[GRLUG] Netbook OS (was: The battle of the distros)

[Marissa Hogue]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 10:53 AM, Topher <topher at derosia.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Nov 2008, Colin Vallance wrote:
>
> > So while we're on the topic of distro nitpicking...
> >
> > Has anyone bought/used any of the "netbooks" that are out?  I'm
> > thinking hardware like the Acer Aspire one and the Asus Eeepc.  If so
> > what do you think of their custom tweaked linux distros and have you
> > swapped them out for something else?
>
> The same week I got this HP2133 we got one of the eee 2G Surf models.  My
> lackey put ubuntu-eee on it, but it was hard.  Only the very latest
> version will fit in 2G, and then only with no swap and ext2 as the
> filesystem.
>
> She also tried the netbook remix the ubuntu-eee folk made up, but she far
> preferred plain Enlightenment.
>
> The 2G eee is way too small for just about anything really, in every way.
> The larger eee's (900 etc) still seem to have the micro-keyboard the 700
> series has, and it's really not that nice to work on.  The HP's keyboard
> is close enough to regular laptop sized that I didn't have to "adjust" my
> typing at all.


Lackey here.

Just expounding on what Topher said about the EeePC. I installed Ubuntu Eee
(screenshot here: http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/wiki/images/UbuntuEee8041.png),
which is obviously designed specifically for the Eee, but 2G wasn't even
enough to start a gui session after the install (with ext2 and no swap
partition). I had to run a failsafe terminal session, and remove some heavy
packages to free up enough space. Fun stuff. I installed enlightenment, and
planned to remove Gnome as well (groan), to lighten the load. Ubuntu Eee's
Gnome spin-off was like, Ubuntu for dummies. There would be virtually no
learning curve coming into it as an ex-Windows user. Kids would love it,
it's bold, shiny, and painfully simple. I think for the occasional bus or
plane ride, I'd find it refreshing to just pop it open and have all the
important stuff one click away (on the Favorites screen). For daily use,
though, I like to keep everything tucked away in a hidden menu.

I think the keyboard alone would stop me from getting the EeePC for myself.
I have small fingers, but the keys were just too tight. I get to use the
HP2133 for the first time tomorrow, so I think the advantages of that over
the Eee PC will become more apparent. Topher's OTHER lackey (how does he
rate, you may wonder) didn't have many complaints about the HP, except that
it got really bogged down when trying to print a 3 page email, running just
Firefox, Pidgin, and Thunderbird. But we were using it all day as a printing
station, so maybe it was just tired.

I'm also relatively new to the list, and you won't see me posting much,
because I'm not really an expert in anything, and also I'm a girl, and what
do chicks know about Linux, right? ;-)

Marissa



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