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View Full Version : Post your Linux Netbook experience.



hellmet
September 9th, 2009, 06:39 PM
If you own a netbook and it runs (any) Linux (distro), either pre-installed or post-installed, please let us know your experience using it. What about the tiny screen and the cramped keyboard? How about the webcam and those using 8G/16G SSDs?
I'm planning to sell away my heavy not-so-portable thinkpad and get one of those netbooks, esp. since I'd be moving a lot more now. I'd like to know if it is possible to replace a notebook with a netbook.

JohnFH
September 9th, 2009, 06:50 PM
Some questions ...
What do you currently use your notebook for?
How bad is your eyesight and how big are your hands?
How often do you use your notebook and for how long do you use it?

As for me, my personal experience is a good one ... I use my netbook even at home because I can check my email from the comfort of my lounge. Technically you could do that with a bigger laptop but when I had my laptop I didn't do that because it was heavy and cumbersome.

hellmet
September 9th, 2009, 06:56 PM
I mostly use it for browsing the Internet, watching movies and listening to music. I also download a lot of stuff using torrents. Occasionally, I play Simcity4, but I can easily give that up. I have good eye-sight and rather small hands.
My notebook is on when I'm either using it / downloading stuff. I have a thinkpad right now, and judging by its (Lenovo not IBM) quality I guess it'd succumb in another year or so. I'd rather see a $250 netbook dying than see a $810 notebook die, after having taken all the care and 'extra' warranties. This, in my opinion is the solution to 21st century crappy products. Buy cheap and throw them away. Sorry, way off topic.

speedwell68
September 9th, 2009, 07:02 PM
I have an Acer Aspire One A150 with an 120gb HDD. I have used a variety of Ubuntu based distros, on it. Linux4One, EasyPeasy, UNR and I have finally settled on Xubuntu. If you are wanting to surf, email, IM and maybe do a bit of basic office type stuff then they are great. If you are wanting to do a lot of photo work or any high graphics stuff then a bigger notebook would be better. Netbooks are fine for storing photos. They are fine for transferring music to a MP3 player too. I have found movies are also fine if you remember to keep the file sizes small when you encode them from DVD. Hardware support is as good as nay other PC, my web cam and sound work perfectly.

EDIT: The Acer comes with Linspire Lite and it is utter crap.:D

hellmet
September 9th, 2009, 07:05 PM
So, what about DVD quality movies? Do they run choppy?
Also, how about the lack of a Cd-rom drive? Does that bother you?

LowSky
September 9th, 2009, 07:07 PM
My Thinkpad t60 gets abused like crazy and still looks great, so I have no idea what you have done to yours, and Lenovo has been building IBM's thinkpads years before IBM sold the company off. Lenovo makes great laptops under their ideapad line too.

As for netbooks (I own a lenovo s10)
Im using Ubuntu on mine right now and it runs great. It had Windows XP and it was decent on the small screen too.

Personally your better off getting a small lightweight laptop with a 12-13 inch screen,netbook have no dvd drive or that many usb ports (usually 2-3), and most stink for video quality (thank intel for that, crappy drivers)

Chronon
September 9th, 2009, 07:16 PM
So, what about DVD quality movies? Do they run choppy?
Also, how about the lack of a Cd-rom drive? Does that bother you?

I only stream stuff occasionally so I don't know about DVD quality.

I don't miss a CD-ROM at all. I usually have a few spare SDHC cards around, so it's much more convenient than lugging CDs or DVDs with me.

hellmet
September 9th, 2009, 07:25 PM
12-13" screen laptops are way expensive when compared to a 12" netbook.
Well, good video is definitely a requirement. 2 USB ports are more than enough for me.
Cd/DVD drive, will probably miss that, but I'd could learn to live without that, I suppose.

Also, pre-Lenovo-takeover thinkpads are much much better than what you get to buy in the name of a Thinkpad, these days.

@Chronon: Thanks for the info.

ugm6hr
September 9th, 2009, 07:34 PM
I'd like to know if it is possible to replace a notebook with a netbook.

Yes it is.

Mine: Dell Mini 9, Ubuntu 9.04 + XFCE
For my dad: HP / Compaq Mini 10" Dual-boot Ubuntu + XFCE / XP

I use my Mini 9 more than my laptop (which essentially functions as a desktop).

My dad uses the netbook when away from home during the week.

I don't watch DVD quality films, but most divx stuff plays just fine. Sound is not great on either though (perhaps speaker rather than sound card related).

Everything else will be fine. I got used to the 9" keyboard very quickly, and use it for Write, Calc, Impress and Base, although if I was to buy again, I would opt for 10"

arinlares
September 9th, 2009, 07:36 PM
I've got an Asus eee 1000ha that's pretty sweet. I'm using UNR on it, and it runs nice. I had to disable the Maximus utility, but the computer's great, and the os makes it all that much better (it had XP, which used a little bit more than Ubuntu currently does where resources are concerned). I reccomend a 1000HA, or anything with at least 120GB of storage, especially with what you do as far as torrents, movies, and music. You might (or might not) have to work to fill it.

nlstone123
September 9th, 2009, 08:25 PM
I'm interested in this as well since I'm in the market for a new laptop or netbook. I would really like to have something powered by Ion but it looks like here in the US at least it is going to be a while still before any laptops or netbooks come to the market because of Windows 7.

I would mostly be using mine for Internet, IM, school work and maybe some watching movies that I rip and music. Gaming is the other thing I do but I'm not going to try and play something like Crysis on a netbook. Though I have seen a number of videos of people playing games such as Warcraft 3 for example which is a game I do enjoy and I was wondering if a netbook would be capable of playing Warcraft 3 with WINE. I don't know anyone that has a netbook personally so I have no way of testing it before I buy one.

coldReactive
September 9th, 2009, 08:27 PM
1. Ubuntu Netbook Remix couldn't use Wifi out of the box,
2. couldn't do sound properly out of the box,
3. and had some minor touchpad issues.
4. Debian can't even detect the ethernet.

Gotta love the Toshiba NB205.

adam.d.clemons
September 9th, 2009, 08:34 PM
I have an Acer Aspire One with 1GB of Ram, and 160 GB of HDD. it's the 10.1''screen. i like it a lot. I put Ubuntu NBR on it myself, and it installed quickly, no drivers to hunt down. I kept XP, cause i like having both, (i'm fond of iTunes) but it's great. i have a gaming desktop in my dorm that i do any serious stuff on, but most of the time i'm on my netbook on the internet or downloading things. One thing you should look at is the battery life. Windows XP gives me 4 hours battery without any power management and full brightness on the lCD, but ubuntu won't give me more than 2 hours no matter what i do.

All in all, i think the netbook is worth it.

Irihapeti
September 9th, 2009, 09:19 PM
I have an EeePC 900 with vanilla Ubuntu 8.04 on it. For two months it was the only computer I had, because my desktop machine was in storage. I use it for OpenOffice, surfing, email, some video watching. The sound isn't top quality but it's adequate in my view. I got used to the small keyboard surprisingly quickly, and I'm a touch typist. However, I wouldn't want to write a novel on it.

I had to do some tweaks to get things to work: wifi in particular. I never got the touchpad sensitivity sorted out (didn't want to install custom kernels because they don't get updated so often as the mainstream ones) so in the end disabled it altogether and use a mouse all the time.

I don't know how battery life compares with Windows. I've found it adequate for what I'm doing, but then I spend most of my time on AC anyway. I've not timed battery life yet.

Sometimes I think it would be nice to have an external DVD drive, but only rarely. If I were going to reinstall the original Xandros OS, I'd need one, but I don't see that happening.

gn2
September 9th, 2009, 09:39 PM
12-13" screen laptops are way expensive when compared to a 12" netbook. ~

Depends if you can find a 12-13" laptop at a decent price.
Last year I got a Core 2 Duo Asus F9E for £400 (UK) which is a significantly better machine than any netbook.
Currently, if I was looking to buy, I would consider one of these (http://www.simplyacer.com/Product/id/534750) instead of a netbook.

misfitpierce
September 9th, 2009, 09:55 PM
In all honesty with having to leave it on more often doing your downloads and wanting good video quality, you would be way better off getting a 12" or 13" on sale at best buy as said... A good pentium D or so has more power and more ram and i've seen similar on sale at best buy for even $400 which has way better specs than netbook... Netbook really just for continuing tasks on the go... Thats my suggestion... Save up a bit more money for something that will give you alot more use!

bodyharvester
September 9th, 2009, 10:28 PM
So, what about DVD quality movies? Do they run choppy?
Also, how about the lack of a Cd-rom drive? Does that bother you?

dvd's run fine for me :)
my dell mini 9 has an 8GB SSD, not very useful, so i bought two things:

1. a 500GB external HDD for £49.99 :D (its already half full ;) ! )

2. an external cd drive that is tiny and perfect for £40

needless to say they both attach through USB, the cd drive can run off the power of the netbook whereas the HDD requires mains access, so youll never have to worry about much

im perfectly happy with my netbook, i watch anime ive downloaded coz there is nowhere i can find to buy dvd's or anything, that and programming stuff, a little music too, i dont need much.

EDIT: i also purchased a 2GB RAM stick for less than £20, that was for when i played games like DOOM 3 when i was still using Windows XP, oh well, more room for puppy :p

bailout
September 9th, 2009, 10:44 PM
I got mine (aspire one a150) for use when travelling and just really use it for internet, basic office and loading photos on to. I installed ubuntu unr but it is too power hungry so I have gone back to the pre installed linpus lite which gives longer battery life.

jonthysell
September 9th, 2009, 11:04 PM
I've got an Asus eee 1000ha that's pretty sweet. I'm using UNR on it, and it runs nice. I had to disable the Maximus utility, but the computer's great, and the os makes it all that much better (it had XP, which used a little bit more than Ubuntu currently does where resources are concerned). I reccomend a 1000HA, or anything with at least 120GB of storage, especially with what you do as far as torrents, movies, and music. You might (or might not) have to work to fill it.

I ran eeebuntu 2.0 on a 1000ha very successively as my main machine for a couple months. Battery life wasn't as good as under Windows, but the machine was way more useful. Had issues with flash skipping and mp3s too, but that happened in XP too and turned out to be hardware. I can't remember what I had to do to fix it, but it's gone away.

Of course, I now use Jaunty on a desktop for a my "real" work, and put XP back on the netbook (with nothing private saved on it) so that when I take it through customs I don't have to worry about being singled out.

But overall it's a solid machine that handles ubuntu quite well (even vanilla 9.04).

markbuntu
September 9th, 2009, 11:54 PM
I have a aspire one AOA150 and I use it pretty much exclusively when travelling for checking email, web surfing, music. I got a 9 cell battery so it runs all day and can suspend for a week so it hardly ever gets rebooted. I use kuki linux on it. It is a jaunty remix specifically for Aspire Ones and is perfect for this machine.

I keep it in a small daypack crammed with a lot of other stuff and when I pull it out and it is on instantly people are amazed, like I just did a magic trick. It takes about ten seconds to have up and running and connected if wifi is available.

t0p
September 9th, 2009, 11:59 PM
I have an EeePC 701, running Eeebuntu. It ran a bit slow with 512MB of RAM, but now I've upgraded the RAM to 2GB and it flies! All the hardware works "out of the box" with Eeebuntu. I take the netbook pretty much everywhere I go on workdays, which is no problem at all. When I had a larger notebook, I found it cumbersome sometimes so I often went places without it. The netbook's portability is its greatest value to me.

Thing is, the small screen and fiddly keyboard can be problematic when I'm using it for any extended period of time. I've got a desktop computer at home; but it is possible to use the netbook as your only computer if you buy some peripherals - for instance a USB keyboard, or a USB-PS/2 adapter so you can use a fullsize keyboard and mouse; and a larger monitor.

I had to install a decent OS myself: the EeePC came with a modified Xandros Linux which sucked majorly, and I believe you can only get them with XP nowadays. Installing Eeebuntu was no problem for me, but a newbie might not feel comfortable doing that. Microsoft claim that Windows 7 will work okay with netbooks, but I doubt it would run on an EeePC 701 with 512MB of RAM and a 4GB SSD. Of course netbook specs are much improved, but I still don't think Windows 7 is suitable for limited hardware. Maybe there's a 7 user here who can enlighten us as to that?

dragos240
September 10th, 2009, 12:02 AM
My experiences are great! I have an eeePC 900HD black, and it is 100% compatible in arch! It functions great and it has excellent battery life!

jonthysell
October 31st, 2009, 06:49 PM
I ran eeebuntu 2.0 on a 1000ha very successively as my main machine for a couple months. Battery life wasn't as good as under Windows, but the machine was way more useful. Had issues with flash skipping and mp3s too, but that happened in XP too and turned out to be hardware. I can't remember what I had to do to fix it, but it's gone away.

Of course, I now use Jaunty on a desktop for a my "real" work, and put XP back on the netbook (with nothing private saved on it) so that when I take it through customs I don't have to worry about being singled out.

But overall it's a solid machine that handles ubuntu quite well (even vanilla 9.04).

I installed Win7 on the netbook, and it looked/worked great, but then for kicks I decided to replace it with Karmic UNR, and all I can say is holy #$#$%@#$. It looks gorgeous!

That's it! With the exception of some Windows VMs for cross-platform testing, I'm an Ubuntu man, thru-n-thru!

doruktayfun
November 1st, 2009, 10:52 AM
I got a lenovo s10-2 i upgraded to 2gb ram using UNR. Everything worked out of the box on 9.04 . I also installed a 64gb ssd . battery was going for 4 hours on 9.04 . On 9.10 it's 6 hours I don't know how it happened .

Performance is good . I can watch movies download go around files all at once with no problem. Also played some command&conquer with wine worked nicely. using google chrome (chromium) .

Though I didn't use the XP at all heard that there was face recognition login thingy but I don't use a login anyway.

hellmet
November 1st, 2009, 05:46 PM
Never mind the face recognition thing. Its not at all worth not using ubuntu for that.

fcomstoc
August 21st, 2010, 09:13 PM
hey there everyone
i have been using linux since i was in high school; my experience then was bad because i didnt know how it worked and how to get all the drivers working properly. fun stuff.
anyway i have learned a lot since then, currently i have a lenovo s10-3t touch netbook.
i am currently running ubuntu 10.04 on it with almost everything working on it (no windows!!) touch, wireless, sound all work great. it will even run office using wine (which i need for school)
my experience has been great so far and i look forward to the future

thanks all
_frank

earthpigg
August 21st, 2010, 09:47 PM
dell mini 9 owner here. they stopped selling these, and now only have the "10v" available which is larger.

im glad i got a mini 9 when i had the chance.

after about a week, i was up to about 30-40 words per minute on the small keyboard. 70 wpm on a full size keyboard. i'm about 6 feet tall and have the hands to match. i've been known to unplug a keyboard from a publicly accessible computer and plug it into my netbook for serious typing.

the small screen hasn't bothered me. 20/20 vision.

i ran vanilla ubuntu at first on it, then replaced with a command-line install adding lxde. eventually, i ran my own little "Masonux" on it. now that we have several stable LXDE distributions, i've killed that project. using Linux Mint LXDE right now. installing the 'lxlauncher' package and adding "@lxlauncher" to /etc/xdg/..../autostart results in something looking similar to this:

http://wiki.lxde.org/en/images/5/5c/LXlauncher.png

that's pretty much my idea of a perfect netbook gui.

i end up traveling with my netbook much much more frequently than with my 17 inch laptop that is older but more powerful.

probably some of the best couple hundred bucks i've ever spent.



i am currently running ubuntu 10.04 on it with almost everything working on it (no windows!!) touch, wireless, sound all work great. it will even run office using wine (which i need for school)
my experience has been great so far and i look forward to the future

thanks all
_frank

what hardware?

cptrohn
August 21st, 2010, 10:14 PM
I put my own little netbook together.. (which I also posted in another thread) The Zotac Sam102. It's been a great netbook, love it for the portability.... Got a 500GB 7200 RPM HD in it right now and 2 GB of Ram and running Kubuntu 10.04 Netbook edition.. (no offense but REALLY prefer it to UNR) The only issue I had with the Sam was it only came with a 3 cell battery so I ended up ponying up another $50 for a 6 cell.... But I was willing to do it because the Zotacs come with 2 mini PCI bays..(one with a wifi card already there and one open) And am currently looking for a mobile broadband card to install.

mamamia88
August 21st, 2010, 10:34 PM
Mint 9 Samsung N130 using ndiswrapper to connect to internet. Browser crashes consistenly no matter what browser and even when disabling flash. Never had problem with any version of windows

bouncingwilf
August 29th, 2010, 02:08 PM
Bought a Toshiba N100 last year pre-installed with UNR - as expected everything ran fine, I subsequently added a further 512meg of ram (only came with 512) and re-installed UNR from the repos - everything still runs just fine! excellent little net-book ( screen in nice and bright/sharp).

bouncingwilf

mr-woof
August 29th, 2010, 02:11 PM
I've got an Asus EEE 900 running UNR 10.04, everything works even my Vodafone 3g dongle with a bit of messing about. The battery is knackered on mine, has been from about 3-4 months. Asus changed it, was ok for a while then it's had it again :(

My only complaint is the keyboard is very small and cramped

ottabaub
August 30th, 2010, 01:10 AM
I bought an Asus EeePC 1201PN mainly to take on trips and I like is so much I'm using it at home in Canada too. At the moment I'm in Costa Rica and having been able to put it in the back pocket of my knapsack instead of dragging my wife's 15.4" laptop in it's carry bag through the airports was well worth it. The 1201PN has a 12.1" widescreen and even though the keyboard is small than a regular one I have no trouble using it. Although I have a wireless mouse, when I must use it, the touchpad is not bad.

The 1201PN came with Windows 7 Home Premium but I'm dual booting with Ubuntu Netbook Remix. I like Ubuntu a whole lot more than Win 7 and, basically, I use it to run a single program that I can't get for Linux and will not run properly even with Wine.

The only have 2 complaints running UNR on this netbook:
1) The touchpad disable buttons do not work. I tried eee-control and it doesn't support the 1201PN and only seems to work partially. I had to uninstall it when my netbook overheated and shut down because it had disabled the fan. (Sweet!) I am compensating with a utility called TouchFreeze. It's better than nothing.
2) Typically, when I first boot up, the icons in "Favourites" do not line up horizontally but are displayed in a vertical column that runs below the bottom of the screen. I have to click on another tab, then click "Favourites" to make them line up properly. I don't know how to fix them any other way. It's annoying and probably a bug in UNR.

sgosnell
August 30th, 2010, 01:24 AM
I have an Asus EEE-900, and I use it for everything. I gave my big laptop away, and don't plan to ever buy a full-size laptop again. I won't willingly buy anything bigger than this. It took a couple of days, but my typing is faster on the smaller keyboard than on a full-size keyboard, and I struggle a little when I have to use one. I have fairly large hands, but the smaller keyboard isn't a problem for me.

I use the webcam occasionally, but it's not a really important feature. The screen is big enough, and I don't miss a bigger one. I have replaced the SSD with a 32GB model, but it's not really necessary. 16GB is big enough for Ubuntu, and if you add an SDHC, you can use it for /home and store lots of files & data.

I don't like the Ubuntu netbook remix, or any of the netbook-specific distros. I run standard Ubuntu 10.04 with the vanilla Gnome desktop, and I like it a lot. This is something that is rather subjective, I think, and will vary between individuals, and is the reason for all the different versions available. I've tried most of them, and settled on plain Ubuntu, but I have no quarrel with anyone else using anything they like.