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mivo
June 16th, 2008, 09:56 PM
What's everyone's take on the mini laptops?

I was going to buy an Eee 900, but after seeing the specs of the Acer Aspire One, I decided to wait for that one. Chip.de reviewed a pre-release version and concluded that the keyboard, display and overall quality are superior to the Eee, though it only comes with an 8 GB SSD and 512 MB RAM (but a 1.6 Ghz CPU). The SSD part isn't so bad since apparently you can just stick in a SD card (extra slot, not in the card reader), and the device can be upgraded to 1.5 GB RAM. There'll also be an optional battery with seven cells.

I know that HP is also coming out with a netbook, and there'll be the Eee 901 (also using the 1.6 Ghz CPU) and 1000. But those won't be out in Germany before the end of the year, and the One is scheduled for July. (It also comes in dark blue.)

Do you guys have a mini laptop? Want one? Or can do without an ultra-mobile computer?

NEUR0M4NCER
June 16th, 2008, 10:03 PM
I've got an Eee 2g Surf. As long as you're happy getting used to a new OS, it's great.

Problem is, i'm not sure I AM ready to get used to Default Xandros... Ubuntu runs pretty slow on the 2g Surf, although everything 'works' (Compiz included).

If you want to get a better idea of the Eee, you should head over to eeeUser.com (http://forum.eeeuser.com/) - they have a VERY comprehensive list of good points, bad points, user reviews, HowTos, etc.

Regards

Phenax
June 16th, 2008, 10:11 PM
I've got an Eeepc 4g galaxy, installed Arch on it. Very portable, does exactly what I need - no complaints.

aysiu
June 16th, 2008, 10:28 PM
I have an Eee 4 GB with Xandros on it. Tried Ubuntu, but it failed, as did the documentation to get it working.

Generally I'm happy with it, but if Dell or some other vendor offers an affordable netbook with Ubuntu preinstalled, I'll probably ditch this Eee for that option. Xandros isn't fun.

jespdj
June 17th, 2008, 06:50 AM
Especially the models that Dell has announced look interesting to me. It's not yet known which OS they're going to put on it, but if it's Ubuntu, it will be even more interesting.

LMP900
June 17th, 2008, 07:17 AM
I'm planning to purchase one of the upcoming Dell Ubuntu models, as long as the price stays around the $300 mark. (It's a shame that the Eee PC has distanced itself from its original target price of $199.)

Why am I interested in a Netbook? My current laptop is a little to heavy to carry around everywhere. I treat it as a desktop with the convenience of being able to take it from my apartment (university) to my hometown rather easily. Having a small, lightweight device without the vulnerability of a hard disk is perfect for students always on the move.

Rhubarb
June 17th, 2008, 07:27 AM
I've got an old second hand fujitsu lifebook P series LBP1120. It's a tiny little laptop that was once expensive.

It has an 800MHz crusoe processor with 256MB RAM, no optical drives, and it can't even boot from USB (have to take the hard drive out to install Ubuntu server on it).

As I managed to break the screen on it (when repairing the touch screen circuitry), I currently use it as a low power headless Ubuntu server with battery backup.

It was useful when it was all working properly, and it's still very useful even when the screen is completely broken.

If you've got large fingers and you're considering buying a tiny laptop, go to the shops and try one out for yourself first, as some people with big fingers can't easily use the small keyboards on them.

gn2
June 17th, 2008, 08:06 AM
Currently I'm in the position where I will definitely buy one of these devices to replace my trusty old Toshiba Portege 3440CT.

The hot favourite at the moment is the Linux Acer Aspire One, I have already tried to pre-order one, but can't get any retailer to take my money yet, which I find a little odd.

The Eee900 has a poor CPU, the Eee901, MSI Wind and HP Mini-Note are all too expensive.

Mmmm shiny... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ShPGRQE3qE

mivo
June 17th, 2008, 07:54 PM
Spent some more time reading up on stuff, and I think I'll definitely go for the Aspire One next month. Found a vendor that will offer a 1.5 GB RAM option at affordable extra costs, which pretty much addresses my chief concern (that the first line only has 512 MB). The alternative would be the Eee 901 (not 900), but Germany apparently won't see that one before December.

gn2
June 18th, 2008, 11:50 AM
512mb of RAM should be plenty for a device of this type, it's not going to be used for intensive use or multi tasking.

It's really a one job at a time device.

kerry_s
June 18th, 2008, 12:21 PM
i been actually swinging towards the nokia n8## web device, i'm thinking i want something i can hold in my hands instead of balancing on my big fat gut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N800
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N810

darweth
June 18th, 2008, 12:44 PM
MSI Wind is the one I am considering at the moment but I will wait and see what Dell does.

esaym
June 18th, 2008, 12:46 PM
msi wind

mivo
June 18th, 2008, 01:01 PM
512mb of RAM should be plenty for a device of this type, it's not going to be used for intensive use or multi tasking.

Good point, My main concern regarding memory is the OO Writer, though. I'll need the device for a small number of tasks only: web browsing, playing Go (using a Java client), scheduling/calendering, editing documents. The OO Writer is a little on the heavy side. I wonder if it can just be replaced with Abiword, which I generally prefer. I know nothing about Linpus.

Well, perhaps 1.5 GB is a bit of an overkill. :) But 1 GB sounds good.

gn2
June 18th, 2008, 01:19 PM
The OO Writer is a little on the heavy side. I wonder if it can just be replaced with Abiword, which I generally prefer. I know nothing about Linpus.

Linpus is a modified version of Fedora.

OO works just fine on my eight year old Portege 3440CT, Xubuntu, 500mhz PIII and 192mb RAM.
So it will definitely not be a problem on the Aspire One.

mivo
June 18th, 2008, 01:38 PM
Oh, it's Fedora-based! I assume it can handle just any RPM, then?

I looked at the MSI Wind (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSI_Wind_PC), too. Besides the fact that my brain somehow turns this into "MS Windows", the disadvantage for me would be the traditional hard drive. I'd really prefer a system with a SSD, especially since I don't need 80 GB of storage space. Won't be a desktop replacement for me. I like that it has a 10" display and a better webcam, though, and a nicer resolutiob. Then again, it's also more expensive than the Aspire One (http://www.acer.com/aspireone/) without offering more memory or a faster CPU.

I really wish these didn't have a Windows option, since I had/have great hopes for a Linux marketing/awareness boost through netbooks.

tact
June 18th, 2008, 01:48 PM
I just bought a eeepc 900, the linux version, with 1Gig RAM and 20G SSD. The interface is very simple and just does what it needs to do. This will be left plain jane vanilla as it came from the box. All my fun tinkering will be with ubuntu on the larger laptop.

earlycj5
June 18th, 2008, 02:29 PM
I own a HP Mini-Note myself.

I love it.

billgoldberg
June 18th, 2008, 03:44 PM
In my eyes those mini laptops are just good to show off.

Due to their low resolutions and smaller keyboards you can't get any serious work done on them.

How much does a normal laptop weigh? 2 -4kg?

I you can't lift that, well, I feel sorry for you.

sharkinfested
June 18th, 2008, 03:57 PM
I bought the Eee PC 900 but after having it for about three weeks I sold it. I found myself always reaching for my regular laptop instead of the 900. And when I travel I want something with more horsepower – and an optical drive.
The MSI Wind looks tempting, but I probably wouldn’t use it much either. UMPCs are cool little gadgets, just not for me.

gn2
June 18th, 2008, 04:05 PM
Due to their low resolutions and smaller keyboards you can't get any serious work done on them.

There's more to life than serious work.

I remember when 800x600 was the norm and it wasn't a problem.

The next gen of netbooks are all 1024x600 apart fron the HP 2133 which is higher.

The keyboard size on the MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, HP 2133, Eee1000 are all bigger than the original Eee700, and if you don't touch type, there's no difference whatsoever typing on a smaller keyboard.

red_Marvin
June 18th, 2008, 05:30 PM
Right now I lug around a 15.4" laptop at ~3.5kg, so one of those would be really nice, but when considering the reasons I lug this one around, (programming and such), the screen and full size keyboard is really nice.
But that doesn't stop me from wanting to buy one though, if only I could justify it...*thinks hard*

mivo
June 18th, 2008, 09:26 PM
Well, the Aspire One's keyboard is allegedly 95% of the size of a regular keyboard. It also has most of the keys. Here's a photo (http://www.chip.de/ii/174378126_d95a78d33c.jpg).

tact
June 19th, 2008, 04:38 AM
In my eyes those mini laptops are just good to show off.

Due to their low resolutions and smaller keyboards you can't get any serious work done on them.

How much does a normal laptop weigh? 2 -4kg?

I you can't lift that, well, I feel sorry for you.

[.] <- the point.

--------------->>>> billgoldberg (missed it by a long shot)

The whole point of these things is not for getting "...any serious work done".
Desire for one has nothing to do with people not being able to lift 2-4kg

I can tell you which of my two laptops (corporate issue Dell with my life work on it, or the eeepc900) that I will prefer to toss into a duffel bag for a weekend on the beach, or take along to a relaxing afternoon in a sports bar with my friends, or on a road trip when I am on holiday - just so I can keep up with these forums, email, chat, and browse www for a nice restaurant somewhere near whereever I happen to be.

Yep you could do all the above with a 3G phone or PDA but thats what I would call a dismal visual experience! Screens soooooo small as to make it less enjoyable. The 1024x600 screen on the eeepc is a widescreen, hi-res dream in comparison! hehehe.

And surprisingly - Fact is that they (the eeepc 900, linux version, at least) come with open office as well email and net connectivity, and so could be pressed into getting some real work done if thats the kind of work you do.

But if the kind of work you do is heavy-duty keypounding for hours at a time, or compiling huge source files... forget it for that kind of work. But still useable as a carefree toss-about you can take anywhere use for email/chat and not be worried about it.

fedex1993
June 19th, 2008, 04:58 AM
i just think they need to have a bigger hard drive space and also maybe have a cd drive sold that can be external. Wait about 1 year they will get better and better :)

Angus77
June 19th, 2008, 05:49 AM
I'm surprised so many people complain about the lack of an optical drive, when USB keys are so cheap (I found and 8GB one for 3200yen the other day). Why on earth would you actual want to lug around an optical drive? I can't think of the last time I used one, aside from playing CDs in the car.

The reasons I want one one of these things:

I spend a lot of time on the train, and don't enjoy bumping elbows. A 15.4" widescreen is incredibly uncomfortable on a crowded train!
The bigger a laptop is, the more likely I am to consider it a pain in the *** to lug around---especially if it requires a special bag. These UMPC are small enough to throw in any bag I have, "just in case" I wanna whip it out for any reason.
I don't game or do anything so resource-intensive that I would feel the lack of power. I work with a 500MHz desktop with 448MB of RAM at work. Any of these UMPCs will easily outperform that!


I've put off buying a laptop for the last couple of years because they all just seem _too_much_. They seem to me to strain the definition _I_ have of the word "portable". They're "portable" in a technical sense but not in spirit. Lose the DVD drive/HDD/15.4" widescreen and I'm interested! If I need power, mass storage and a big widescreen, I've got a desktop at home for that!

toster13
June 19th, 2008, 05:52 AM
I'd like to use one as a car and travel PC and MSI Wind would be a good choice if only It had SSD. In the other hand it has a card-reader and I always can save my data into SD-card. And, of course, the price. Laptopmag.com said the price would about $500 with XP Home and 400 with Linux. Not bad for the such a little gadget with a huge battery (6 cells). I think I could use it for navigation, reading and entertaining. I'm waiting forward it

gn2
June 19th, 2008, 08:35 AM
I'd like to use one as a car and travel PC and MSI Wind would be a good choice if only It had SSD. In the other hand it has a card-reader and I always can save my data into SD-card. And, of course, the price. Laptopmag.com said the price would about $500 with XP Home and 400 with Linux. Not bad for the such a little gadget with a huge battery (6 cells). I think I could use it for navigation, reading and entertaining. I'm waiting forward it

The announced specifications for the MSI Wind indicated that the Linux one will have a three cell battery.

The Linux Acer Aspire One will be massively cheaper than the Linux MSI Wind.

ibutho
June 19th, 2008, 09:14 AM
I'd thought of getting an eee, but I am going to wait a little while for Acer, MSI, DELL and others to release their netbooks before I buy one.

toster13
June 19th, 2008, 09:25 AM
The announced specifications for the MSI Wind indicated that the Linux one will have a three cell battery.
It doesn't matter for me. I'm pretty sure I'll buy the XP one. I need a navigation system in my car like IGO, Tom Tom etc and unfortunately Linux don't have good software for it :(


The Linux Acer Aspire One will be massively cheaper than the Linux MSI Wind.
The same reason. I'm afraid of XP+Navigation != Acer

gn2
June 19th, 2008, 09:29 AM
I need a navigation system in my car

You only think you do.

People managed for decades without them.

BandD
June 19th, 2008, 11:32 AM
I'm really hoping the Dell will meet all the dreams I have for it. If it doesn't, then I'll propably go with an eeePC.

kaboodle_fish
June 19th, 2008, 12:05 PM
I was going to buy an Eee 900, but after seeing the specs of the Acer Aspire One, I decided to wait for that one.

I *think* that the mouse buttons are on either side of the touchpad on the Aspire One which some people have found awkward to use so it may be worth checking this out before parting with your hard earned

prshah
June 19th, 2008, 12:10 PM
I have an old Fujitsu P5010 mini-laptop, measures approx 8" x 10" x 1.5". It's thick, but I need an internal optical drive. Very happy with it, and very happy with Hardy on it.

mivo
June 19th, 2008, 01:15 PM
The same reason. I'm afraid of XP+Navigation != Acer

There is/will be an XP option too, though only for the HDD-version (80 GB, 1 GB RAM). It costs 70 Euro more (€399 vs. €329), 40 euro of which is for XP (the Linux HDD version, also with 1 GB RAM, is €359).

toster13
June 19th, 2008, 04:57 PM
You only think you do.

People managed for decades without them.

Actually I have IGO on my old HP Ipaq 2210 and it really helps to drive in as big city as Moscow. Now the time to go further. I think a mini-laptop would be good substitute for PDA


There is/will be an XP option too, though only for the HDD-version (80 GB, 1 GB RAM). It costs 70 Euro more (€399 vs. €329), 40 euro of which is for XP (the Linux HDD version, also with 1 GB RAM, is €359).
Are you sure about the price? Euro? Not dollars? Here http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/msi-wind.aspxi read the price would $499

mivo
June 19th, 2008, 06:05 PM
Yes, I'm sure about the Euro prices, sadly. It's fairly normal for electronics to cost significantly more in Europe than in other places of the world. Note, though, that the Eee 900 is going to cost more than the Linux version of the Aspire One, so it'll still be the cheapest offer in the 8.9" category.

toster13
June 19th, 2008, 07:39 PM
Yes, I'm sure about the Euro prices, sadly. It's fairly normal for electronics to cost significantly more in Europe than in other places of the world. Note, though, that the Eee 900 is going to cost more than the Linux version of the Aspire One, so it'll still be the cheapest offer in the 8.9" category.
Fortunately I'm in the US now and I hope this gadget will in stock before my leaving.

mivo
June 19th, 2008, 08:30 PM
I considered importing one (wouldn't mind the US keyboard layout), but there is always the trouble with warranty. It would also have to be done through a friend to avoid the import taxes and VAT. In the end, it's just easiest for me to buy one here in Germany. Still a good deal as long as I do my best to ignore how much cheaper it is elsewhere in the world. ;)

GoldNugget
June 20th, 2008, 05:53 AM
I am writing this on my 701 eeepc. I love it. The complaints about the size miss the point of the ultraportables. I can throw it in my purse and it goes everywhere with me. I have Ubuntu running sweetly on it, with stunning Compiz eye candy.
The slew of new eee clones are suffering from feature and price creep. One of the reasons I bought this is because it was very cheap but very well made. If the price had been another hundred or two, I would not have bought it. For all the newer mini-laptops on the market, none hits the sweet spot in price and portability like my little eeepc.

gn2
June 20th, 2008, 08:25 AM
The slew of new eee clones are suffering from feature and price creep.

Not all of them.
The Acer Aspire One has a much higher specification than the Eee700 and costs the same or less.

mivo
June 20th, 2008, 03:49 PM
The Acer Aspire One has a much higher specification than the Eee700 and costs the same or less.

Did you mean the 900/901? The 700/701 seems to be cheaper than the Aspire One.

I pre-ordered a blue Aspire One this morning. SSD version with 512 MB and Linux. The vendor says they should get the first batch in July, and then frequent deliveries starting at the end of August. It's probably not the smartest idea to get one of the first devices, but oh well. I had planned to go with 1.5 GB RAM, but after the responses here I figured I should try 512 MB RAM first and see how it works for what I want to do with the gadget, If I need more, I guess I can stick an additional gig in myself.

I wish the SDD was larger than 8 GB (the Eee 900 wins here with 20 GB), but a regular HDD isn't what I want, and seeing that my Ubuntu root (minus /home) is only 3.4 GB with a lot more stuff installed than there will be on the Aspire One, that'll do. It also has an additional SD slot (in addition to the card reader) for a semi-permanent storage extension, so getting an extra 4 GB will only cost a few bucks.

So, now it's just a matter of waiting, and hoping that it won't have pixel errors. :)

dnairb
June 20th, 2008, 03:52 PM
I have an Asus Eee PC 4Gb (701) with 2Gb RAM installed and running Hardy on the SSD with /home on an 8Gb HDSC.

I applied fixes from eeeuser forums and it works well enough.

I am looking at other small Linux distros to try as well.

It's easy enough restoring the default Xandros using the supplied DVD, a Windows PC and a USB stick.

Zeotronic
June 20th, 2008, 04:12 PM
I don't know if it's officially a mini laptop, but its kind of like one, so I'll just say yes... I'm planning on getting a Pandora shortly after its release in a couple of months. Basically its a hybrid laptop-handheld (gaming system)... pretty sure its officially a handheld, but whatever.

gn2
June 20th, 2008, 04:24 PM
Did you mean the 900/901? The 700/701 seems to be cheaper than the Aspire One.

No, I meant the 700/701.

In the UK an Eee 700 costs £195 (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/138169), According to reports (http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/20080603552/hands-on-with-the-acer-aspire-one.html), Acer has indicated that the cheapest Acer Aspire One will come on sale next month for £199.

at £4 there's not much price difference, but a huge specification difference.

I want a One but no-one is taking orders in the UK yet.

mivo
June 20th, 2008, 04:29 PM
The Pandora (http://openpandora.org/) looks interesting! Yes, I'd probably consider it a handheld. Reminds me of a PSP with a somewhat usable keyboard. It wouldn't do for even light work, but at the proposed 200 Euro, I might end up wanting one just to have one. ;) If you look at the third picture on the page, it's really tiny -- looks almost like a Nintendo DS.

Thanks for mentioning this!

mivo
June 20th, 2008, 04:42 PM
In the UK an Eee 700 costs £195 (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/138169), According to reports (http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/20080603552/hands-on-with-the-acer-aspire-one.html), Acer has indicated that the cheapest Acer Aspire One will come on sale next month for £199.

That'd be incredibly cheap. The price for the same model in Germany is 329 Euro (£256), or at least that's the price all the vendors list. The Eee 700 runs at 279 Euro (£220). Actually, considering the hardware differences (8.9", 1.6 Ghz, etc.), the Aspire One is still a better deal. But if it is truly offered for £199 (€250) in the UK, that would be absolutely amazing.

gn2
June 20th, 2008, 05:02 PM
Yes, £199 would be an absolutely amazing price when you consider that in the UK the similar specification Eee901 and MSI Wind/Medion Akoya Mini are due to go on sale for £330.

I have seen the Acer Aspire One listed for £229 (http://www.simplyacer.com/Products/cat/ASPIRE+ONE) but that's with an 80gb hard drive and when I phoned that seller was told that the UK prices had not been finalised yet.
We shall just have to wait and see.

I have been wanting one of these devices since Asus said there would be a 1024x600 screen version of the Eee and have been waiting to get one for a while.
The Celeron CPU in the Eee900 put me off, because there was news of the Atom Eee901, then news came of the Acer Aspire One at a much lower price so now I'm waiting for that.

I could wait to see Dell's offering, but there's only so long you can wait with money burning a hole in your pocket!

Soon as the 8gb Linux Acer Aspire One becomes available I will definitely be buying one.

noremac
June 20th, 2008, 06:13 PM
I have an Asus Eee 4G myself. Tempted to look into the Dell netbook coming out soon. But still love my Eee and find it very useful. Ferociously Compact!

violajack
June 20th, 2008, 09:26 PM
I had the eee 701 and loved it, but traded up to an HP mini note. I just got tired of trying to cram my windows into 800x480 and all my stuff into 4G of space. I love the 1280x768 screen on the mini. It's got some issues with Ubuntu right now mostly due to broadcom and ndiswrapper being stupid, but hopefully that will all be sorted out in whatever kernel will come with 8.10. Sometimes I wish for more battery life, but I don't think I would ever be satisfied with fewer pixels than I have now.

markp1989
June 20th, 2008, 09:29 PM
I have an eee 701, white 4gb, upgraded to 2gb ram, added touchscreen, and brought i high capacity battery (10400mAh),

hated the default OS so its running Icebuntu

aysiu
June 20th, 2008, 09:31 PM
I have an eee 701, white 4gb, upgraded to 2gb ram, added touchscreen, and brought i high capacity battery (10400mAh),

hated the default OS so its running Icebuntu
I couldn't get Icebuntu to work on it. I tried it. The live CD seemed to work, but when I actually installed Icebuntu, the Network Manager was acting buggy, and I couldn't figure out any way to fix it. So I just installed eeeXubuntu, and I'm pretty happy with it.

markp1989
June 20th, 2008, 09:34 PM
The Pandora (http://openpandora.org/) looks interesting! Yes, I'd probably consider it a handheld. Reminds me of a PSP with a somewhat usable keyboard. It wouldn't do for even light work, but at the proposed 200 Euro, I might end up wanting one just to have one. ;) If you look at the third picture on the page, it's really tiny -- looks almost like a Nintendo DS.

Thanks for mentioning this!

If that had mobile phone features aswell that would be perfect

markp1989
June 20th, 2008, 09:47 PM
I couldn't get Icebuntu to work on it. I tried it. The live CD seemed to work, but when I actually installed Icebuntu, the Network Manager was acting buggy, and I couldn't figure out any way to fix it. So I just installed eeeXubuntu, and I'm pretty happy with it.

the 2.3 release has a problem with network manager, i think its to do with the change to slim

aysiu
June 20th, 2008, 09:49 PM
the 2.3 release has a problem with network manager, i think its to do with the change to slim
Cool. Thanks for the explanation. Good to know for the future. I'm cool with eeeXubuntu for now.

starcannon
June 20th, 2008, 09:54 PM
Yes I already have one:

5 actually:

I have 2 Asus Eee 4g's, 1 Asus Eee 8g, 1 Asus Eee 2g, and a Cloudbook.

Cloudbook has issues, but they will be resolved eventually.
4g was best bang for buck at the time I outfitted my family with UMPC's

Anzan
June 20th, 2008, 10:01 PM
We have five 4G Eee 700s. Have had Xubuntu running on one but it was buggy. We're trying to get Xubuntu working on a 4G SD card and if it does, will make a few more.

The Xandros full desktop just works. But that's it: it just works. However I use mine every day.

starcannon
June 20th, 2008, 10:07 PM
We have five 4G Eee 700s. Have had Xubuntu running on one but it was buggy. We're trying to get Xubuntu working on a 4G SD card and if it does, will make a few more.

The Xandros full desktop just works. But that's it: it just works. However I use mine every day.

You'll need to custom compile the 2.6.25 or newer kernel with the "dangrous" usb option enabled (sorry forget the actual option name) otherwise if you try to suspend resume or hibernate etc... it will uncleanly unmount the SD card as the reader is a USB device.

There are some excellent scripts available at eeeuser.com that will automate a great deal of the setup process for things like shrinking the UI and installing some of the driver modules. I run a full version of Ubuntu 7.10 on the 4g's and the 8g with compiz cube and a respectable amount of effects turned on (I did upgrade all of them to 2gb of ram), pupeee linux on the 2g (can't upgrade ram on the 2g /sigh), and Ubuntu 8.04 on the cloudbook (upgraded to 1gb of ram on cloudbook, get out your screwdriver and drill, and get ready to void your warranty). I have 16gb SDHC cards in all of the Asus Eee's btw

aysiu
June 20th, 2008, 10:08 PM
We have five 4G Eee 700s. Have had Xubuntu running on one but it was buggy. We're trying to get Xubuntu working on a 4G SD card and if it does, will make a few more.

The Xandros full desktop just works. But that's it: it just works. However I use mine every day.
Instead of standard Xubuntu, you might want to give eeeXubuntu a try.

Ioky
June 20th, 2008, 11:00 PM
i just get a used Toshiba Portege M100, The reason why I get this used Laptop is because:

It is fairly small (compare to the normal laptop)
It has very long battery life. (4 to 5 hours)
It is fairly light about 3lb.

As used: the one I got is fairly enough at good condition, of course with a few scratches on the case, but that is about it, the keyboard/ screen looks beautiful. And it is fairly enough cheap about $300 with shipping. And I think it get upgrade fro the original set up.

12" inch display, 1.2GHz P M cpu, 1GB of ram, 80GB hdd. build-in wireless. It just simply has everything I wanted, With Arch-Linux, can't even imagine how fast it is. That is the kind of laptop I want to use. I don't want to carry a 6lb laptop with all my gears traveling around.

Things I don't like this laptop, the windows xp sticker at the right corner. I really bug me out. haha. Looking for an Arch Linux sticker to replace that, but no lucky yet.

jrusso2
June 21st, 2008, 12:31 AM
They keep getting better so its hard to decide what to get. What I would like is one that has good resolution so you don't have to side scroll on the web.

A gig of memory. At least 40 gigs of hard drive or SSD and price under $500 running Linux.

gn2
June 21st, 2008, 08:16 AM
Looking for an Arch Linux sticker to replace that, but no lucky yet.

These might be quite big, but they could hide some scratches.

http://www.zazzle.com/powered_by_arch_linux_20_stickers_bumpersticker-128978808394303693

stmiller
June 22nd, 2008, 07:47 AM
I've got a 4G black 701 Epc. It's running stock Kubuntu 8.04. All the ubuntu variants seem to work well. (resolution detected OK, sleep/suspend works, most hotkeys work fine, etc.) Just have to compile that darn madwifi driver.

Battery life is about 2 hours.

mivo
June 22nd, 2008, 12:13 PM
Dell's offering, but there's only so long you can wait with money burning a hole in your pocket!

That's my situation, too. I had been interested in the Eee, but felt the screen was too small, both in physical size and resolution. Then I wanted a 900, but it wouldn't be out in Germany before August or so, and then I heard of the Atom CPU, which made me question the Celeron chip altogether. Not to mention that the Aspire One is less expensive.

I could wait another six months, but at that rate I'll never buy one, because there's always something new and better just around the corner. I had the same trouble with video cards when I was still an avid PC gamer.

gn2
June 22nd, 2008, 12:41 PM
Hi Mivo, the Acer Aspire One seems like it will get me voting with my wallet.

I'm a keen PC silencing enthusiast have found that this is taken very seriously in Germany.
I have bought quite a few PC silencing parts from Germany.
One supplier of AMD Energy Efficient CPU's that I found amused me quite a lot, I'm from Scotland so imagine my surprise to find this site (http://www.schottenland.de/)!
At the time the AMD Energy Efficient CPU's were not available in the UK.

Perhaps the German perception of us Scots is that we are careful with our money and don't like wasting it? (totally correct)

Energy efficiency is definitely important, the Atom CPU will be a great step forward in PC silencing.
With an Atom and a flash drive the Acer Aspire One will be absolutely 100% silent.

mivo
June 22nd, 2008, 01:09 PM
Perhaps the German perception of us Scots is that we are careful with our money and don't like wasting it? (totally correct)

Yes, in Germany, Scots are stereotyped as people who are a little "miserly", though while that used to be a tad of a negative image a few decades back, it has become an admired trait over the years and is used in marketing for the promotion of good quality for low prices -- something a Scot would buy, says the marketing machine, has to be both solid and inexpensive. It's common to see Scots in kilts playing bagpipes in commercials. :) A large media chain just recently had a "Schottenwoche" (a Scottish week) with heavy discounts on electronics.

It's terribly cliche, I guess. But rest assured, Scots are actually well-liked and respected in Germany. From what I hear this goes both-ways, too.

hellion0
June 22nd, 2008, 03:13 PM
As far as the topic goes, I don't need a mini-laptop at the present time. Right now, a laptop with a 12 inch screen is compact enough for my uses.

Mr.Auer
June 22nd, 2008, 03:29 PM
Im writing this on an Asus Eee PC 4GB. Got it a week ago, for a travelling companion - have 2 desktops and one very old laptop at home. I have to say Ive been very pleased - its faster than Id anticipated, and even the tiny screen is enough for me - browsing web with Opera set to Fit to width. Im using it with the default Xandros desktop - with advanced mode / KDE desktop, and Ive added some extra repos for stuff like XMMS, F-Spot, Xchat, Transmission and Gftp, Nethack and compiled the latest Pidgin with OTR plugin. So far, I really like it. Its so small its easy to take with you, its silent, has enough USB ports, and the mem card slot is a bonus. The battery could last longer, but I think Ill buy a spare one or a bigger one if they are available later.

When I need superior computing power, Ill use the 64 bit dualcore workstation (Linux of course!) at home. Actually Ive been wanting an Eee since I heard about it - and having a Linux OS by default was the thing that made me buy it. I also got a 3G mobile broadband for it, with USB modem.

SuperStuff
June 22nd, 2008, 04:01 PM
I'm going to wait 9 months for a local with upgrade fever & getting tired of the small screen to sell his Mini Laptop on Craigslist for $125.

gn2
June 22nd, 2008, 04:39 PM
But rest assured, Scots are actually well-liked and respected in Germany. From what I hear this goes both-ways, too.

Definitely. I really enjoy visiting Germany and have toured there on motorbikes many times. Love the place and I have always been made very welcome everywhere I went, even wearing bike leathers.
This is in total contrast to Scotland where many bars and restaurants do not even allow bikers in.

In my city, Aberdeen there is often a continental market and the German produce often sells out.
German goods have a reputation for being of the finest quality, but not always the cheapest, still you get what you pay for!

Any time I come across German people here on holiday here, which is quite often in the summer, I try to be as helpful as possible to them and give them as good a welcome as I experienced in Germany.

ronacc
June 23rd, 2008, 04:49 AM
eeepc 4g with 2 gb ram , xandros on the ssd and Hardy on an 8gb sd card.

mivo
June 26th, 2008, 04:59 AM
They keep getting better so its hard to decide what to get. [...] At least 40 gigs of hard drive or SSD and price under $500 running Linux.

Yeah, that's been my problem. They always get better and I've been waiting for a year or so, and at that rate I'll just never buy one because a better model is just around the corner. ;)

But as I wrote above, the Aspire One seems to be the closest to what I want that's coming out this year. The MSI Wind does look sexy (the display/resolution especially), but it's more costly. I also want a SSD and no traditional hard drive.

Actually, I wish Acer released a 1 GB version with SSD, not just 512 MB and SSD, or 1 GB and a 2.5" HDD, but it is apparently easy to upgrade the RAM to 1,5 GB if necessary. I really just want it for some "light" work (chiefly mail and some text processing/editing, but nothing fancy), playing Go (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_go) online (Java client) and a little web browsing. 512 MB may be sufficient for that. Like gn2 said, in the end we won't be simultaneously running a lot of apps on the device, or do any of the heavier stuff.

As for the poll results, I'm surprised that nobody so far felt that an iPhone or a Blackberry is sufficient for on-the-go computing. I looked long and hard at the iPhone, but it just felt too "phone-y" to me. Expensive, too. (My employer currently actually develops an app for it.) I'm also not the biggest fan of Apple, as unpopular as that may seem in the iTunes and iBook age.

didobuntu
July 5th, 2008, 05:50 PM
I bought the new msi wind (U100) in pre-command .. I hope it will be delivered around July 15th.

Only the XP version was available .. so the first thing I will do is to install ubuntu, my favorite Linux distro .. I hope (and I am sure) the install will be easy since the graphics chipset is the 945 GMS.

archer6
July 5th, 2008, 06:52 PM
As someone who is been using laptops as my main computer for over a decade, I've been a long time advocate of having a few "size classes" of laptops. Now that some very small laptops are becoming avaiable like the eePC and Acer Aspire One, things are getting very interesting. Especially with the advent and implementation of the SSD.

Recently a friend purchased the Eee PC 900 Linux, for himself and a Eee PC 2G for his son. These are quite interesting. I can see the appeal for most users. After looking at these I thought I would wait until I can see and Acer One. Then it occured to me that I'm not saving much in the way of size and bulk as compared to my X60s ThinkPad. I was in one mindset, not even thinking about the ThinkPad until I actually saw the size of these new small machines. Then just as a matter of comparison, we took the two Eee PC laptops and my X60s to my office where I have an expensive and very accurate small industrial scale. At this point the comparison became even more interesting.

With the power adapter and laptop only on the scale, the Eee PC 900 Linux weighed 2.9 lbs, the 2g model weighed 2.6 lbs, the ThinkPad X60s weighed 2.5 lbs. I was shocked as I had (incorrectly) just expected the Asus laptops to be lighter, by a fair amount. The next area we compared is keyboards and this is where the Eee PC really fell short. While it's true that the width of the X60 is 1.9" greater than the Eee, it provides a very solid, 95% of full size keyboard. A very significant difference as I have big hands and I found the actual keys to wobble on the Eee laptops. While the tactile feel of the mechanism is good, the wobbly key caps and the diminutive size were deal breakers for me. Next up the obvious which is an 8.9" display next to a full 12.1 display, which is a huge difference. Also the ThinkPad being .3" thinner, and flat top and bottom, it seems even thinner that is is and easily fits in along with papers or whatever, in a normal briefcase or bag. Also being built from magnesium the case is very rigid without any twisting. Finally as all of you know the X60s is a full functioning computer with a 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, 100 GB 7200rpm HDD. and great battery life. Finally with current prices at $945, it's hard to justify the small difference in price when one looks at that alone. Then once you compare the two computers with the ThinkPad, and factor in the higher quality components, I find the pricing on the current Mini Laptops too high. However that said, they are certain to come down in six months or so, as is typical of nearly all things tech, as the second generation replacements are created.

I will be very interested to try an Acer Aspire One and a Dell Mini Inspiron as those become available. The level of activity in the sector bodes well for some very interesting ver 2.0 models from each of these mfgs.

Currently I'm going to stick with my 14 month old X60s as it's running Ubuntu 8.04 perfectly and doing everything I want. With 2GB, and a 7200rpm HDD it's fast, stable, very quiet and cool running. At the end of the day that's what we all want out of whatever laptop we choose, so at this present moment I could not be happier.

Cheers....;)

SirThom
July 5th, 2008, 10:28 PM
I think maybe one of the micro-laptops could be useful for field data entry or for reporters. I've worked in a few labs where modified palm-pilots are used for data entry, but something like one of these might be useful for some tasks if it's durable enough. Also a reporter could toss it in her luggage and use it to transmit back stories of clandestine work in foreign lands.

gn2
July 5th, 2008, 10:56 PM
In response to archer6, the Acer Aspire One has a significantly wider and better keyboard than the Eee which is widely acknowleged as having the worst keyboard of all the current mini-laptops.
The Linux Acer Aspire One weighs under 1kg and in the UK costs roughly £220 (US $460)
so there's a fair bit of difference between that and your laptop.
The MSI Wind and the Asus Eee900 and 901 are all very much over-priced at £300-320 (US $600-640)

archer6
July 6th, 2008, 03:04 AM
In response to archer6, the Acer Aspire One has a significantly wider and better keyboard than the Eee which is widely acknowleged as having the worst keyboard of all the current mini-laptops.
The Linux Acer Aspire One weighs under 1kg and in the UK costs roughly £220 (US $460)
so there's a fair bit of difference between that and your laptop.
The MSI Wind and the Asus Eee900 and 901 are all very much over-priced at £300-320 (US $600-640)
Agreed! I am aware of the differences, but always interested in the first hand experience so I may judge for myself. I'm looking forward to getting a look at the Acer Aspire One in person to see what it's like. For occasional use, I can overlook it not having a 95% keyboard as long as what it does have is of good quality. I have such a wide variety and selection of ThinkPads that a mini laptop would just be for fun.

Sony used to make an SR66 which would fit in this category perfectly as it had a 10" display, a good keyboard that was approx 80% full size and the dimensions were like the Acer One. I know I had one. It was a great small laptop, but when the word got out of it's excellence most of my friends that wanted one could not buy it because Sony had already discontinued it...duh? Then of course after I owned it a year the display went out, and they could not provide any parts for this model. This ended up being the trend for Sony laptops. Unlike the ThinkPad line where parts are available for years, Sony fails to support the product.

That's why when Sony first brought computers into the US, they only lasted about 9 months, and they killed of the entire US computer operation, as sales did not meet their goals, and they did not have a serious commitment to the market. Then 2 years later they came in with the VAIO model name. They have the capability of designing some great laptops, but after that they fall on their face. I know I've had about 8, every time thinking that well, maybe this time they will get it right. And while certain models are now left on the market longer they still lack any type of decent service and support. It's especially noticeable if one has had a laptop of any brand that is properly serviced and supported.

gn2
July 6th, 2008, 09:25 AM
I have pre-ordered an Acer Aspire One which will be a replacement for my excellent old Toshiba Portege 3440CT (http://www.toshiba-europe.com/bv/computers/products/notebooks/portege3440/photo.htm).
Sadly the USB and sound have stopped working after 8 years of sterling service.
Amazing to think that it cost someone £2000 (US $4000) in 2000 when it was new.
I got it second hand on eBay about three years ago.

The Acer Aspire One keyboard is almost the same size, all the reports I have read and feedback I have received from reviewers is very positive.
The editor of Computeractive Magazine also has a One on pre-order and he has tested them all.
That's good enough for me. :)

archer6
July 6th, 2008, 09:41 PM
The Acer Aspire One keyboard is almost the same size, all the reports I have read and feedback I have received from reviewers is very positive.
The editor of Computeractive Magazine also has a One on pre-order and he has tested them all.
That's good enough for me. :)

Excellent! Thanks for all the great feedback you have provided on this model.

Sounds like you've done a great job with your research. When are these to be released? I haven't seen anything specific, however that said, I could have missed it. I'm always looking to try something new. As much as I love ThinkPads, they are more like a utility for me as I've used them for so long. And that's not a complaint, far from it, but I do enjoy variety and that's why I like to try other brands. Just for fun and variety.

I'm looking forward to your review of this laptop when you get yours. Based on what I have read, it's a very appealing machine.


Cheers!

gn2
July 6th, 2008, 10:22 PM
Mine is due to be released for sale from Play.com (http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/5825940/Acer-Aspire-One-A110L-Atom-N270-1-6GHz-512MB-8GB-SSD-8-9-Linux-NetBook-White/Product.html) on July25th.
(I got mine when the price was still £219)

I haven't heard of a USA release date yet, but reports (http://eeepc.net/acer-aspire-one-gets-official-priced-at-379/) say it will be in the third quarter of this year, so not too long to wait.

Have you seen this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ShPGRQE3qE&feature=user)?

archer6
July 6th, 2008, 10:48 PM
Mine is due to be released for sale from Play.com (http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/5825940/Acer-Aspire-One-A110L-Atom-N270-1-6GHz-512MB-8GB-SSD-8-9-Linux-NetBook-White/Product.html) on July25th.

Thanks a lot for the links, I hadn't seen those. Now you my curiosity is ramped up....:)

moikle
July 11th, 2008, 03:47 PM
Anxiously awaiting Dell's ubuntu-based, mini-inspiron, or Dellee, or whatever they are going to call it.

I thinking that for my needs a mini computer for on-the-road work, regularly docked with the mother ship at home, is about as good as it gets.

Cheers all,

Michael

joninkrakow
July 11th, 2008, 06:50 PM
I thinking that for my needs a mini computer for on-the-road work, regularly docked with the mother ship at home, is about as good as it gets.


Actually, I plugged my wife's eeePC into a full-sized keyboard and mouse, and our 25" monitor at 1200-something resolution, and it was quite the machine! Who needs a bigger computer? OK, so you will also want some external hard drive, but I think it would do well by itself with a little bit of tinkering.

Tux Aubrey
July 14th, 2008, 04:50 AM
I got my Acer Aspire One at the end of last week and, naturally, spent the weekend playing with it.

It now runs Xubuntu with an e17 desktop (via the OzOS metapackages). Wifi is up and running with the latest Madwifi drivers and, with a few tweaks, everything is running fine. Battery life is, as reported, about 3 hours under normal (light) load.

Xubuntu is much slower to boot that the Fedora based lite distro that came pre-installed but runs well once it gets going.

My wife and one of my teenage kids now want one.

Life is good!

geekygirl
July 14th, 2008, 11:09 AM
I have an EeePC 900, it is perfect as a 'go anywhere' extension of my deskop. I run Xubuntu 8.04 on it with the tweaked 'eee' kernel packages, no swap and a compressed /usr folder bringing the whole install to just over 1G.

I replaced my old 'do anything' notebook with a decent desktop and the EeePC and haven't looked back :)

maprx
July 14th, 2008, 12:52 PM
I have add the eee 701 and 900, now I have the msi wind. The wireless does not work. Anyone,can you help here?

archer6
July 14th, 2008, 05:07 PM
I got my Acer Aspire One at the end of last week and, naturally, spent the weekend playing with it.

Congrats on your new Acer!
How about a review? It would be nice to hear your impression of this laptop.

Thanks

Tux Aubrey
July 15th, 2008, 01:27 AM
Congrats on your new Acer!
How about a review? It would be nice to hear your impression of this laptop.

Thanks

I love it! Xubuntu+e17 runs really well, but not as fast as the (Fedora-based) Linpus Lite that comes pre-installed. I will see what I can do to tweak the boot time (currently about 30 seconds). There were a few "gotchas" getting everything to work, notably:

1) You need the latest build of Xubuntu (8.04.1) on a USB stick. Earlier versions don't boot at all. Even so, the installation was very slow (about 40 minutes).

2) The Atheros wireless chip is new and won't run with the drivers in the repos. There is a new modified madwifi driver that works well but needs to be downloaded, compiled and installed. (Pretty straight-forward). Use this "How-To" (http://brunoabinader.blogspot.com/2008/05/atheros-ar5bxb63-on-ubuntu-hardy-heron.html).

3) There is no optical drive but fstab wants /dev/sdb to be a CD - commenting out the line fixes automounting of USB drives.

4) The Linux version (which I got for A$566 with a $99 cashback) has only 512Mb of RAM and an 8GB solid state drive (which apparently has a very slow write speed - accounting for the slow Xubuntu install). It is apparently possible, but difficult, to upgrade both. I invested in a 16Gb SSD card that lives permanently in one of the two SSD drives. There are three USB ports, so additional storage should not be a problem.

5) The screen resolution (1024x600) is not totally "respected" by many GTK dialogs (apps and e17 dialogs seem to be fine). You have to move them around (Alt+leftclick and drag) to get access to the "OK" button. The screen is otherwise outstanding - backlit and very clear.

6) Battery life is a maximum of 3 hours and I am yet to get suspend or hibernate to work.

7) The keyboard, build quality, finish and layout are all excellent. The touchpad and buttons are suitably responsive.

8) The biggest downfall (shared by all umpcs, IMO) is the size and shape. In its black vinyl sleeve it looks exactly like a handbag. I am carrying mine around in an old laptop bag until I can work out a suitably butch way to transport it.
:popcorn:

SarahKH
July 15th, 2008, 01:36 PM
Brought a Asus 701 a few weeks back. Really rather impressive little machine. The novelty has definitely worn off and it's still quite useable; I do have small fingers through which might make a difference on the tiny keyboard.

archer6
July 15th, 2008, 11:04 PM
I love it! The biggest downfall (shared by all umpcs, IMO) is the size and shape. In its black vinyl sleeve it looks exactly like a handbag. :popcorn:

Yes I concur, I've seen a few other UMPCs which when placed in a sleeve do indeed resemble a "manbag" .....:)

Sounds like a great laptop! Thanks for the outline, and enjoy!

noneofthem
July 18th, 2008, 05:11 PM
I am going to purchase an Eee PC 1000 when it's released in Europe. Going to try Ubuntu on it then. Hope it will work...

Midknight8008
July 20th, 2008, 09:12 AM
Just ordered my EEE 1000H to replace my aging X21
(running Ubuntu naturally )

It will be interesting to compare/contrast the new EEE with a traditional X-series. Usage will be for notes at University classes & such.

gn2
July 20th, 2008, 10:28 AM
In the end I gave up waiting for the arrival of the Acer Aspire One on UK soil, when the due date was bumped back to 7 August I cancelled my order.

Instead, I picked up a rather nice Asus F9E C2D 12" laptop for £400, it was one of the last few that was being cleared out at my favourite supplier, Ebuyer.

If I can get a refund for the unused Vista licence it will have cost me just a few pounds more than an Asus Eee901.
Slightly less portable but way more capable.

scottuss
July 21st, 2008, 03:14 PM
I've had an eee 701 for quite a while now. I got it just for the sake of it really but now I can't live without it.

I did try a few distros on there (including my personal favourite Ubuntu) but they just didn't run as well as the default Xandros.

It boots in like 10 seconds to a usable desktop, nothing beats that! :)

:guitar:

P.S I love the default interface even though I consider myself quite techy, I just (no flame war!..) don't like KDE all that much

wersdaluv
July 22nd, 2008, 08:25 AM
In the end I gave up waiting for the arrival of the Acer Aspire One on UK soil, when the due date was bumped back to 7 August I cancelled my order.

Instead, I picked up a rather nice Asus F9E C2D 12" laptop for £400, it was one of the last few that was being cleared out at my favourite supplier, Ebuyer.

If I can get a refund for the unused Vista licence it will have cost me just a few pounds more than an Asus Eee901.
Slightly less portable but way more capable.
Wow. I'm considering that lappy too. I'll see if it's available here and how much it costs here.

cocopuffz
July 22nd, 2008, 08:47 AM
I've bought two asus eeepc 701's for my cousins. Both are nursing students and they love it. It does everything they need on the go. I'm holding off to see if the Dell actually comes in at $299-399. If it does, I'd be interested in as I think the eeepc 901 seems a little expensive. For $549 I can get another Real laptop. Heck, I already have too many machines that I have little justification owning. lol.

If the eeepc 901's dropped back down to the 299-399 range I'd consider them an option again.

OzCDN
July 29th, 2008, 09:25 PM
I picked up an Acer Aspire one last week. The built in Linux really blows (old versions of Firefox and Open Office and very restrictive) so I put Ubuntu on it. There are a few minor issues outstanding with Ubuntu but I am sure they will get ironed out soon ... as it is I can live with them.

I put a 1GB sodimm in the empty slot to give me 1.5 GB RAM ... didn't necessarily need it but it was cheap and gave me an excuse to take it apart.

I am very happy with the performance of the unit. Not a fan of the button locations on the touchpad and the battery life is too low with the 3 cell. Otherwise it is everything I was looking for.

dydige
August 1st, 2008, 08:30 AM
I got the Asus Aspire One, waiting for the extra diskspace and Ram to arrive and will install ubuntu on it when I get them.

worx101
August 1st, 2008, 08:59 AM
Yep, I have an EEEpc 4g :)

joninkrakow
August 1st, 2008, 09:10 AM
Here's a potential game-changer for me. It will be running Ubuntu Netbook Remix!

http://blog.laptopmag.com/details-on-sylvanias-entrance-into-the-mini-notebook#comment-11947

-Jon

jtappin
August 1st, 2008, 03:35 PM
HP2133

I chose that to replace my aging iBook G3 (running kubuntu) as it's compact, but more solid than the EEEPC's and also is the only mininote I've seen that has a decent screen resolution (768 vertically vs. 600 for the EEEPC's).

Pretty good though none of the video driver solutions is perfect.

wolfen69
August 1st, 2008, 04:24 PM
I have an Eee 4 GB with Xandros on it. Tried Ubuntu, but it failed, as did the documentation to get it working.

Generally I'm happy with it, but if Dell or some other vendor offers an affordable netbook with Ubuntu preinstalled, I'll probably ditch this Eee for that option. Xandros isn't fun.

have you tried DebianEeePC (http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC) ? (modified Lenny) it's the best thing i've found for my eee. i did a minimal install and added xfce. absolutely runs beautiful. check it out.

joninkrakow
August 23rd, 2008, 05:38 PM
In the poll, I voted that I planned to buy one this year.... Well, I just did it this past week. I got a slightly-used MSI Wind in white, with Windows XP. I've never run Windows on a computer of mine (other than SoftWindows on my Mac under OS9). I must say, Windows is a MESS! I've never seen such an awkward system for getting things done! As soon as I was able, I downloaded the Wubi installer, and have a wubi install of Kubuntu (oddly enough, however, I couldn't get wifi working under KDE, so I installed Gnome, and am using that). Since I normally run icewm or LXDE, or KDE (on my Mac in X11), Gnome is a bit unfamiliar to me, but it is soooo much better than Windows! I've had no problems getting wifi working (and am not even sure my source-install of the driver is what got it working!) I'm writing this on my Wind in FF, in fact. :-)

Now, my assessment--get it! I am absolutely ecstatic with the Wind. Its only weakness are the punctuation keys on the bottom row on the right. It will take my hands a while to get used to their position. But, IMO, this is the computer I've been looking for my entire life--well, since using my Apple Duo 230, at least. The size is perfect for me. Not too big, and not too small. Setting it up for Linux was actually easier than my Dell laptop. Heartily recommended.

-Jon

ooobuntooo
August 23rd, 2008, 06:15 PM
All these sort of notebooks are shipped with XP where I live.

Warpnow
August 23rd, 2008, 09:44 PM
If you are thinking of putting Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire One with the SSD, think again.

The SSD in it is cripplingly slow, and struggles running all but the VERY lite linux they put on it.

Edit: A solution might would be to put enough RAM into it to boot to ram, or to get the version with the hard drive.

joninkrakow
August 25th, 2008, 09:49 AM
All these sort of notebooks are shipped with XP where I live.

Yeah, mine came with XP, but I used Wubi to add Ubuntu to it. Yes, booting is a bit slow, but once running, it's nice and zippy. I keep Windows because it will probably be necessary to upgrade the bios and various firmware. But otherwise, Windows is a waste.

-Jon

archer6
August 25th, 2008, 05:32 PM
I keep Windows because it will probably be necessary to upgrade the bios and various firmware. But otherwise, Windows is a waste.
Windows is a waste? Yes indeed... I will second that!
Ubuntu has me completely spoiled at this point....:)

oswaldkelso
August 27th, 2008, 08:05 AM
I have an Acer one A150L. Love it. I will change the default os at some point but works great as it is.

Good:
keyboard
newbie interface
large 120gb hd
1gb ram
compiz out the box if you want it
touch pad with buttons on each side
quality feel
price
size
easy to add extra fedora repository's and apps
Linux installed by default

Bad:
newbie interface
battery life ( 2 hours )
size
I've not figured out bluetooth yet?

The battery life is by far the worst thing on an other wise great umpc laptop. Larger battery's are in the pipe.

t0p
August 27th, 2008, 12:56 PM
Yesterday I ordered an eee pc, the 4G one. I've googled around and found a guide on how to install ubuntu from a USB stick, so I'll very likely do that once I've played with Xandros for a while.

I had a laptop before, and I got sick of dragging the thing around with me. But the eee pc is tiny and light as a feather, so I'll probably be fine taking it everywhere. Which is, after all, the whole point of owning a portable computer.

EDIT: it was delivered a few hours ago. A beautiful, pearlescent-white little notebook. I haven't had much of a chance to play with it yet, but I shall remedy that this evening. And I can't wait! I haven't been this excited about a computer since... I dunno, since I was a kid and got my first micro I guess.

sgtslwilson
August 27th, 2008, 08:12 PM
I have the Acer Aspire One (blue) with the 120gb hdd. I plan on putting Ubuntu Ultimate Edition on it very soon. I also have 1.5 gb ram, which required disassembling the entire unit...but not too bad so long as you keep up with what screws go where (they aren't all the same)

dagrump
August 28th, 2008, 12:39 AM
I got an Aspire One w/120 gb hdd & xp home, other than the windows taking up space, it's very handy. I shrunk windows down & installed ubuntu. I cheated I used a usb dvd drive, which I carry in the bag with the computer & 2 usb hard drives. Along w/ other sundry crap(wand style scanner, power supply, & my trusty old rpn HP calculator).
This still shaved a huge amount of weight from my laptop bag (my toshiba is lot heavier, & not anymore useful.)
I haven't got around to upgrade the ram yet (I got a 1 Gb stick to put in it) & if I'm opening it up I'll chuck a 250 gig hard drive in while I'm at it.
I'm sure if the toshiba had feelings they'd be hurt I put the Vista hard drive back in it. That usually means the machine going to be sold when Microsoft goes on it, but I might keep it around to play with. I guess I should learn my way around vista just for grins, but what I seen of it I'm not impressed.

archer6
August 28th, 2008, 04:03 AM
I got an Aspire One w/120 gb hdd & xp home, other than the windows taking up space, it's very handy. I shrunk windows down & installed ubuntu. I cheated I used a usb dvd drive, which I carry in the bag with the computer & 2 usb hard drives..
Clever, very clever....I ran into a chap that had an Aspire One at Starbucks yesterday, it's the first one I've seen in person and I was impressed. I like your approach. Report back if you will, after you've used it for awhile I would value your opinion on the experience.

Cheers!

wolfen69
August 28th, 2008, 06:35 AM
clever? ok. i guess i missed it. explain it to me.

sloggerkhan
August 28th, 2008, 06:54 AM
I want one, but I'm waiting because nothing fits what I want at the moment.
What I'm looking for:

8+ gb flash memory hard disk (prefer 16+ gb)
1 gb RAM
decent CPU (IE CPU designed for netops such as atom)
can play back 720P h264
1024x600 or higher res 9 - 10.5" screen
5+ hours battery (in other words 6 cell, not 3 cell battery.)
$500 or less.

I think Dell's supposedly soon to be released offering might fit the bill, but so far all options have deal breakers.

I like the Asus 901 and 1000 40g but they're a bit too expensive IMO.

The Acer Aspire 1 is nice, but not sure about the touch pad, and only comes with 3 cell battery and 512 mb RAM...

MSI Wind linux versions with linux all have 3 cell battery and normal hard drive

HP's are too expensive and need a CPU update last I checked, not mention saving the decent specs for windows.

.... so yeah... Just waiting for the right model to arrive.

pi.boy.travis
August 28th, 2008, 06:56 AM
I'm just fine with my Dell Inspiron 1520. Plenty O RAM (2G) and a decent processor (C2D) What's not to love?

geekygirl
August 28th, 2008, 06:58 AM
If anyone is interested (and besides thie just being a shameless attempt at blog promotion..hehe) I have finished writing a HOWTO about installing Ubuntu (the full Gnome version) on an EeePC (I have a 900), using the custon kernel written by Adam McDaniel from Array.org

Its pretty much for those people that would rather tweak a vanilla install themselves, rather than use an eee branded reworking of a distro. The only thing I have used was the kernel with the precompiled modules.

Its basically a compilation of what I considered the best install guides and information out there after a few install/reformats of my EeePC..lol

Constructive critism is most appreciated too :)

Link in my sig :)

pi.boy.travis
August 28th, 2008, 06:59 AM
If anyone is interested (and besides thie just being a shameless attempt at blog promotion..hehe) I have finished writing a HOWTO about installing Ubuntu (the full Gnome version) on an EeePC (I have a 900), using the custon kernel written by Adam McDaniel from Array.org

Its pretty much for those people that would rather tweak a vanilla install themselves, rather than use an eee branded reworking of a distro. The only thing I have used was the kernel with the precompiled modules.

Its basically a compilation of what I considered the best install guides and information out there after a few install/reformats of my EeePC..lol

Constructive critism is most appreciated too :)

Link in my sig :)

My brother wants an eee, but the lack of a CD drive is holding him back. . .

sloggerkhan
August 28th, 2008, 07:03 AM
Oh, does anyone know any mini laptops using via Nano?

jezza43
August 28th, 2008, 01:30 PM
I got an Aspire One with Linux 2 weeks ago. Ubuntu installed in place of Linpus, which I found was pretty much useless.
My main reason for getting it was its light weight (My current laptop is extremely heavy) but also so I could learn how to use Linux.

archer6
August 28th, 2008, 07:36 PM
My brother wants an eee, but the lack of a CD drive is holding him back. . .
This was my initial reaction holding me back from purchasing an X60 12.1" ThinkPad which is just 0.5 lb heavier, less than an inch wider, thinner, a bit deeper than an eee and a fully functional laptop which is important for my travel needs. USB external CD drives are incredibly inexpensive. A great solution unless one absolutely needs an optical drive to use weekly while traveling. I purchased an external optical drive to install my software which is about all I ever used it for. But that only applies to my needs. And yet, if I had a need for an optical drive at all times, I would most likely still go the external route as it gives one the flexibility of having a thin and light laptop without the drive in place when not needed.

pi.boy.travis
August 28th, 2008, 09:05 PM
This was my initial reaction holding me back from purchasing an X60 12.1" ThinkPad which is just 0.5 lb heavier, less than an inch wider, thinner, a bit deeper than an eee and a fully functional laptop which is important for my travel needs. USB external CD drives are incredibly inexpensive. A great solution unless one absolutely needs an optical drive to use weekly while traveling. I purchased an external optical drive to install my software which is about all I ever used it for. But that only applies to my needs. And yet, if I had a need for an optical drive at all times, I would most likely still go the external route as it gives one the flexibility of having a thin and light laptop without the drive in place when not needed.

I was thinking of actually sharing a cd drive in one of my other machines. I have done this to quickly burn an install disk that required multiple CDs.

archer6
August 28th, 2008, 09:21 PM
I'm just fine with my Dell Inspiron 1520. Plenty O RAM (2G) and a decent processor (C2D) What's not to love?
Precisely! Well said, a Dell 1520 running Linux is ideal!

I can speak to this as a full blown laptop addict, owner of many brands and models, who has no problem admitting that I have far too many laptops of every conceivable size and shape, just for the "fun" of it. It's like some women's love of shoes. When I take ten steps back and look at my collection I realize that I've got enough (both new & like new) laptops to use a different one everyday for nearly a month. Yikes!

LaRoza
August 28th, 2008, 09:22 PM
I am thinking about getting one of those Dell Inspiron 910's if the rumours about them are true.

I also have a Thinkpad X series in my future. Just how far depends on money.

jespdj
August 28th, 2008, 10:03 PM
I've been looking at some netbooks in a shop this afternoon.

There were several Asus Eee PCs (the 701, 900 and 901), the Acer Aspire One and the MSI Wind. After doing some research, I think the Eee PC 901 is the one I would like to have most. The Eee PC 701 and 900 don't have an Intel Atom processor and are therefore slower and use more power than the 901, Aspire One and MSI Wind.

The biggest advantage of the Eee PC 901 that I see is the battery life; up to 6 hours, much better than all the other netbooks. The biggest disadvantage of the Eee PC models is the small keyboard (but I don't intend to do a lot of typing on a netbook anyway).

For some reason the Eee PC 901 is only available with Windows XP at the moment (and 12 GB flash memory). There's supposed to be a version with Xandros Linux (and 20 GB flash) but at least here in the Netherlands that model is not available (yet). I do not want to buy the Windows model... I know I could throw XP off of it and install Ubuntu, but buying a netbook with Windows is wrong - it will make the manufacturer think that people want Windows!

The Dell Inspiron 910 has no function keys (they are combined with the normal numeric keys). I wonder what the battery life of the Inspiron 910 would be. If it would come close to the Eee PC 901 then the Dell would be a very interesting netbook.

Fredk
August 29th, 2008, 01:25 PM
I have EeePC 4GB - with ubuntu on an 8BGb memory card - but it refuses to close down properly. The power light is left on and it refuses to reboot until the battery is removed and replaced.

jespdj
August 29th, 2008, 01:27 PM
For the shutdown problem, you might find a solution here: https://launchpad.net/niceeepc

t0p
August 29th, 2008, 02:19 PM
I have an Eee 4 GB with Xandros on it. Tried Ubuntu, but it failed, as did the documentation to get it working.


Do you know why? I haven't tried to change the OS on mine yet, but the forums at www.eeebuntu.org certainly give the impression that a decent ubuntu install is possible.

Shack
August 29th, 2008, 02:20 PM
Just got my hands on Acer One 120gt version with winXP. I'm installing Ubuntu on it as we speak.

I love this toy, it's great in size has good display and keyboards. Really portable but I'm still waiting for better batteries for this one.

I think I'll also get MSI wind but I'll wait a little bit with that one.

Limpan
August 29th, 2008, 02:35 PM
I have an Asus EEE 701, 4GB SSD and an extra 4GB SD-card. It runs Debian with OpenBOX.

Does what I want to but it will be hard to resist buying one of those new 9"/10" netbooks. Both MSI and DELL alternatives are tempting.

c2olen
August 29th, 2008, 02:40 PM
I am thinking of getting a EEE/Netbook in the near future, but since this is now a very hot item, and many new products are emerging, I deciced to sit back and wait a while to see where this development is going...

:popcorn:

t0p
August 29th, 2008, 02:59 PM
In my eyes those mini laptops are just good to show off.

Due to their low resolutions and smaller keyboards you can't get any serious work done on them.

How much does a normal laptop weigh? 2 -4kg?

If you can't lift that, well, I feel sorry for you.

It's not a case of being unable to lift a regular laptop. But if you're humping a fullsize laptop round with you all day, as well perhaps as a stack of books or bag of work equipment, that laptop can start to be a bit of a burden. But if you've got an ultramobile notebook, as light as a feather and as small as a postage stamp, it's never going to be tiresome. And yes, lengthy word-processing sessions on the miniature keyboard might seem unrealistic. But short bursts of text editing? Browsing the web to find information? Consulting with colleagues in an IM client? That all seems do-able to me.

Sometimes I have to access websites using the opera mini browser on my mobile phone. Believe me, browsing on an eee pc will be an absolute joy in comparison.

conundrumx
August 29th, 2008, 04:29 PM
Have owned:

Sharp Zaurus SL-5500
Sharp Zaurus SL-C860
Sharp Zaurus SL-C3200
Nokia N810.

Selling the C3200 soon, just got the N810.

pi.boy.travis
August 29th, 2008, 04:41 PM
Sometimes I have to access websites using the opera mini browser on my mobile phone. Believe me, browsing on an eee pc will be an absolute joy in comparison.

Actually, I find the Opera mini UI quite intuitive, although it's nothing compared to Opera's desktop browser. . .

archer6
August 29th, 2008, 06:29 PM
many new products are emerging, I decided to sit back and wait a while to see where this development is going...
Brilliant! A great common sense approach, as there is explosive growth in this area, this new "size category" and I believe the future will bring us a lot of very interesting choices. Having said that I have no where near your level of self control....:) Thus I ordered a Lenovo S10 on the very first day they were posted on the site. They also offered, an eCoupon which lowered the price over $60 for a final price of about $345.00 What truly surprised me was within 36 hours they had sold the entire production run. It will be interesting to see how these perform.

archer6
August 29th, 2008, 07:01 PM
I am thinking about getting one of those Dell Inspiron 910's if the rumours about them are true.
Based on what I've heard recently from a friend who is an exec. within Dell, this is indeed a great model that will be out soon.

I also have a Thinkpad X series in my future. Just how far depends on money.
Just for the fun of it I did size & weight comparison of:

NetBook

1) Lenovo S10...... 9.8" x 7.2" 10.0" 1024x600 LCD @ 2.4 lbs
2) Acer One.......... 9.8" x 6.7" 8.9" 1024x600 LCD @ 2.2 lbs
3) MS Wind......... 10.2" x 7.1" 10.0" 1024x600 LCD @ 2.6 lbs

Laptop

4) X60s ThinkPad... 10.5" x 8.1" 12.1" 1024x768 LCD @ 2.9 lbs

A very interesting comparison. I have an X60s currently running Ubuntu 8.04.1, that is a great full fledged computer with terrific battery life, a Titanium shell, a large 12.1" display and a keyboard that is 88% of full size. Having large hands I find this nearly as good as the full size on my ThinkPad T60. At the end of the day the lines are blurring between Netbooks and Ultra Portables, in terms of size and weight. Netbook functionality being far less than a full laptop like the X60s, one has to decide first what they truly want to use if for....:)

archer6
August 29th, 2008, 07:05 PM
Just got my hands on Acer One 120gt version with winXP. I'm installing Ubuntu on it as we speak.
Congratulations on your new Acer One!
Be sure to check back and give us a report once you have it up and running with Ubuntu, sounds exciting!

Cheers

archer6
August 29th, 2008, 07:09 PM
it will be hard to resist buying one of those new 9"/10" netbooks. Both MSI and DELL alternatives are tempting.
Don't forget to consider the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, it's a great model as well. 10", a large keyboard and Linux friendly hardware in typical Lenovo/ThinkPad fashion.

ahaslam
August 29th, 2008, 09:00 PM
I'm awaiting the release of the Dell E Slim. :)

LaRoza
August 29th, 2008, 09:04 PM
Based on what I've heard recently from a friend who is an exec. within Dell, this is indeed a great model that will be out soon.

Good! I will have to watch out for it. I have to find the balance between a new toy and waiting for them to get the kinks out.



A very interesting comparison. I have an X60s currently running Ubuntu 8.04.1, that is a great full fledged computer with terrific battery life, a Titanium shell, a large 12.1" display and a keyboard that is 88% of full size. Having large hands I find this nearly as good as the full size on my ThinkPad T60. At the end of the day the lines are blurring between Netbooks and Ultra Portables, in terms of size and weight. Netbook functionality being far less than a full laptop like the X60s, one has to decide first what they truly want to use if for....:)

For my next computer, I want something I can carry around very easily. I am also currently restrained by money. So the X models are my first choice, but I was playing around with those new Acer Aspire One's at Circuit City (of all places! They even advertised it was running Linux) and found the concept to be very attractive. The new Dell if it is <400 will be a very good fit for me hopefully.

I hope of course to be like you with all the Thinkpads...

t0p
August 29th, 2008, 09:28 PM
Actually, I find the Opera mini UI quite intuitive, although it's nothing compared to Opera's desktop browser. . .

I agree that opera mini is a great web browser for mobile phones. I was just pointing out that browsing the web with a little device like a phone is always going to be more of a pain than using an eee pc. And I have first-hand experience of both, as I just took delivery of an asus eee pc. They're small, but they're not dumb useless little toys. Though I reckon my eee pc will get a whole lot more usable when I replace the default Xandros OS with an ubuntu-based one.

pi.boy.travis
August 30th, 2008, 04:42 AM
I agree that opera mini is a great web browser for mobile phones. I was just pointing out that browsing the web with a little device like a phone is always going to be more of a pain than using an eee pc. And I have first-hand experience of both, as I just took delivery of an asus eee pc. They're small, but they're not dumb useless little toys. Though I reckon my eee pc will get a whole lot more usable when I replace the default Xandros OS with an ubuntu-based one.


Xandros. . . so thats what is is, eh?

Let us know how Ubuntu works on it!

Motomo
August 30th, 2008, 12:33 PM
About a month ago I picked up one of the acer aspire one laptops installed with linpus linux.

For what I am using it for, which is a bit of web surfing and alot of open office writer and spreadsheet, it works like a charm and would be something I would recommend to someone with similar needs to myself.

I am intrigued though about the new dell netbook that is coming out with Ubuntu and may end up getting on of those and passing this along to my wife or one of my children.

archer6
August 30th, 2008, 05:29 PM
About a month ago I picked up one of the acer aspire one laptops installed with linpus linux.

For what I am using it for, which is a bit of web surfing and alot of open office writer and spreadsheet, it works like a charm and would be something I would recommend to someone with similar needs to myself.

I am intrigued though about the new dell netbook that is coming out with Ubuntu and may end up getting on of those and passing this along to my wife or one of my children.

Thanks for the nice, brief report on the Aspire One with your viewpoints. I've now seen a couple of them and spoken with the owners and all are pleased. The key is to make sure that ones expectations are not out of line with the basic premise of the machine. Late yesterday I spoke with a friend who is an exec within Dell, and while there were no specifics shared, he has now had the opportunity to try it and says he believes they will be a the top of the list along with the IdeaPad S10 as far as performance, functionality and usability regarding keyboard, touch pad and display. All encouraging news. Time line still unknown, but "soon".

LaRoza
August 31st, 2008, 08:08 PM
Thanks for the nice, brief report on the Aspire One with your viewpoints. I've now seen a couple of them and spoken with the owners and all are pleased. The key is to make sure that ones expectations are not out of line with the basic premise of the machine. Late yesterday I spoke with a friend who is an exec within Dell, and while there were no specifics shared, he has now had the opportunity to try it and says he believes they will be a the top of the list along with the IdeaPad S10 as far as performance, functionality and usability regarding keyboard, touch pad and display. All encouraging news. Time line still unknown, but "soon".

Could you have him swipe one for me?

It is just as well they aren't out yet. I need to save a few more dollars yet.

archer6
August 31st, 2008, 08:54 PM
Could you have him swipe one for me?

It is just as well they aren't out yet. I need to save a few more dollars yet.
Having known each other a long time, he is quite candid. Being a Pro-ThinkPad / Pro-Dell guy, he says that this is the best Dell laptop he's seen in the 12 yrs he's been with them. He went on to say that it's the first that is every bit as good as a ThinkPad. Therefore the only unknown is if the production version will be as nice as the pre-production model he has. If it is, the key will be, to be ready to order the moment they are listed on the site, otherwise the same thing will happen, as just did with the Lenovo IdeaPad S10... they were totally sold out within 30 hours of being put up on the site.

LaRoza
August 31st, 2008, 10:14 PM
Having known each other a long time, he is quite candid. Being a Pro-ThinkPad / Pro-Dell guy, he says that this is the best Dell laptop he's seen in the 12 yrs he's been with them. He went on to say that it's the first that is every bit as good as a ThinkPad. Therefore the only unknown is if the production version will be as nice as the pre-production model he has. If it is, the key will be, to be ready to order the moment they are listed on the site, otherwise the same thing will happen, as just did with the Lenovo IdeaPad S10... they were totally sold out within 30 hours of being put up on the site.

If you get any information one when it is released before hand, could you let us all know (specifically, me)?

sloggerkhan
August 31st, 2008, 10:33 PM
Yeah, I've been waiting to find out about the dell, too.

archer6
August 31st, 2008, 10:50 PM
If you get any information one when it is released before hand, could you let us all know (specifically, me)?
Who Me? you want me to be THE source of an information LEAK? ...:shock:

Oh absolutely...;)

Stay tuned boys and girls

LaRoza
September 1st, 2008, 09:29 PM
Who Me? you want me to be THE source of an information LEAK? ...:shock:

Yes, you can have a code name if you want :-)



Oh absolutely...;)

Stay tuned boys and girls
Thanks.

For ulta uncompetitiveness, PM me first with news, so I can try to get one before everyone else.

archer6
September 2nd, 2008, 08:47 PM
Yes, you can have a code name if you want

*Having hired a body guard, signed an NDA, taken self defense training from the FBI, he still reaches out to LaRoza for a secret code name*

OK LaRoza my friend, your assignment should you choose to accept it, is to issue a 6 to 10 character secret agent code name for my safety. And PLEASE no jokes about Bond... James Bond.....:)

sloggerkhan
September 3rd, 2008, 05:17 PM
Well, word is tomorrow's the release date for the dell mini -e 910s!

LaRoza
September 3rd, 2008, 05:25 PM
Well, word is tomorrow's the release date for the dell mini -e 910s!
Hopefully.

http://gizmodo.com/5044142/dell-inspiron-910-gets-release-date-this-friday-september-5th

Circus-Killer
September 3rd, 2008, 05:28 PM
my personal opinion, i dont see the attraction to these mini-laptops. i'm perfectly happy with my laptop.
:popcorn:

sloggerkhan
September 4th, 2008, 01:20 PM
they're on the dell website, click the 'show all laptops' link.

!!!!!!!

It looks like Aspire one AOA110-1566 might be better value for the money, though.

update:
I have ordered an acer aspire one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115498

Even with a minuscule education discount, a dell with 3 hours less battery life would have cost $50 more total.

CrazyArcher
September 4th, 2008, 03:52 PM
I don't have anything against mini-laptops themselves - in fact I give their designers the due credit, but I just can't understand how it's possible to work on a computer having such a tiny screen. I have a ThinkPad with 14" screen, and I feel that it's a bare minimum for word processing or spreadsheet work. What a mini-laptop is good for?

joninkrakow
September 4th, 2008, 04:32 PM
I don't have anything against mini-laptops themselves - in fact I give their designers the due credit, but I just can't understand how it's possible to work on a computer having such a tiny screen. I have a ThinkPad with 14" screen, and I feel that it's a bare minimum for word processing or spreadsheet work. What a mini-laptop is good for?

It's not the size that matters, it's the resolution. My wife's eeePC has only 800x480. I tried it, but decided it was too small for me. My Powerbook has a 1024x768 resolution on a 14" screen. That's all I've used for the past 8 years or so, so, when I started looking at the Wind, I asked myself if I could live without that extra vertical space. On OS X, I don't know, I would have to hide the dock, but I'm used to Expose, so I think I could. On Windows--well, I don't really care--but I doubt it, but with Linux, and careful use of panels (NOT KDE4, heaven forbid!), I figured I could do it. My Wind is now my primary computer, and its super-bright LED backlit screen is beautiful. I did some tweaking of the fonts, and the panel (just one), added some more tweaks to a few program (Firefox is the main one, Evolution is another--I want to try Thunderbird, however, to see if I could improve over Evolution) but to be frank, for word processing, email, web, and even some light picture editing, it's just fine. Gimp is _really_ cluttered though. :-) Don't like Gimp on this. But you would be surprised what you can put up with, when you can carry the computer literally everywhere. This tiny size is just what I've been looking for in a computer since I got my first Apple Duo 230 many years ago. :-)

-Jon

Infra
September 4th, 2008, 06:43 PM
I bought the Asus EEE PC 901 Linux (White). This is an incredible piece of machine if I might say. Running Ubuntu 8.04.1 in it at the moment.

Fanless_Puppy_Fan
September 5th, 2008, 04:01 AM
Acer Aspire One w/ Hardy installed dual boot w/ XP home via WUBI. Had to replace the network manager to get wifi to work, but all goes well now. 1GB, 120GB Best Buy $249 special.

Wharf Rat
September 6th, 2008, 04:59 PM
I bought my wife an eePC 1000 w/XP loaded. She insisted on needing her Aircard and she is more comfortable with Windows.

I can say that the machine is impressive for its size and cost.
However, I have had to resort to two-finger typing and if you are at that point in life where you need spectacles, this machine could be a challenge. I notice that she has been slow to migrate from her old laptop. Although she has not complained about the size, she has complained that the lack of a CD drive hampers her installing software - it does.

I think these netbooks are good for travel and light duty work or where near constant internet access, e-mails, etc are necessary. And, if I traveled more than I do, I would own one for just those reasons. Albeit, I am waiting for better Aircard support in Ubuntu. :(

PHATSPEED7x
September 6th, 2008, 05:17 PM
I would love to get one, but it's going to have to wait until I go back to school. Then student loans can buy me one.

danbuter
September 6th, 2008, 05:51 PM
I looked at them in Best Buy. Blah. I can get a real laptop for maybe $100 more with better specs.

Hilipatti
September 6th, 2008, 06:04 PM
I looked at them in Best Buy. Blah. I can get a real laptop for maybe $100 more with better specs.

Yeah.

Does that "real" laptop weigh ~1.2 kilos? Does its battery last for 6 hours? Which one would you rather carry around with you?

Are these netbooks enough for mobile internet browsing and checking your emails as a second machine? Ahh, you see, that's what netbooks are used for.

danbuter
September 7th, 2008, 12:51 AM
Yeah.

Are these netbooks enough for mobile internet browsing and checking your emails as a second machine? Ahh, you see, that's what netbooks are used for.

Actually, that's what my phone is for.

sertse
September 7th, 2008, 01:24 AM
I just hope support get better for netbooks like they are for normal laptops. That's my main reason for not getting one yet, it seems to be a lot of work needed to switch distros.

archer6
September 7th, 2008, 01:57 AM
I don't have anything against mini-laptops themselves - in fact I give their designers the due credit, but I just can't understand how it's possible to work on a computer having such a tiny screen. I have a ThinkPad with 14" screen, and I feel that it's a bare minimum for word processing or spreadsheet work. What a mini-laptop is good for?
I think you have brought up a very good point here.
First I must admit that I am an early adopter / tech addict if you will. I just love the new developments that appear at break neck speeds in our industry. And yet, I'm also of the mind that newer is not always better, even if I violate that concept on a regular basis (and I do). Regarding this "new category" of Netbooks, I decided to see if I could resiste the urge to buy one just for the fun of it. Especially since I own a perfectly good, less than one year old ThinkPad X60s. Thus one of the very first things I did was to compare the physcial size since obviously the X60s is a full fledged computer. Well, my comparison was quite interesting really. Especially when focusing primarily on display size, footprint and weight. Here are the numbers:

ThinkPad X60s___ Display 12.1" Footprint:10.5 x 8.3"___Keyboard 88% of full size. Weight 2.9 lbs.
Asus Acer One___ Display 8.9" Footprint: 9.8 x 6.7"_____Keyboard 60% of full size. Weight 2.2 lbs.

Thus on one hand it could be aruged that the Acer One in much less expensive, and yet it's so limited in it's usage, that one wonders if there is truly a reason to have of these? Like with every other product there are cerainly some that will find them useful, therefore I'm eager to see what this segment of the market is looking like after a few years.

Cheers!

absolut1983
September 10th, 2008, 02:38 PM
I've done lot of research and ended up deciding to get myself an Eee PC 901. Here's why:

- Eee PC 901

It has the best battery life, Bluetooth, 1 GB memory, WiFi a/g/n and 20 GB SSD

- Acer Aspire One

It's much cheaper, looks better and has a better keyboard than the 901, but only 512 MB memory, 8 GB SSD and a lousy 2 ish hours of battery life (if one upgrades to 1 GB memory, get a memory card and the still non-existent 6 cell battery, the whole gets more expensive than the Eee)

- MSI Wind

No SSD and a lousy battery life? No comments

- HP 2133

It looks great and the keyboard is probably the best among the others, but it's too expensive for a netbook

- Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu Siemens and Samsung alternatives

Disappointing. They all had time enough to come up with better solutions, but none of them did the homework

Asus FTW!

tuxerman
September 10th, 2008, 03:05 PM
Well, I love the idea of having a portable netbook to carry around with me to college, or to the cousins' place far away.. the thought of putting on an ubuntu core + xfce system on it and watching it fly, reading ebooks during city-transit, etc etc are tempting.

If only I could justify a real NEED for it, to my folks.. :)

sloggerkhan
September 10th, 2008, 04:29 PM
I've done lot of research and ended up

- Acer Aspire One

It's much cheaper, looks better and has a better keyboard than the 901, but only 512 MB memory, 8 GB SSD and a lousy 2 ish hours of battery life (if one upgrades to 1 GB memory, get a memory card and the still non-existent 6 cell battery, the whole gets more expensive than the Eee)


You can get a an Aspire one new w/ a 6 cell battery (~7hrs) for $400, with 1gb RAM and 8gb drive, while eee901s still cost $500 for the same thing only with bigger gb flash drive. It's just hard to find the Aspire one model that has these specs.... (AOA110-1566, there's another number for blue. Most vendors are selling the -1295 or -1722 versions which have the specs you mention.) If you can find the 1566 version, though, I maintain that an aspire one is best version of an atom based netbook currently available in terms of price/features because it's basically a 901 with a bigger keyboard for $100 less.

archer6
September 11th, 2008, 03:13 AM
I've done lot of research:

- Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu Siemens and Samsung alternatives

Disappointing. They all had time enough to come up with better solutions, but none of them did the homework
So what did your research reveal about the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, that caused you to determine they did not do their homework?

Your comments and viewpoint are appreciated!

Cheers...:)

donec
September 11th, 2008, 04:40 PM
I have an Linux AA1 (Acer Aspire One).

ubuntp
September 11th, 2008, 08:48 PM
nvm

oswaldkelso
September 12th, 2008, 12:00 AM
I guess it depends where you live

http://www.acer.co.uk/public/page4.do?link=oln56.redirect&dau22.oid=40834&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&ctx3=-1&ctx4=United+Kingdom&crc=1862223825

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspire_One#Pricing

init1
September 12th, 2008, 01:00 AM
Here's one for about $100.
http://gizmodo.com/5047705/hivision-shows-off-sub+100-linux-mini-laptop

archer6
September 12th, 2008, 02:11 AM
Pictures of the black AA1: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/09/acer-aspire-one-onyx-black.html
I prefer the Black by a wide margin. The blue is really a girls color. I'm giving mine to my sister, she loves it.

Megaton
September 12th, 2008, 04:12 AM
I picked up the Acer Aspire One 120gb HDD and 1gb of RAM. I am running Intrepid on it and I absolutely love it. The only complaint that I have is that the battery life is too short, I will have to pick up 6 cell replacement.

richg
September 12th, 2008, 02:07 PM
I have two laptop-s. The first I bought a few years ago is a wireless 9 lb boat anchor with preinstalled Linspire 5.1.427. It has a DVD player application on it so it will remain as is. Ubuntu is too much of a problem for watching DVDs.

The newest is a Asus Xandros EEE 4G PC, a real beauty. It is now my choice for traveling.

I have a desktop with Ubuntu 8.04 for heavy duty work.

Rich

archer6
September 12th, 2008, 07:43 PM
I picked up the Acer Aspire One 120gb HDD and 1gb of RAM. I am running Intrepid on it and I absolutely love it. The only complaint that I have is that the battery life is too short, I will have to pick up 6 cell replacement.
What is your approx battery run time please?

Thank you

sloggerkhan
September 13th, 2008, 02:22 AM
well, my acer aspire one just arived. Almost missed it, a confused fed ex guy was going to the wrong appartment with it when I got home from work/school @ 5. It's much smaller than I expected,which I find funny considering that I measured out netbook sizes with a tapemeasure. Typing isn't bad, so long as I don't type fast, though so far I often hit the plus key instead of the backspace key.

Don't know about wireless and battery life as I haven't had a chance to test them yet.

My biggest pet peeve so far is that when I first booted and set the password, it wouldn't let me use the "!" character as part of the password. I entered something else in twice, but I'm afraid I might have mistyped 2x or forgotten what I chose.

Boot REALLY fast. Currently, I'm only set up to have a dirrect plug in to my cable modem, don't have a wireless router or anything, so I had to plug into the netbook to get online. Also had to power down and power up modem to get it to recognize.

The GUI is slightly annoying in my opinion. It's smooth and it works, but is too limited. I also need to increase font sizes and can't figure out how... I will probably give this a shot for a day or 2 and then try a different OS.

As I noted, build quality seems pretty good, much better than I expected, Still have lots to test and try, but I'm excited. LOL.

blackaardvark
September 13th, 2008, 02:55 AM
I just bought a Samsung Q310 and I'm hoping everything will work with ubuntu.

archer6
September 15th, 2008, 07:41 PM
well, my acer aspire one just arived.
It's much smaller than I expected,
Typing isn't bad, so long as I don't type fast, though so far I often hit the plus key instead of the backspace key.

Boot REALLY fast.

The GUI is slightly annoying in my opinion. It's smooth and it works, but is too limited. I also need to increase font sizes and can't figure out how... I will probably give this a shot for a day or 2 and then try a different OS.

Still have lots to test and try, but I'm excited. LOL.
Thanks for your report.
I think the key with the Netbook class of computers, is to remember these are largely designed for a niche market, and limited usage. Being in no way, designed to be a replacement for a full featured laptop, if one keeps this in mind then I believe the disappointment factor will be kept to a minimum. After all, the main function is WiFi connectivity and web centric use. The minute one uses a Netbook offline, the device becomes very limited in it's usefulness.

I know speaking from personal experience with the different Netbooks I have, it's becoming patently clear to me that I simply do not have the patience for such a limited device. They were fun when new, but after the newness wears off they are simply not for me. Which is not to suggest that there is anything wrong with them. To the contrary, for what they are designed for they are an excellent choice.

That said, when I take ten steps back and look at the big picture, look at my personal needs, and then take a very close look at the specs. They just don't cut it for me. Especially when I have a full blown laptop in my X60s ThinkPad. 12.1" display, 2GB ram, 100 GB 7200rpm HDD, Ubuntu 8.04.1, WiFi, and a form factor that is _very_ close to my various Netbooks. In fact at .8 to 1.0" thick the X is thinner than any of my Netbooks. At just 0.4 lb. heavier than my MS Wind, the weight is a non-issue. At just 10.5" x 8.3" their is not that much difference in the footprint. And in being a bit larger the ThinkPad offers a keyboard that is 88% of full size. The key layout is exactly the same as my full size 15" T60p workstation class ThinkPad. Thus I can type reports or do whatever work I wish on the X60s.

At the end of the day I believe it will be very interesting to see where the Netbook class of computers ends up in a year. Will they morph into more usable machines? Or will they wither away? Fads are always temporary, and this will one interesting form factor / class to follow.

tck
September 16th, 2008, 03:07 PM
I have a medion akoya E1210

slick as hell, have intrepid alpha 5 on it. Needed a deb package from launchpad to get the ralink wifi card working (and its grand now)

also the built in mic does not work, but it did in heron, so just a little quirk there when using skype!

SirReel
October 12th, 2008, 10:14 AM
Hello,
I have just recently gotten the Asus EEE 901 and am very happy with it. Though I have Ubuntu on my Desktop PC, I decided to just keep the default Xandros installation on the Asus.

The screen is large enough to be functional. The keys are small, but one can get used to them fairly quickly at least from my experience. Connecting to a wifi network is straight-forward. I use mine to surf the web, check emails and read PDFs and it works perfectly for all three.

Overall I'm very happy with this purchase. I bought mine off of Amazon.com for $329 with free shipping.

Before I bought the Asus EEE 901, I also had an opportunity to check out the Acer Aspire One. It too seemed impressive, but I picked the Asus primarily for the price. I would have considered the Dell Inspiron Mini, but it seems to have a waiting period on the site of about one month (At least at the time that I considered buying it).

SirReel
October 12th, 2008, 10:19 AM
Hello,
Here is a website wherein someone posts the steps to successfully install Ubuntu on the Asus EEE 901. Although I personally have not installed Ubuntu on mine, perhaps this site may be of use to you should you decide to try another Ubuntu install:

http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/09/01/installing-ubuntu-804-on-the-eee-pc-901/


I have an Eee 4 GB with Xandros on it. Tried Ubuntu, but it failed, as did the documentation to get it working.

Generally I'm happy with it, but if Dell or some other vendor offers an affordable netbook with Ubuntu preinstalled, I'll probably ditch this Eee for that option. Xandros isn't fun.

NintendoTogepi
October 12th, 2008, 11:02 AM
I want a Dell Mini with Ubuntu badly. I will probably get one soon.

Wilburight
January 23rd, 2009, 05:59 AM
Bought a Samsung NC10 in December 2008 - excellent (Windows OS excepted! Expect to dual boot Linux once I get the time)

Rokurosv
January 23rd, 2009, 06:09 AM
I'm not really planning on buying one, instead I'm going for a Desktop PC. If I had to include one in my plans this year I would go for the Samsung NC10, I liked the look it had and it didn't felt too fragile.

thoughtcriminal
January 23rd, 2009, 07:13 PM
I'm looking for something a little smaller than a standard netbook. Something that can be slipped into a pocket, to replace my DAP, PDA, and most of the function of my notebook

So far, the Pandora gaming handheld is looking the best. Offers enough power to be usable for 95% of what I need, but should still get 10 hours of use and be super portable. Can't wait for release.

Family members are looking at getting Dell minis too

fwojciec
January 23rd, 2009, 07:37 PM
I have Samsung NC10 -- it is now fully configured, runs flawlessly, and is fully functional in Linux. That includes various problematic details like fn keys, wifi led with ath5k module, or native resultion in framebuffer console... I'm not sure how it runs with Ubuntu at this stage, I expect that pretty much everything should work out of the box or with simple tweaks. To get *everything* working correctly some kernel patches are still required, but this should be only temporary -- all patches I use were taken from kernel bug reports or kernel mailing list discussions, so things that still don't work like they should are being worked on.

powell
January 23rd, 2009, 09:17 PM
No, but I plan to buy one in the Summer

Haven't decided, but probably the Dell Mini 12

diogenes_3
February 11th, 2009, 12:25 PM
Medion Akoya E1210
Nice little bugger but for the small accu.

Leviathan433
February 11th, 2009, 05:14 PM
I just got a shiny new Dell Mini 12 with Ubuntu pre-loaded. I am in lurv with it. My primary Computer is a desktop running Vista, which was not my first choice for an OS but my girlfriend blah blah blah reasons and such. I hadn't used Linux in a long time and was blown away by the interface.

stopie
February 11th, 2009, 06:03 PM
Dell mini 9

I <3 it....use it more than the 15.4" gateway

Regardless of the buy, you cant go wrong with a netbook

archer6
February 26th, 2009, 02:49 AM
<snip>I just got a shiny new Dell Mini 12 with Ubuntu pre-loaded.
Congratulations on your new Mini 12! How do you like it now that you've had it for awhile? A short report would be appreciated.

Cheers...

Leviathan433
February 26th, 2009, 08:00 PM
Congratulations on your new Mini 12! How do you like it now that you've had it for awhile? A short report would be appreciated.

Cheers...

I love it.

Excellent weight and size. Very similar in proportion to the Air.
Screen Size fantastic for browsing the web. Keyboard spacing is spot on. Plenty of ports in a myriad of styles. Lightning fast with Ubuntu.

The down side -Horrid battery life. My three cell is getting about 2 hours of life. If you need this product to run on battery only for long stints, get the 6 cell. I am not sure if this is just the way I have the power options configured or what?

Omnios
February 26th, 2009, 08:10 PM
I do not have one of these yet but am following the stories on the Commodore one. He he kind of like idea of having a commodore computer again, chuckle.

Any ways my outlook on these devices is that they are a nete toy and I will eventually get one I see more business oriented usage. When pda's first came out they did something simple and did it well allowing the business to leave the office. The potential for mini notebooks are huge if they can do what people want them to do and do it well.

Generally they can fill a nich from social workers to sales men extending the office. What interests me even more is that they can be a good stepping stone towards the elucive paperless office. Getting rid of paper is hard but this can cut paper usage by a very large amount.

This would cound on software and hard ware support.

I look forward to one day sitting at a bus stop, pulling a mini out and using wifi do load the daily papers onto one of these so I can read it on the bus.

Something on these lines may be good with Ubuntu if a proper package can be developed for proper mini usage in that it will be Ubuntu they want.

Fenris_rising
February 26th, 2009, 09:43 PM
I got a second hand eee pc 904HD. It had XP on it which was over run with malware and virii. I put it out of it's misery with an injection of Linux of course :D

regards

Fenris

NintendoTogepi
February 26th, 2009, 09:51 PM
I got a Asus EEE 900A for my birthday a few days back. It's really nice. I've got Eeebuntu on it, runs great!

archer6
March 5th, 2009, 04:47 AM
<snip> Excellent weight and size. Very similar in proportion to the Air.Screen Size fantastic for browsing the web. Keyboard spacing is spot on. Plenty of ports in a myriad of styles. Lightning fast with Ubuntu. The down side -Horrid battery life.
Thanks for the report. Sounds like a great model. I could care less about battery life, as I'm usually always near an a/c outlet. What matters to me is the keyboard, display, and styling. This is one of the best looking netbooks I've seen. Great to hear (although not a surprise) that it's fast.

Cheers...

Orlsend
March 5th, 2009, 07:20 AM
I just Got a Asus eeepc 900HA, Its coming with XP preloaded, but I may just wipe it out and install eeebuntu. It Has a 160GB hard drive and 1GB ram and that fast Intel Atom Processor.

ALL for 290$ at newegg.com

Juwanaxe
March 5th, 2009, 07:24 AM
Got a Dell Mini 9 in January. Came with XP. Ditched that, put on Ubuntu Hardy Netbook Remix and never thought twice about it. I love my netbook. Came with this little tiny bag. I bring it to school and whip out a laptop out of my bookbag and everyone goes nuts on the size.

1gig ram
16gb SSD hard drive (Don't need much memory anyways)

I was originally going to put hackintosh on it, but that was before I fell in love with Linux.

JackieChan
March 5th, 2009, 03:34 PM
I'd like one, but can't fit it into my budget this year.

I'm going to be purchasing a laptop soon, around my birthday in June. But I'll definitely getting a netbook eventually. Not this year, not next year, but I will be getting one. They're great for travel and more convent to take to public places. It'll be very useful when I travel out of country.

Flag
March 5th, 2009, 03:38 PM
Acer Aspire One
Asus 900 linux version

celticbhoy
March 6th, 2009, 12:54 AM
Aspire One 120G (Linpus Linux version)

Dual booting with ibex, XP running as a virtual machine wirth its own partition.

Customised to the hilt - works like a dream.

PhoenixMaster00
March 8th, 2009, 07:35 PM
Does a Pandora count :P got one on preorder gonna use it for note taking at University (or gaming if the lecture is boring)

Then im gonna wait for a decent ARM netbook to come out because the prototypes look pretty slick and have very long battery cycles (6 to 10 in some cases). I had an Acer Aspire One but i just didnt like it, infact i bought an XP one for my GF and a Linux one for me. In the time it took for me to set up the Linux one and connect to the internet the XP one had just got to the XP logo saying it was loading up installation process... Now my gf uses the linux one and i took the XP one back.

Efros
July 22nd, 2009, 07:06 PM
Asus EeePC 701 8G SSD and 2GB DDR2, bought it for $149 from Toys 'R Us all of all places!

Swagman
July 22nd, 2009, 07:38 PM
Asus EeePC 701 8G SSD and 2GB DDR2, bought it for $149 from Toys 'R Us all of all places!

YEah.. I saw the 701's with Linux at our Local Toys R Us and they are a good price.

I've already bought two for my daughters

:-(

Matthewthegreat
July 22nd, 2009, 07:48 PM
I've got a eeepc 901 with eeebuntu 3.0 on it.

moster
July 22nd, 2009, 07:49 PM
Acer aspire one. Intel atom, 1 GB RAM, 10" screen. XP come with it. Removed. Ubuntu, wlan atheros wlan do not work. Bad luck. Windows 7 professional, suprisingly work on that slow machine. I am little disappointed in linux speed. Win 7 seems faster and more responsive. When I copy from USB 26MB/s on that machine, I can still surf or do something else in not so visible slowdown. My Ubuntu PC is several times more powerful and feel sluggish under same circumstances :( I sometimes feel ... sadness.

azangru
July 22nd, 2009, 08:05 PM
I've got a eeepc 901 with eeebuntu 3.0 on it.

Me too. Isn't it simply fantastic? :P

xe1ufo
July 23rd, 2009, 12:46 PM
I have the Acer Aspire One (8.9 inch screen. There is now also a 10-inch version.) with 1 Gig of RAM. I replaced the factory 120-Gig hard drive with a 500 Gig drive. I added (all obtained via Ebay):

--9-hour battery (I do a lot of travelling and also many times do 5-8 hours a day teaching seminars).
--Touch screen kit, which also adds two internal USB ports.
--Subminiature usb Blue Tooth adapter installed in one of the new internal USB ports.
--Keyboard membrane protector
--Screen protector.
--Cigarrette lighter power adapter for the car.

I also have an external miniature Sony CD/DVD recorder.

I have it set up to dual boot Ubuntu 9.04 (By adding the kuki kernel, everything including WIFI works just fine. See http://www.kuki.me/), and Windows XP. I feel it is fairly fast on XP and much faster on Ubuntu. I am considering upgrading the RAM to 1.5 Gigs.

One thing I DO NOT like about Acer laptops in general: Very low audio volume on the built-in speakers. Fine for headphones, though. The HP mini notebooks are better in this department.

My 2 pesos' worth of opinion.:D

[EDIT] I have now upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10, the normal desktop edition. Tried the Netbook Remix version, which worked o.k., but I didn't like its menue system. The 9.10 no longer requires kuki. All periperals on the Acer Aspire One are working out of the box.

Dr. Steve, central old Mexico

teh603
July 23rd, 2009, 02:13 PM
I got an Acer Apire One ZG5, running Ubuntu Desktop. No UNR here- I don't want people thinking I bought an overpriced oversized palm pilot.

RaverWild
July 23rd, 2009, 02:41 PM
I was dreaming of Eeepc 900, but after i saw it live in a store and tried the keyboard it was horrible - couldn't type anything without typing accidentally a neighbour key - just too small keyboard.

It's long time as i wanted a small laptop to run full blown OS. Having to carry a 15" machine in a case/backpack across the city is a nightmare. 3kg just the machine. Adding the power unit and other stuff makes about 5kg. Not applicable for me. Hate it.

Finally i bought an Acer Aspire ONE A150 model with Windows XP, which i hold just in case i might need something that i want to run on pure windows. The machine is wonderful. Keyboard is great. Screen is wonderful. I am very happy with Acer laptops (had two more 15" machines).

First tried Jaunty Netbook remix - it's great, but not for me. I wanted to have a linux installed the normal way.

The only thing i am unhappy with my Aspire One, running Ubuntu Jaunty currently is the kernel panic i sometimes get often, but as i checked this is because of the madwifi driver i use. I also havent yet managed to use the right card reader, but true i also haven't tried to.

I would recommend Aspire ONE + Ubuntu for everyone asking.

What i would ask to be considered from developers is:

At the moment i installed Ubuntu, there were only the netbook remix available on usb images. The desktop version was available on iso only. As i was using only the windows on my AspireOne, that time i didnt figured out how to make an iso to usb as there was no windows converter available. Finally i happylly ended on pendrivelinux.com - they saved me already twice. Thanks they exist.

So would be nice if on the ubuntu official site there is a simple way explained how to make an iso to usb on windows environment. Keep in mind netbooks dont have cdrom to boot from.

Regards

KegHead
July 23rd, 2009, 03:23 PM
Hi!

I have a Dell mini 9, runs perfectly.

KegHead

markbuntu
July 23rd, 2009, 09:56 PM
I have been through a bunch of laptops but battery life was always a huge issue. 2 hrs max just made them such a pita. I hated having to use them.

Now I have an Aspire One AOA150. Ditched windows and put Kuki on it. I can use it all day with a 9 cell battery. It will suspend for a week. Finally, something that does what I want, small fast and no worries about the battery dying at critical moments.

Efros
July 24th, 2009, 11:38 AM
Just installed eeeXubuntu on my EeePC 701SD, works much better than the bundled xandros distro.

Tristam Green
July 24th, 2009, 01:02 PM
Bought an Acer AspireOne AOD150 two weeks ago.

Still using Windows XP on it and it's enjoyable. Considering putting Mandriva, Xubuntu, EasyPeasy or Crunchbang on it very soon, after I build a restore disk.

Easy to use, form factor takes getting used to, but for my purposes and especially while I was in a hotel all last weekend, it is great for conferencing and general internet needs a la blogging/networking.