Joining the Netbook world

Thursday, October 1. 2009

I may be a slow adopter but I've finally jumped on the Netbook bandwagon.

I've been toying with the idea of getting hold of one of these beasties for a little while, and today a deal on Zazz! came up I couldn't resist.

They have the Asus Eee PC S101 for an amazing $444AUD. I'd seen them around the $999 price tag only as recent as March this year. (I think they are $599 RRP currently).

So in went my order.

Now -- what Netbook distro should I run on it (Windows XP Home is coming off immediately when it arrives).
I've looked at gOS and the Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Any ideas/thoughts on the preferred Linux OS to run on such a beastie are greatly welcomed!

Posted by Matt in Hardware, Linux at 12:51 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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I have an Aspire One, and it's using vanilla Ubuntu. After some tweaking to only use one panel, reduce the icon/font sizes, and reduce firefox's footprint, I think a full-blown distribution works quite well on a 10" screen.

I have tried the netbook remix on my mum's Eee701, though, and it is pretty sweet.

#1 Peter (Homepage) on 2009-10-01 14:38 (Reply)

For something a little different, try Flux Flux!

http://fluxflux.net/fluxflux-eee/index-en.html

It really flies on my 701SD (not sure about the S101).

Josh.

#2 Josh on 2009-10-02 16:37 (Reply)

I'm running UNR on my Acer Aspire One and it's awesome!

#3 Skywalka (Homepage) on 2009-10-02 20:51 (Reply)

I'm running the Alpha release for Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10. It's just astonishingly good: a complete answer to the criticism that open source software has poor user design and is 80% finished. When Karmic Koala is released I'd recommend it.

Before that I was running Windows Xp on my EeePC 901. It was a major fail: mysterious slow-downs all of the time. Worst of all was all the nagging: pop-ups saying virus databases needed refreshing, or updates applying or whatever I don't need that when I'm giving presentations to a few hundred people. Sometimes the box would mysteriously lock up during booting.

In contrast Ubuntu has been solid for alpha software. There have been two issues during the alpha period, both of which stopped the box during booting. Both fixed in updates a day later. I'm thinking that the released software is going to be very solid.

Two things that caused trouble. (1) Evolution still doesn't play with Exchange well. It will at least now play, but it's agonisingly slow. (2) The IPsec XAuth VPN used by my employer required a huge amount of command line foo. In contrast the Cisco VPN they used before was supported from Network Manager.

Two things I expected to cause trouble, but didn't. (1) Using a mobile Internet USB stick. (2) Using a Bluetooth mouse (handy for giving presentations).

#4 Glen Turner on 2009-10-02 23:09 (Reply)

Moblin!

#5 danni on 2009-10-03 07:18 (Reply)

Moblin is fun if you want an interface that's um... simplified. Don't get me wrong, I like Moblin but it may not be useful for someone who wants a bit more flexibility.

I have Ubuntu Karmic Netbook Remix running on an EeePC 1000HA and it is quite simply amazing. The UI suits the screen nicely and I can still do almost all of the things I can do on my bigger machines.

#6 mike carden on 2009-10-03 15:38 (Reply)

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