[Tfug] Netbooks and Linux - suggestions?

[Bowie J. Poag]

Dell Inspiron Mini 10V. We love ours. $325 at Best Buy.

It also happens to be 100% Hackintosh-compatible, so you can 
dual-and-then-some boot between Linux/Winblows/OS X. :)

Looks good, too.

Cheers,
Bowie



John Gruenenfelder wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
> I'm in the market for a netbook and would like to solicit some opinions on
> which model to purchase and which ones work well with Linux.  Specifically,
> I'll probably be installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix onto it... either that or
> regular Debian like my other machines.
>
> Fortunately, in some ways, the market has not differentiated all that much so
> most netbooks seem to be surprisingly similar to one another.  One key
> difference I have learned about, however, is the graphics chipset.  A few
> models use Intel's new GMA 500 chipset which, as I understand it, was not
> developed by Intel, but rather acquired by Intel.  The previous company was
> FOSS-hostile and so X support for this chip is still far from useful.  At
> least, that's my current understanding.  Is this still true?  Should I be
> avoiding GMA 500 netbooks?  I don't mind using a binary blob for the video
> driver, but I've read that the chip isn't even to *that* state of usefulness
> yet.
>
> So, other than that, I'm looking for a netbook with Bluetooth built-in, around
> 2.5 lbs. (+/- 0.5 lbs.), and with a regular HDD (most seem to come standard
> with 160 GB).  I'm not against solid state drives, but I see the big reason to
> have one as increased battery life, but from most of what I've read, there is
> very little gain in battery life when using one.  Also, 4+ hours of battery
> life would be nice.  That seems to require a 6-cell battery.
>
> Thus far, I think I've narrowed it down to either an Acer Aspire One AOD250:
>
>   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115573
>
> or a Samsung NC10:
>
>   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131015
>
> They're both nearly identical in specifications.  Pricing and case styling are
> a little different.  I've examined the Asipre models as well as I could at
> Best Buy, but it is hard to get a good impression of weight when it's cabled
> to the counter and often lacking a battery (and the mass that goes with it).
>
>
> The one truly unique computer I've run across while learning about netbooks is
> the Touch Book by Always Innovating:
>
>   http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/
>
> It's a detachable netbook/tablet and gets amazing battery life (they claim
> near 10 hours).  It has batteries in both modules, the keyboard module and the
> display/computer module and they work in conjunction when the two pieces are
> put together.  The display is also a touch screen and the Touch Book is
> designed from the start to run their own Linux variant, though they say it
> should handle most any distro.
>
> There are three big caveats with this system.  First, there is very little
> storage in the machine.  The drive, such as it is, is an included 8GB SD card
> which you can replace with something larger.  You'd definitely want a class 6
> or better card for this.
>
> Second, the specs say it has 256MB of RAM plus 256MB of NAND memory.  That's
> really not much and I'm not sure it can be upgraded.
>
> Third, the way all these magic things happen, like super long battery life and
> always-on support, is because it uses a Texas Instruments OMAP 3530 CPU.
> That's an ARM chip if you were wondering.
>
> Anyway, it's quite an intriguing machine.  I really like the features, though
> I fear it may be just a little too slow for what I would normally want to do.
> Their website could use some work... the main page says the first shipments
> have gone out, but they're not very clear on how soon "soon" is when it comes
> to orders placed today now that there's a backlog.
>
>
> So, back to the original topic... I'd greatly appreciate any netbook wisdom
> that might be floating out their on the list.  Thanks!
>
>
>