Mini-laptops

Phobia · Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 6245 Location: I am. I was.

Anyone seen one of these linked here? I'm thinking of getting something like this for a dedicated poker/backgammon machine.

Ollie Stench · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:35 am Post subject:

The tech guy at my old job got one. He said they run Unix and are about only good for checking email.

Finn McCool · Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 7112

Says it comes with XP.
But I'd put Linux on it anyway.

7734 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 4173

+1 on the Linux. Can't you run OS X on most of these?

Phobia · Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 6245 Location: I am. I was.

I just need something as compact as possible, medium strength, 20 gig hd, wifi, good battery life.

7734 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 4173

A bunch of these are out there. I thought the HP netbook looked pretty good. The Acer and a couple others looked pretty cheap and didn't look like they would hold up.

.02

Microshitville had a super cheap off brand model that didn't look half bad.

TLH · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:26 pm Post subject:

My ex is using them as part of her PHD to guide roomba vacuum cleaners. They tack the bugger right onto the roomba as part of her artificial intelligence project, making them a little more analytical.

She seems pretty happy with hers- though she's just programming submarines and stupid shit like that. Shocked

(I assume she's using some high tech box the university owns to do that shit. I'm just yanking your chain there.)

(And yes- living with me for 17 years left her well versed in artificial intelligence.)

Phobia · Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 6245 Location: I am. I was.

7734 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 4173

Presto · Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 656 Location: South Side

I have the similar, Asus Eee Pc 901 20G.
http://www.amazon.com/8-9-Inch-Netbook-Processor-E-Storage-Battery/dp/B001BYF2WK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1234791835&sr=8-1

I was looking for an extremely portable computer to browse the internet and do spreadsheet / word processing work, and love this little comp for those purposes. It does struggle to run video, but can handle youtube resolutions without much problem.

Currently, I am running the Xandros Linux that comes with the computer, but I am planning to make the switch to Ubuntu. Although the Xandros OS has all the features I would really need, there is a much stronger Ubuntu community, which allows more support for tweaking the computer and adding applications. I would only recommend linux for someone who either has no intention of adding any programs to their computer other than what it comes with, or for someone who likes to tinker with computers. If you are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, linux will only annoy you, and they do sell most of these computers with either XP home or linux (asus gives you an additional 4G harddrive on the 901 if you select the linux version).

The biggest thing that swayed me to the model I purchased was a longer battery life (about 5-6 hours for some of the newest models). Most of these netbooks only have a battery life of about 2 hours, which seems inadequate for a computer that is built specifically for being portable. I also like the solid state drives that you can get with the 901. Unless you need a larger harddrive, the solid state drives tend to be more reliable.

Vrooman · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:12 am Post subject:

"UNIX is user-friendly, it's just picky about its friends."

Phobia · Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 6245 Location: I am. I was.

Ollie Stench · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:05 pm Post subject:

I bought one of these over the weekend as the Dell laptop was taking 10+ minutes to boot up and I don't have the time right now to overhaul it.

So far its a pretty decent little machine. Most of the netbooks tend to have the same specs and are about the same price point. What sold me was the 9 hour battery and the fact that MicroCenter had them in stock.

I haven't really beat on it yet, but I can run a stripped down version of Photoshop, MS Word, iTunes, and a few other apps. I need for trivia and shit.

Will report back when I break it.

Patti Pagan · Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 4:43 pm Post subject:

Been enjoying my Asus Eee PC since the end of May, running XP as the OS. I bought it for a research trip to DC interestingly enough which was also the first trip for my first notebook (had a b/w screen!) about 15 yrs ago. I opted for the Asus Eee PC for its superior battery life over the cheaper Acer which one of my nieces has. I have not been disappointed, esp as it boots up much more quickly than my good ol' Dell notebook.

Presto · Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 656 Location: South Side

After getting annoyed with Linux's inability to run some of the proprietary software I use for work, as well as itunes, and netflix, I finally broke down and installed XP on my netbook. I found a really nice walkthrough for minimizing the XP footprint on the eee pc. found here:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=37047

Everything worked as described in this forum. Nlite is my new, favorite software, since it actually makes XP slim and usable. If you decide to use the walkthrough I posted, please note that for the Atom processors, you need to enable dual processors in Nlite. That screwed me up for a while, but now everything has been running perfect for several months.