netbook + Linux: please help
Monica Borg
Hello,
I am contemplating purchasing a relatively cheap netbook
that I can carry around with me. I have been contemplating
the following models:
Asus 1005HA 10-inch Netbook
£269.99
Sony VAIO W12S1EW 10.1-inch Netbook
£379.39
HP Mini 110-1115SA Black Swirl 10.1-inch
£278.97
I would like to know which one of these would be best for
running a dual system with Linux. I know the Sony has
a better screen quality which is why it is somewhat more
expensive I think. The Asus and the HP are about the
same (lower screen quality than the sony vaio) but the
asus has no blutooth while the HP does (but for whatever
reason I found no rating on amazon for the HP).
Well, so I am not sure which one is best. Any suggestions
as to strength and weaknesses of these laptops especially
with regards to running Linux would be appreciated.
Thanks,
John Goche
ray
I can only relate our personal experience. I got an Asus eeepc for my
wife for Christmas last year. This was purchased from bestbuy.com. It's
one of the very elementary models - 4gb solid state disk - 1gb RAM and
ATOM processor. It came with a brain damaged xandros Linux in place.
Neither one of us cared for the interface etc. so - I installed Debian
from the instructions at the Debian eeepc wiki. It was a piece of cake.
Put the basic net install ISO on a flash drive and installed. Everything
worked out of the box - including the wireless that worked from the
moment we booted from the flash drive. After installing, doing updates
and a little cleaning, there is about 1.6gb left free on the SSD. I've
also added an SD card which is permanently installed (as far as I'm
concerned) and contains the /home directory.
IMHO - your best bet is probably to get a netbook with some version of
Linux installed.
Darren Salt
> that I can carry around with me. I have been contemplating
> the following models:
> Asus 1005HA 10-inch Netbook
> �269.99
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Model/1005HA
> Sony VAIO W12S1EW 10.1-inch Netbook
> �379.39
> HP Mini 110-1115SA Black Swirl 10.1-inch
> �278.97
Couldn't say...
> I would like to know which one of these would be best for running a dual
> system with Linux. I know the Sony has a better screen quality which is why
> it is somewhat more expensive I think.
That and the name, I suspect.
> The Asus and the HP are about the same (lower screen quality than the sony
> vaio) but the asus has no blutooth while the HP does (but for whatever
> reason I found no rating on amazon for the HP).
Bluetooth can be added easily enough and cheaply enough, though I do agree
that built-in is better. (It'll be a USB device either way, though.)
> Well, so I am not sure which one is best. Any suggestions as to strength
> and weaknesses of these laptops especially with regards to running Linux
> would be appreciated.
Well... no serious problems with my 901 at present. I don't say no problems:
I'm running somewhat closer to the bleeding edge than you'll probably be
doing.
--
| Darren Salt | linux at youmustbejoking | nr. Ashington, | Doon
| using Debian GNU/Linux | or ds ,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + http://www.xine-project.org/
You will step on the night soil of many countries.
Jerry Peters
Similiar situation only with an Acer Aspire 1. The preinstalled Linpus
was a PITA so I installed my custom laptop Slackware on it. Had to
rebuild the kernel to set some special settings for the AA1 but
everything works nicely.
I did add 1GB of ram to the measly 512MB that came with the machine.
Jerry
Frank Steinmetzger
>
> Hello,
>
> I am contemplating purchasing a relatively cheap netbook
> that I can carry around with me. I have been contemplating
> the following models:
>
> Asus 1005HA 10-inch Netbook
> £269.99
>
> Sony VAIO W12S1EW 10.1-inch Netbook
> £379.39
>
> HP Mini 110-1115SA Black Swirl 10.1-inch
> £278.97
I presume the Vaio has a fairly good quality, but Sony is know for bad
service. Can't tell much about the rest though.
In case this is of relevance to you: the Samsung N-Series has a non-glossy
screen. The N140, over the N130, has internal Bluetooth and stereo speakers
and, most importantly, they have a superior battery life of about or even
more than 9 hours. Also, in the Euro-zone they're cheaper than competing
models of other vendors, which might be true on the Island as well.
--
Gruß | Greetings | Qapla'
Think I can't do it? I'm not half as smart as you are!
Joe Pfeiffer
I can't speak to the N130 or N140, but my N120 has a screen that could
be used as a mirror. It is one of very few things I really don't like
about it.
--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)
Dan C
I've got the Compaq version of the HP Mini-110 (same hardware with
different logo), and it works *PERFECTLY* with Linux. Wired ethernet,
wireless, sound, webcam. All work great. I really like this little unit
a lot.
--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he wiped the vomit from his chin.
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
Michael Black
> Similiar situation only with an Acer Aspire 1. The preinstalled Linpus
> was a PITA so I installed my custom laptop Slackware on it. Had to
> rebuild the kernel to set some special settings for the AA1 but
> everything works nicely.
> I did add 1GB of ram to the measly 512MB that came with the machine.
>
I've wondered why the netbook companies have chosen those oddball
Linux distributions. There doesn't seem to be an advantage other
than obscurity, but they lose by not having a familiar distribution.
What I found odd about the Aspire One was that some games are included,
but they are actually crippled "testware", ie if you really want to play
the games to the full outcome, you have to pay the developer. I'm not
sure why they tossed those in, the good distributions include things
like Mah Jong so it seems silly to put on a version that can't be
played fully.
And I was surprised by how much space was used up by the install.
Surprised because there wasn't a full sleight of programs, and yet
the default install for the Aspire One used up more permanent
storage than when I installed Slackware 12 on my main computer (well,
minus the server packages). I'm not sure where the space went
when they don't include things like lynx or pine.
Michael
Joe Pfeiffer
>
> I really, really dislike glossy laptop screens, and I'm very glad mine
> has a matte finish. A glossy screen would be, if not a dealbreaker,
> then a significant mark against a lapdog under consideration.
(having mentioned my Samsung N120 earlier...)
I agree completely. But the combination of the tiny formfactor,
full-size keyboard, and speakers next to the screen outweighed the
glossy screen and lack of optical drive for me.
Jerry Peters
I suspect they're after an easy to use distribution with a small
footprint, especially for the AA1's with SSD, like this one.
Before I tossed Linpus I found that deleting all of the fonts that
came with it that I didn't need freed up a significant amount of
space.
Jerry
ray
I suspect it has more to do with using a dumbed down interface so folks
will get the idea it is a toy whereas they need a 'real' laptop to do
anything very serious.
John Thompson
> I am contemplating purchasing a relatively cheap netbook
> that I can carry around with me. I have been contemplating
> the following models:
>
> Asus 1005HA 10-inch Netbook
> £269.99
>
> Sony VAIO W12S1EW 10.1-inch Netbook
> £379.39
>
> HP Mini 110-1115SA Black Swirl 10.1-inch
> £278.97
>
> I would like to know which one of these would be best for
> running a dual system with Linux. I know the Sony has
> a better screen quality which is why it is somewhat more
> expensive I think. The Asus and the HP are about the
> same (lower screen quality than the sony vaio) but the
> asus has no blutooth while the HP does (but for whatever
> reason I found no rating on amazon for the HP).
I just bought an Acer Aspire One (10" screen, 160GB HD, built-in
wired/wireless ethernet), upgraded it from 1GB RAM to 2GB and installed
Xubuntu on it. Everything works fine, including the web camera. It came
with XP and now dual boots XP and linux.
--
-John (jo...@os2.dhs.org)
Michael Black
But there isn't anything magical about the oddball distributions
that come standard. One argument "in favor" of Windows is that so
many have experience with it. Yet, the netbook companies turn
around and put a distribution that isn't common on their netbooks?
Might as well start with a distribution that is already common.
As for "footprint", I can put Slackware 12.0 in 4gigs, the only thing
I left out was the server packages. That's the whole shebang, all the
browsers, Emacs, whatever editors are included, Gimp, everything. If
I'd wanted to do a selective install, put just the things I actually
use, it would come out much smaller.
While I can't remember how much space is used by the oddball distribution
on the Aspire One, I sure was shocked to find that there is so little
in there but it takes up so much space. I'm sure as much as 4gigs. So
unless you're right and they for some odd reason devote much of the
space to fonts (I don't see the point of that, it's a limited computer
for limited useage), I really do wonder where the space gets used.
Michael
Jerry Peters
Slack 12.1, sda1 is the 8GB SSD and has everything but but /home and
/var/log, which are on the SDHC card. /tmp is tmpfs.
I don't use KDE so there is a significant space savings there.
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 6.9G 2.3G 4.3G 35% /
/dev/mmcblk0p1 3.8G 2.0G 1.7G 55% /home
/tmp 256M 12K 256M 1% /tmp
There were a lot of fonts, especially for various Asian languages.
I think somewhere around 1GB or so of fonts, but that was almost a
year ago, so I could be mistaken.
Jerry