[GRLUG] Eee PC

[John-Thomas Richards]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 10:10:23AM -0400, David Wise wrote:
> I have a friend with an EeePC 900 that I am considering picking up for my
> wife. It originally came with Windows XP, but has been running Kubuntu for
> some time now. I'll be wiping it and starting from scratch and am wondering
> what the desktop environment or even distribution of choice is around here.
> I am most leaning toward installing LMDE, but I am open to changing that
> with the right arguments.
> 
> I'm really looking for something with a decent amount of polish, but
> preferably a relatively light footprint. I just saw Ubuntu Netbook remix
> with the Unity desktop (whatever that is) and it looks quite intriguing. I'm
> just kind of shying away from Ubuntu since I'd rather not have to reinstall
> every six months.

My wife has an Acer Aspire One netbook.  My experience with it is Debian
is substantially faster than Ubuntu on it.  LMDE is a really good
choice.  It has the polish I think you are looking for without the cruft
of Ubuntu.  I really think LMDE is what Ubuntu was supposed to be: an
easier Debian put together for the desktop.

> It's an older EeePC 900 with I believe a celeron Mobile processor and an 8GB
> SSD, but it has been upgraded to 2GB RAM. On second thought, is this even a
> decent deal for $100?

The RAM will be a huge help.  The SSD is decent.  With USB storage it
should be a fine system so long as you realize the limitations (video
playback will be meh, etc.) of the platform.  Netbooks aren't just
smaller, lighter laptops; they're a different breed altogether.
-- 
john-thomas
------
I have studied it often, but I never could discover the plot.
Mark Twain, author and humorist, on dictionary (1835-1910)

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