[arch-general] Netbook recommendations

[Nicolas Bigaouette]

I have a 1000 and I really like it. Came with Xandros, but wiped it for Arch
;)
8GB SSD + 32 GB second SSD. I run KDE 4 and develop parallel code on it
without any problem.

I upgraded to 2GB of ram, really easy to do and it does _not_ void the
warranty. I also switched the wireless card. The rt2860 might be good, but
its driver is bad. A good example of code dumping... now its does not evolve
much: its in staging tree. I changed it for an intel iwl4965.

Everything on it works: wireless, bluetooth, external monitor, suspend, etc.
I did developped acpi-eeepc-generic for the extra butons and such: written
in bash and only depends on acpid.
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=23318

Pros:
-Keyboard is better on the 1000 then the 90{0,1}. Not only the size but also
the feeling. I had a 901, and the keys near the / were jumpy.
-6 cells battery, more then the Acer Aspier One
-1.3 Mpixel webcam
-Good SSD size: 40GB is more then enough. Fast 8GB is for arch, the slow
32GB is for the rest.
-Can run kde 4 with kwin special effects
-Everything works (special keys, suspend, rfkill, etc)
-Does not come with XP

Cons:
-The touchpad can be jumpy when using 2 finger scrolls. 2 finger circular is
fine though.
-Battery might seem big: it comes out a bit. It's less oversize then on the
901 though: when it was open on my lap, it could just fall on its back!
-Webcam is a bit dark
-Speakers could be louder
-Xandros is really bad

I love my 1000 ;)



2009/9/28 Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin at gmail.com>

> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 4:15 PM, Corin Schedler <corin.gs at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 04:00:32PM -0500, Aaron Griffin wrote:
> >> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 3:55 PM,  <hollunder at gmx.at> wrote:
> >> > On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:22:15 -0500
> >> > Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 3:13 PM, Roman Kyrylych
> >> >> <roman.kyrylych at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >> > * Read reviews, there are lots of them.
> >> >> >  (even http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_netbooks :))
> >> >>
> >> >> Awesome! Thanks for this
> >> >
> >> > I look around for some time and would probably go with an eeepc. It
> >> > seems they switched to windows again tough.
> >> > Netbook based on the ion platform seem to be available now (nvidia
> >> > graphics) but there likely are still no dual core atom ones.
> >> >
> >> > I eventually decided to go for a thinkpad instead, 'just' have to find
> a
> >> > model that suits since you can't customise them here...
> >>
> >> I've begun looking in depth at the Eee 1005HA model. Does anyone have
> >> experience with this one? I notice there are P, V, and B models (in
> >> order of most expensive to least), with slightly varying specs.
> >
> > I have a 1000H. It's slightly older but almost identical to the HA
> > model. It's been running Arch since I bought it and it runs great. The
> > hotkey power switch for the WiFi card doesn't work, and there seems to
> > be a slightly higher power drain in suspend mode than the XP install
> > that came on it. I'm not sure if that has to do with my suspend
> > configuration or what, but it's worth noting.
> >
> > Anyway, I typically run GNOME...xcompmgr (or compiz) works, but it can
> get
> > 'stuttery' if you're doing much more than web browsing. Video/media is
> > hit and miss for me - YouTube is watchable, Hulu is not, for example.
> >
> > I'd recommend it if you want to get a netbook. The only hardware gripe I
> > have is the 'mini' right shift key - it's the size of a standard letter
> > key, and it's super annoying especially with how much code I write. It's
> > awesome otherwise.
>
> The shift key is fixed on the 1005 and 1008 models. I've seen this
> mentioned in a few reviews.
>
> http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/1005ha_bk_keyboard.jpg
>