[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux Netbooks-R-Us, a.k.a. Curse You Red Baron, er Charlie Brown, er Chris Cox... :) :) :) :)

[Fred Hensley]

After last month's presentation by Chris demonstrating netbooks running
Linux, and after some serious evaluation, I took the plunge and
purchased a Dell mini-10 with an Atom Z530 processor,10 inch display,2GB
ram, 250GB hd, bluetooth, 92% sized keyboard, etc.

Clearly this is *not* one of the refurb $100 linux netbooks Chris
pointed out that are already starting to show up online, but I needed a
beefier unit which could also support some older Windows-based
development tools for my legacy projects.

That being said, I decided to load up UNR (Ubuntu Netbook Remix) v9.04,
which not surprisingly had some issues with my Dell hardware.  The
integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA500) video has some
compatibility issues with workarounds since Intel won't yet support this
very well in Linux.

One nifty thing about the UNR installation was that it permitted
resizing the Windoze partition instead of simply
re-partitioning/overwriting the whole thing.  Chris warned us last month
that the Moblin installation would simply overwrite whatever was
previously on the hd or solid state storage.  I may install OpenSuse
later for KDE once the remaining v4+ issues eventually clear up.

With this new netbook, a wireless access point, and SSH/RDP/VNC
connections I am g-o-l-d-e-n from wherever.. Life is good!  Not
surprisingly, booting the windows side is a much sadder, slower affair,
even with the 2GB mem upgrade.

Anyone who travels regularly by commercial airplanes and attempts to use
their pc enroute knows the frustration when, after takeoff, the seatback
in front of you starts reclining your way, thereby rotating your
notebook display to an un-viewable angle.  Not so with this netbook, and
 privately daring the guy in front of me to recline even further..

In my view these systems are ideal portals for accessing my server-based
 desktops, easy web browsing, and the nearly full size keyboard is much
preferable to my pda for accessing my IMAP email accounts on the road.

Anyway, my $0.02 added and many more $$ spent since last months
meeting.. Curse you red baron, or Charlie Brown, or Chris Cox... :) :)
 And thanks for a great presentation!

As always, ymmmv...

-Fred-