Alright netbook buying time, I am gonna buy one but question is: what brand?
Having linux preinstalled is not a must in this as I intend to dual boot this netbook anyhow, so having windows as the main OS dont bother me in this choice as we all well know its easier to install linux after windows then to install windows after linux.
I am only dual booting for work purposes, and will only use the windows side for work (lousy pro MS company I work for grr)
So again I ask what brand should I get?
Argh forgot the poll!
with no dvd player in these netbooks, how will you install a linux partition for a dual-boot?
PXE or USB booting perhaps?
Hi
My ASUS 1000HE rocks along quite nice, it’s got the atom 280 CPU (has
HT and faster CPU/FSB), everything works out of the box for me, but I
see some models have different atheros wireless cards 
I upped the
memory to 2GB and changed to 160GB HDD to a 250GB SATA one I had here
on another machine (VIA Artigo).
It boots from SD card, runs dual monitors if required, webcam works,
bluetooth (one of my requirements), intel graphics runs fine with dvd
playback, flash loads the thing up, but it’s ok. HDTV via usb dvb-t
along with smplayer works fine for all the free to air channels in this
area.
I can get about 8 hours of operation on battery for general use, web,
email etc.
I already had an external CD/DVD drive to connect, but an 8GB SD card
with a dd’ed image will boot.
I recommend fronting up with a live distro on a USB key or SD card, so
you can try out in the store. I would also investigate the CPU’s in
potential netbooks. Mine came with XP Home, so I guess you would need
a PRO version of some kind…
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 2 (i586) Kernel 2.6.33-rc7-3-default
up 1:52, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.11, 0.22
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 195.36.03
I am happy with my Acer Aspire One, except for the endurance of the standard battery pack (there is a better one available now). It came pre-installed with Linux (XFCE) and because it worked (including wireless) I decided not to install SUSE but instead beef it up a bit using yum.
I have a USB hub I can use, or use Wubi.
I would personally go with ASUS but thats just me.
I would choose Samsung, one of the brands that I trust most.
I looked all over the Acer website and did not see any options to order with Linux. Only Windoze. Can you point me to an URL that shows these netbooks available with Linux rather than Windoze?
Thx!
socref
Which netbooks have the longer battery life (and is still compatible with Linux)? Is there a comparison somewhere?
I’m getting sick of my 20 min battery life on my laptop, plus later releases seem to like keeping the fan going all of the time (which may be in part why the battery life is so miserable, plus that it is reportedly “old or broke” with 20% capacity. Ugh…)
Hi
I get between 5-7 hours on my ASUS 1000HE depending on load… running
eee-control keeps the fan/system quiet as. I have taken to not running
with desktop effects as well which I’m sure helps.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.32.24-0.2-default
up 1 day 17:01, 2 users, load average: 0.10, 0.12, 0.09
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 260.19.21
I could use a 5+ hour lasting system. I play Dungeons and Dragons and a lot of the books I have in PDF format. We usually run for 5 or more hours during a night and I’d rather be able to keep from having to plug the system in.
The Google Chrome OS notebook is supposed to have an 8 hour life span.
To help extend the battery life, can also store log files into RAM and reduce the number of writes to the hard drive (fewer moving parts = less energy used). I found this article and have tried it on my laptop systems. It helps, just note that openSUSE uses syslog instead of sysklogd mentioned in the article. Move your logs and temp files to RAM and watch your portable fly!
I would recommend staying away from netbooks based on the Intel Atom Z520 and GMA500 (aka Poulsbo) graphics chipset.
These devices are typified by their 1.3GHz CPU clock speed (as compared to the 1.6GHz CPU clock speed of many other netbooks).
The GMA500 graphics chipset is poorly supported by recent GNU/Linux distributions due to some Intellectual Property and X.Org compatibility issues which have resulted in stagnation of graphics drivers.
Be aware that many netbook manufacturers have one, or more, models based on this technology in their product range - so shop with care.
Try this company
ZaReason, Inc. :: Laptops, Desktops, Servers, and Peripherals Designed for Ubuntu Linux
That is, if you don’t want to grab from the table.
I have an EeePC. It came with a linux distro installed, 1gig ram, 4gig ssd, Intel Atom N270 processor and intel graphics. I upgraded the ram to 2gig and ssd to 16gig. I also have an 8gig SD in the slot.I bought an external usb CD/DVD writer for openSUSE installation. I then added a 300gig external usb and installed Virtual Box and Windows XP. Ham Sandwich! Windows and Linux running together with dual monitors. One for Linux the other for Windows. Performance is fair. I preferred the N270 as I could allocate memory to the graphics chips. The N470 processor has the graphics chips tied to it and is not a good set up as far as I’m concerned.
This got me curious. So, I bought an Intel Atom 330 64bit, dual core, hyperthreading, Nvidia ION graphics itx board. I striped two 150gig 2.5 HDs for speed, added 2gig, an PCI wireless NIC, usb CD/DVD RW, usb floppy all in an Antec mini-skeleton case. It is a blast! Again, I have Windows running under Virtual Box and SUSE 11.3. I’m quite surprised by this little buggers performance. I watch HD movies on a 50" DLP TV with increadible clarity, definition, and smooth frame run.
Now I’m really curios! An AMD 6 Core Phenom processor, 8gig of ram, wireless N, two 1Tbyte drives striped, SUSE 11.4, in an Antec Skeleton case. Hmmm, now if I only had the money! Please send you charitable donations to…
“have a lot of fun”
Master Rod