Any Dell Mini 10v Users Out There?

[user1397]

I just ordered one, it'll get here around the 22nd.

Any of you here have one? What do you think? Give an honest review.

Also interested to know what other distros people have tried on it, especially regarding if any lightweight distros were used and if so how much did speed increase...

[MooPi]

No I haven't purchased the mini but I keep visiting the Vostro V13 page to drool every other day.

[earthpigg]

the 10v and old mini 9s have identical innards, right? aside from the display, case, keyboard, battery and the like. same wifi, same cpu, etc?

[pwnst*r]

I have a 10v that I dual boot with OSX and Moblin

[user1397]

I have a 10v that I dual boot with OSX and Moblinhow's moblin? like it better than UNR?

[gletob]

No I haven't purchased the mini but I keep visiting the Vostro V13 page to drool every other day.

I knoes!!!!

[pwnst*r]

how's moblin? like it better than UNR?

Matter of preference of course, but I find it much more polished than UNR.

[element_G]

10v owner reporting in.

Overall I give it a 7.5/10. Chrome runs a lot faster than Firefox, flash video is a bit of a mixed bag (no HD). Battery lasts about 7hrs for me with the 6 cell, keyboard is nice for a netbook. Touchpad is very jittery with the default drivers due to the integrated mouse buttons (cant click and drag at the same time). A fix is available by using different drivers
see here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1270382

enjoy your new 10v :)

[snowpine]

Mini 9 (little brother of the 10v) owner here checking in. I love it! (typing from it now). I have tried dozens of distros on the little guy, so let me know if you have a question about anything specific. Currenly using CentOS (for its extreme stability--no need personally for my netbook to have the latest and greatest software, just a browser that works).

I much prefer the Dell keyboard to my Asus eee 900ha, which it has replaced for everyday use (I only really use the eee when I need Windows).

[sandyd]

I have one that im currently setting up w/ os x and ubuntu. it going to be a present for my cousin, who doesnt have enough money to get a computer, let alone a macbook mini. It actually works pretty well, and even plays HD videos. I havent encountered the mouse pointer problem yet though.

[user1397]

10v owner reporting in.

Overall I give it a 7.5/10. Chrome runs a lot faster than Firefox, flash video is a bit of a mixed bag (no HD). Battery lasts about 7hrs for me with the 6 cell, keyboard is nice for a netbook. Touchpad is very jittery with the default drivers due to the integrated mouse buttons (cant click and drag at the same time). A fix is available by using different drivers
see here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1270382

enjoy your new 10v :)Cool! thanks for that link, I hope I don't have that issue but if I do I know what to do now!


I have tried dozens of distros on the little guy, so let me know if you have a question about anything specific.Could you list all the distros you've tried on it?

[snowpine]

Could you list all the distros you've tried on it?

No, I could not possibly list them all :) My favorites have included CrunchBang, Debian, and Arch. Currently I am giving CentOS a test drive.

[user1397]

No, I could not possibly list them all :) My favorites have included CrunchBang, Debian, and Arch. Currently I am giving CentOS a test drive.
haha, that's okay, well do you notice a big difference in performance when switching from something like arch or crunchbang to say regular ubuntu or debian?

[Luffield]

Another owner here, and I agree with element_G about pretty much everything. It's not the best computer I ever used but I really like it.
Ubuntu runs pretty well, I started with the UNR interface but ended up using the normal interface with a single panel at the top and Maximus running - a very nice layout IMHO.

[snowpine]

haha, that's okay, well do you notice a big difference in performance when switching from something like arch or crunchbang to say regular ubuntu or debian?

No big difference. Any bottlenecks I've observed seem to be caused by applications (Firefox, Flash videos, etc.) and not the core OS itself. In the end, I chose stability over performance.

I would say all 4 of those are excellent netbook distros. I did not mention Ubuntu specifically in my previous post only because CrunchBang is my favorite flavor of Ubuntu. :) The Dell Mini can easily run a full Gnome desktop in any distro in my experience.

[user1397]

So I finally got mine (yesterday)!

No obvious hardware problems that I can tell so far.

After fiddling around with the dell-preinstalled ubuntu (8.04) I wiped it and did a minimal install and installed what this guide says to install: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1155961

Overall its lookin' real good!

If I type free -m in the terminal right after boot up, it usually says it uses around 212MB of ram..wow!

Also, takes literally 4 seconds to shut down, still have to time how long boot-up takes.

[cogitordi]

I've had my Mini 10v for about one week. From order to delivery, the time was about two weeks. (Should grow worse after April 2010 when Dell shuts down its last remaining factory in the USA. The accountants say where the jobs go, mes amis. But *their* jobs stay here. )

Did you notice that if you order the Mini 10v with M-Windows, Dell doesn't offer the option of 2GB RAM? So I searched the Dell site for "Ubuntu" and found my way to the ordering page for the 10v with Ubuntu and configured it for 2GB RAM.

Another tip for those considering the 10v: spend the extra money to buy the 56WHR 6-cell battery. You'll never see the 56WHR battery offered for so little elsewhere.

My 10v came with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and everything worked without any fussing. Updates were available but I wasn't forced to install them because of any problems. Out of the box, anyone can use the 10v and Ubuntu!

I decided that things were too easy so I downloaded USB-Creator for 8.04, pasted an Ubuntu 9.10 ISO onto a USB stick and installed the latest Ubuntu. I use the standard Gnome desktop with the lower panel deleted and a bunch of Gnome applets pinned to the menu panel.

My thoughts: the keyboard is usable, the screen is nice, and the two front corners of the 10v become quite warm. I find it's a thrill to use a polished, powerful, open-source OS on a device as portable as the 10v.

I don't like "touchpads" (I really liked the X31-X32 Thinkpads) so I bought a Microsoft Compact Mouse for less than $20 at Wal-Mart. The whole kit works nicely... Alas, I'm now shopping for a 56WHR.

Edit: a final tip is to install the Compact theme for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3699

Edit 2: Found this information at Wikipedia.org:
Currently, the 32 and 64GB SSD and 2GB of RAM are not available for the Windows XP OS option due to Microsoft licensing restrictions. For the device to qualify as a ULCPC under the Designed for Windows XP logo program[5] Dell cannot ship any unit with more than 1GB RAM, although the memory is user expandable to 2GB.[6] (The chipset will not support 4GB.)