EEE Notebook / Netbooks ? Linux ???

[netn00b]

anyone know anything about these ?

Asus make them ?

wife wants something small and mobile for wireless surfing - facebook and some facebook games basically.

also one she has seen locally for £85 is running Linux ?  I know nothing about linux ?

[Rik]

That's two of us, then, but stick around, help will be here shortly.

[Steve]

You could splash out on an iPad

I'm not convinced Linux is ready for the usual consumer although the latest version of Ubuntu comes close. If the hardware will run Ubuntu Netmix it would be worth a shot. You might need to do a bit of googling to see if anyone managed to get it running on that particular model.

http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook

[netn00b]

thats sounds far to techy for us Steve! lol

[DorsetBoy]

http://www.twenga.co.uk/prices-Eee-PC-2G-Surf-ASUS-Netbook-396382-0

Linux as loaded in a netbook is no different to any other OS really. For surfing and Facebook the user would have no clue they what OS they were on.

[netn00b]

cheers DB.

[MisterW]

I'm not convinced Linux is ready for the usual consumer although the latest version of Ubuntu comes close. If the hardware will run Ubuntu Netmix it would be worth a shot.

I run Ubuntu Netbook Remix on an Acer Aspire One ( 9" screen ). It's great for email, browsing etc and really makes the most of the limited screen real estate on a small netbook. Being small and light it's so much easier than carrying a normal laptop around.
I also use it with a mobile broadband dongle for when there's no wifi available.
Fire away with any questions...

[Simon]

I've got an Eee PC.  I would describe it as one step up from using a phone to browse the internet, in that it's a bigger screen and keyboard, but I found mine kept freezing on some websites, and it's only really any good for very basic stuff.

[dudwell]

I have the Asus 1008HA 10-inch Netbook as a back-up to my main laptop. It's wonderfully neat and seems like decent quality. It works well for my simple needs of surfing and emailing. I haven't ventured to go beyond the Windows 7 it was came with. Nothing like £85 alas, mine was £249 from Amazon (here) and I see it's now even dearer....

[dudwell]

Oops, I meant "it came with".

Just remembered a small problem - the plug on two audio leads can't be fitted into the netbook's "audio out" because the rubbery body of the plug is too fat in each case.

[MisterW]

I've got an Eee PC.  I would describe it as one step up from using a phone to browse the internet, in that it's a bigger screen and keyboard, but I found mine kept freezing on some websites, and it's only really any good for very basic stuff.

I've never had any problems like that with my AA1. Ok, the 9" screen is a tad small and the 10.1" ones are a lot better but I got mine for £149 about a year ago. They were selling off a version that came with Linpus Lite ( another Linux OS ) installed and a number of people in the office got them. First thing we did was throw away the rubbish Linpus and install Ubuntu netbook. Never had any problems with freezing or the like and performance is pretty good. One of the guys uses it as his only PC, although he plugs in an external monitor and wireless k/b and mouse when at home.

[Technical Ben]

anyone know anything about these ?

Asus make them ?

wife wants something small and mobile for wireless surfing - facebook and some facebook games basically.

also one she has seen locally for £85 is running Linux ?  I know nothing about linux ?

There should be nothing wrong with a linux netbook. I think there is Flash for linux, so it will run Facebook. However try to aim for something in the range of £250-£300 at the least (£350-£400 would be better). As I've seen the £85 ones in a store over here, and I doubt they do more than you mobile! I would not want you buying a glorified etch a sketch.

[kinmel]

My Acer ZG5 AA150 with a solid state drive now has Ubuntu 10.04 netbook on it, it installed from the USB stick with no problems at all and everything works correctly.

I keep mine in the car, it allows me to access the web, email and even gives video conferencing.

The default web browser is Firefox and it has a full office suite.

Add a broadband dongle for when desperate, else pop into McDonalds for a coffee and free Wifi.

Netbooks are great machines.

[Rik]

Netbooks are great machines.

Couldn't agree more, Alan. 

[kinmel]

I forgot to mention that there is a forum for Acer Aspire One users which has all the knowledge and information you could ever hope to find.

[netn00b]

hi

thanks all.  the wife decided to buy a sammy in the end - an N130 that runs xp.

price was an issue so this seemedto get us a nice brand new spec machine  as oppoped to perhaps a year or 2 yr old model in the mid price range.

it also said it had a dedicated graphics card but i'm currently questioning that as somewhere in windows i found it telling me it was shared ram ?? asnd it said it was using 8mb!!!!!!!!!  i cant though find that screen again !

i am actually typing on it now.

BUT  wife is not happy cos it will not display her facebook games properly - the main and major reason for buying it.  tech support suggested new flash so am getting that now.  also they said new graphics drivers may help.

so hoping these make things work or she is not going to be happy and she bought it quickly yesterday to bring on holiday with us !!!

[Steve]

The other suggestions I've seen were to remove as much of the supplied bloatware that will hog resources and try a browser such a google chrome with nothing else running.

[netn00b]

its running firefox.

just upgraded flash and still no joy.

techy guy could not tell me anything else. graphics drivers ok it seems.

so its a 230 quid white elephant if it cant even run a few facebook games.

[Steve]

There is something called speedstep control although I haven't a clue how to enabled it.

[vitriol]

Speedstep controls CPU speeds, it drops it down to save on battery life when it's not doing anything.  Once the CPU needs to work the speed ramps back up to maximum.

netn00b are there any errors given on facebook when your other half tries to play the games? 

If the graphics accelerator is sharing system ram bump it up to 64mb.  Is it an intel graphics chip?

[netn00b]

thanks vitriol.

made small progress !  one of her games work pretty well but the graphics are not as good as she is used to - not as well defined.

also she said it a dark screen on this game but i set it o max brightness,

its an intel chipset for graphics.....945 it says.  also says max of 128mb but i got into one thing that said max ram 128mb but used graphics ram 8mb!!!

i cannot seem to alter this and techy man did not seem to know how to either....

she really wishes she had not spent 230 on a white elephant.

and no - nothing in the way of errors come up on facebook in any of the games.  the only so that appears to work properly is cafe world. the other 3 or 4 have problems

[vitriol]

On my laptop I can adjust the amount of shared memory for the graphics card in the BIOS. 

[Technical Ben]

Check out the Samsung "Sammy" forums. There seems to be some advice and help, although no magic bullets.
http://www.sammynetbook.com/forum/threads/13109-N150-Not-Even-Capable-of-Simple-Facebook-Games

Perhaps turning speedstep off, and keeping open processes down to a minimum.
You will not get a sharper image, because the screen res is quite low for today's standards (although a small screen. It is no Iphone4).
Perhaps you'll end up with the Netbook, and someone else will get your pc!   

[MisterW]

its an intel chipset for graphics.....945 it says.  also says max of 128mb but i got into one thing that said max ram 128mb but used graphics ram 8mb!!!

Windows will dynamically allocate as much memory as it needs at any time for the graphics, upto the maximum you specify.

[netn00b]

thanks for the advice and links all.