I'm thinking of getting a cheap netbook to take on a (motorbike) holiday next month. It'll be Linux based of course and my requirements are pretty simple. All the basic, cheap netbooks will fulfil my basic requirements I think - i.e. they have a browser, can connect to the internet by WiFi, etc. However I have a couple of specific things which aren't always addresses in the advertising blurb:-
How easy is it to add software? I really have to have ssh as that is how I access my E-Mail and that's one of the major reasons for getting the netbook. Are the "as supplied" Linux distributions sort of cast in stone or can one add things? I don't want to have to do a complete installation of a new distribution just to get ssh.
Do any of the netbooks have a trackball rather than a pad? I really don't know why trackballs aren't more popular, I use one on my desktop and we now have a wireless keyboard with a trackball and it's magic, no separate mouse to lose/drop and the trackball is much nicer than a pad.
On Thu, 2009-05-07 at 08:39 +0100, Chris G wrote:
How easy is it to add software? I really have to have ssh as that is how I access my E-Mail and that's one of the major reasons for getting the netbook.
The acer "linpus" distro hides the package manager but it is easy to get it to show again in the desktop menus..there is extra stuff in the linpus repositories but not everything, you can add stock fedora ones though. Both the Acer and the Asus machines come with openssh-client installed already.
Overall though I find Ubuntu Netbook remix so much better on those that it is worth the couple of hours you might spend installing and tweaking it. Depends what you want from it, I found VPN and mobile data support a bit lacking in linpus and while it was possible to fix that, it was easier to just replace the distro.
Do any of the netbooks have a trackball rather than a pad? I really don't know why trackballs aren't more popular, I use one on my desktop and we now have a wireless keyboard with a trackball and it's magic, no separate mouse to lose/drop and the trackball is much nicer than a pad.
A few of us have been moaning about this on the list...well not trackballs specifically but why they insist on using trackpads rather than trackpointers/nipples when there is so little space on the palmrest. The only netbook type device I have seen that had a trackball was some of the early Toshiba Librettos. Everything other than the trackpad seems to have lost favour with the manufacturers now. Hell even some thinkpads come without a nipple !
PS. Last time I looked Currys had the Acer netbooks in stock at my local branch for £135 8GB SSD and £149 120GB HDD and Comet had the 16GB SSD with 1GB of ram for £170ish. On the Currys website they are selling them slightly cheaper than that as refurb stock..However in store there is no mention of them being refurb or graded..just clearance, so there is the opportunity to make a nuisance of yourself if they are anything other than new.
Be aware though that without the extended range battery (and specifically with the HDD version) you can do better than the battery life you will get on the Acer..Probably no more than a couple of hours on the HDD one at best. Some of the higher Asus models are far better in this respect and have bluetooth built in. That said the extended battery for the Acer can be had for £50 or so and that should give you 4-5 hours.
Someone at the Slyeham meet also mentioned getting the Acer for £100 from tesco but I think you will be hard pushed to find one there now.
On 07-May-09 08:59:26, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Thu, 2009-05-07 at 08:39 +0100, Chris G wrote:
[...] Do any of the netbooks have a trackball rather than a pad? I really don't know why trackballs aren't more popular, I use one on my desktop and we now have a wireless keyboard with a trackball and it's magic, no separate mouse to lose/drop and the trackball is much nicer than a pad.
A few of us have been moaning about this on the list...well not trackballs specifically but why they insist on using trackpads rather than trackpointers/nipples when there is so little space on the palmrest. The only netbook type device I have seen that had a trackball was some of the early Toshiba Librettos. Everything other than the trackpad seems to have lost favour with the manufacturers now. Hell even some thinkpads come without a nipple !
I have come to hate track/touchpads! At best they're harder to control than a mouse or trackball. At worst they have become too clever and hypersensitive (which I suppose adds up to neurotic).
Many's the time the ball of my thumb has lightly brushed the touchpad, sent the mouse leaping off to some far corner (with interesting implications if one is typing), and even triggered some action.
For a long time now I've been using a real USB mouse on the side (literally). You can get a nice little one (Technika) from Tesco for about 8 quid. It has a reel at the middle of the cable onto which the cable is spooled up. Pull it out from both ends, and a ratchet will lock it where you want. When you've finished, give it a gentle tug to release the ratchet, and re-spool the cable. Handy for tucking into the laptop case.
Some laptops have a little button on the touchpad which turns it off. Then you have pure mouse, which is a much better situation.
[...] Someone at the Slyeham meet also mentioned getting the Acer for £100 from tesco but I think you will be hard pushed to find one there now.
That was BJ and also BJ Jr. BJ Jr told me they were bought at Diss Tesco, and they were all sold out.
Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 07-May-09 Time: 10:53:20 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
At Thu, 07 May 2009 10:53:23 +0100 (BST), (Ted Harding) wrote:
On 07-May-09 08:59:26, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Thu, 2009-05-07 at 08:39 +0100, Chris G wrote:
[...] Do any of the netbooks have a trackball rather than a pad? I really don't know why trackballs aren't more popular, I use one on my desktop and we now have a wireless keyboard with a trackball and it's magic, no separate mouse to lose/drop and the trackball is much nicer than a pad.
A few of us have been moaning about this on the list...well not trackballs specifically but why they insist on using trackpads rather than trackpointers/nipples when there is so little space on the palmrest. The only netbook type device I have seen that had a trackball was some of the early Toshiba Librettos. Everything other than the trackpad seems to have lost favour with the manufacturers now. Hell even some thinkpads come without a nipple !
I have come to hate track/touchpads! At best they're harder to control than a mouse or trackball. At worst they have become too clever and hypersensitive (which I suppose adds up to neurotic).
Some of them implement some quite cool gestures like pinching which is often mapped to zoom functions. And two finger dragging mapped to scrolling. Though I find too much trackpadding makes the end of my finger hurt :,(
Many's the time the ball of my thumb has lightly brushed the touchpad, sent the mouse leaping off to some far corner (with interesting implications if one is typing), and even triggered some action.
[snip]
Some laptops have a little button on the touchpad which turns it off. Then you have pure mouse, which is a much better situation.
If Chris G is debating which one to get, the Acer Aspire One allows you to switch off the touchpad with Fn F7. In fact, the AAO trackpad isn't really the best. It's very small and its left and right buttons are on the edge. (Though using only Emacs, Conkeror, and Fluxbox I pretty much manage to avoid needing a mouse at all.)
In the AAO's defense, however, the reason why the trackpad is so small is because they chose to provide a decent-sized keyboard. The AAO keyboard, IMO, is one of its strong points.
On Thu, May 07, 2009 at 09:59:26AM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Thu, 2009-05-07 at 08:39 +0100, Chris G wrote:
How easy is it to add software? I really have to have ssh as that is how I access my E-Mail and that's one of the major reasons for getting the netbook.The acer "linpus" distro hides the package manager but it is easy to get it to show again in the desktop menus..there is extra stuff in the linpus repositories but not everything, you can add stock fedora ones though. Both the Acer and the Asus machines come with openssh-client installed already.
Overall though I find Ubuntu Netbook remix so much better on those that it is worth the couple of hours you might spend installing and tweaking it. Depends what you want from it, I found VPN and mobile data support a bit lacking in linpus and while it was possible to fix that, it was easier to just replace the distro.
Do any of the netbooks have a trackball rather than a pad? I really don't know why trackballs aren't more popular, I use one on my desktop and we now have a wireless keyboard with a trackball and it's magic, no separate mouse to lose/drop and the trackball is much nicer than a pad.A few of us have been moaning about this on the list...well not trackballs specifically but why they insist on using trackpads rather than trackpointers/nipples when there is so little space on the palmrest. The only netbook type device I have seen that had a trackball was some of the early Toshiba Librettos. Everything other than the trackpad seems to have lost favour with the manufacturers now. Hell even some thinkpads come without a nipple !
PS. Last time I looked Currys had the Acer netbooks in stock at my local branch for £135 8GB SSD and £149 120GB HDD and Comet had the 16GB SSD with 1GB of ram for £170ish. On the Currys website they are selling them slightly cheaper than that as refurb stock..However in store there is no mention of them being refurb or graded..just clearance, so there is the opportunity to make a nuisance of yourself if they are anything other than new.
Be aware though that without the extended range battery (and specifically with the HDD version) you can do better than the battery life you will get on the Acer..Probably no more than a couple of hours on the HDD one at best. Some of the higher Asus models are far better in this respect and have bluetooth built in. That said the extended battery for the Acer can be had for £50 or so and that should give you 4-5 hours.
Someone at the Slyeham meet also mentioned getting the Acer for £100 from tesco but I think you will be hard pushed to find one there now.
Thanks! Excellent information.
This is the first non-Intel netbook I've found available in the UK:
http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=Alpha+400+MIPS
Has anyone found anything else?
On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Chris G cl@isbd.net wrote:
On Thu, May 07, 2009 at 09:59:26AM +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On Thu, 2009-05-07 at 08:39 +0100, Chris G wrote:
How easy is it to add software? I really have to have ssh as that is how I access my E-Mail and that's one of the major reasons for getting the netbook.The acer "linpus" distro hides the package manager but it is easy to get it to show again in the desktop menus..there is extra stuff in the linpus repositories but not everything, you can add stock fedora ones though. Both the Acer and the Asus machines come with openssh-client installed already.
Overall though I find Ubuntu Netbook remix so much better on those that it is worth the couple of hours you might spend installing and tweaking it. Depends what you want from it, I found VPN and mobile data support a bit lacking in linpus and while it was possible to fix that, it was easier to just replace the distro.
Do any of the netbooks have a trackball rather than a pad? I really don't know why trackballs aren't more popular, I use one on my desktop and we now have a wireless keyboard with a trackball and it's magic, no separate mouse to lose/drop and the trackball is much nicer than a pad.A few of us have been moaning about this on the list...well not trackballs specifically but why they insist on using trackpads rather than trackpointers/nipples when there is so little space on the palmrest. The only netbook type device I have seen that had a trackball was some of the early Toshiba Librettos. Everything other than the trackpad seems to have lost favour with the manufacturers now. Hell even some thinkpads come without a nipple !
PS. Last time I looked Currys had the Acer netbooks in stock at my local branch for £135 8GB SSD and £149 120GB HDD and Comet had the 16GB SSD with 1GB of ram for £170ish. On the Currys website they are selling them slightly cheaper than that as refurb stock..However in store there is no mention of them being refurb or graded..just clearance, so there is the opportunity to make a nuisance of yourself if they are anything other than new.
Be aware though that without the extended range battery (and specifically with the HDD version) you can do better than the battery life you will get on the Acer..Probably no more than a couple of hours on the HDD one at best. Some of the higher Asus models are far better in this respect and have bluetooth built in. That said the extended battery for the Acer can be had for £50 or so and that should give you 4-5 hours.
Someone at the Slyeham meet also mentioned getting the Acer for £100 from tesco but I think you will be hard pushed to find one there now.
Thanks! Excellent information.
-- Chris Green
main@lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!
-
Albert Vilella -
Chris G -
Richard Lewis -
Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk -
Wayne Stallwood