “BeShatOurDevices”.