Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Video IM, Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and various bits of hardware new and old.
Wednesday 8 July 2009, 8:03 AM
Ubuntu Netbook Remix "Acid Test" - Wrap-Up
The original test case was an ASUS Eee PC 4G (701), which I think was a particularly difficult case. It's an older netbook (one of the originals), it has an exceptionally small screen (7 inches), a touchpad with no buttons (so you have to "tap" to simulate buttons), and only 4GB of disk (SSD). UNR installed and worked flawlessly, and my neighbor has been using it happily ever since.
The second test case was an HP Mini 2140, which I would consider a "current" netbook, although no longer "leading edge". It has an Atom CPU, a nice big screen (10.1 inches), a touchpad with two buttons, and a 160 GB disk drive. There was a minor problem that required changing one BIOS setting, but once that was done UNR installed and worked flawlessly again. After the first few days of use, my friend is quite happy with it.
I consider the owners of both of these netbooks to be average non-professional computer users. They have had no problems with the netbooks running Ubuntu rather than Windows - in fact, neither of them noticed or cared about that. Neither has had any questions or complaints about the UNR desktop. They both use the netbook for internet access (web browsing and email), via WiFi connection, and one has been using the built-in webcam, and downloading digital pictures from an SD flash card.
In both cases, UNR was a significant improvement over the operating system that was previously installed on the netbook. The Eee PC had a two year old Linux of some sort, so UNR was a big step forward. The Mini 2140 came with SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, which while not quite as bad, is also rather dated.
jw 8/7/2009
PreviousComments on this post
I had installed UNR on a 16 gig thumb drive, and tried it out on the hospital's wireless network, while visiting my wife. It was unable to find the network. Rebooted into Mandriva and the wireless came up automatically. Still waiting for the final of Moblin. My netbook is an HP mini, 8.9" screen, web cam, microphone, 16 gig SSD, 1 gig memory, Atom processor.
Hmmm. That's odd, Ator. Any indication of why the wireless network didn't come up? Was it not handling the wireless interface properly (driver problem or missing), or was the wireless working but just not seeing the network (WEP/WPA/WPA2 problem)?
I'm not surprised that Mandriva worked, it is a very good distribution in its own right. I am a bit surprised that neither they, nor anyone else using their distribution as a base, has jumped on the "netbook custom" wagon yet. I think a Mandriva Netbook Remix would be a great idea!
As for Moblin, the more I bash my head against it, the more irritated and disgusted I get with it. The latest releases don't even install properly on my Dual Atom nettop any more, it frequently hangs on boot. I've gotten to the point where I am wondering why I am struggling with it so hard, when I don't even understand it once it finally comes up. Do those hieroglyphics across the top of the screen make any sense to you? I've tried my best to associate the symbols with what they represent, and for the majority of them I just don't get it.
Thanks for reading and commenting, as always.
jw
