Netbooks Are Little Notebooks, and Linux on Netbooks Rocks
But it seems that vendors didn't really have a good vision of what these little machines could do and marketed them as Internet clients, rather than little notebooks that could do almost everything their big siblings could do. Which was, and still is, a big mistake, a mistake shaped by the paranoid, restrictive proprietary software world and a lack of understanding what customers want.
You can't even buy a new machine to replace an old one and move Windows to it, unless you pay through the nose for a full retail Windows version. Gotta love the genius in re-packaging the exact same Windows a half-dozen different ways at a half-dozen different price points, and the only differences are which features have been removed. Though you'll always get a full ration of trialjunkware.
And that's just the beginning. If you want to do anything other than play Minesweeper you have to buy and install software. Lots of it. Office apps, games, security....if you're lucky your PC will have a few CPU cycles to spare for doing something besides running Windows. Oh, and how do you install these new apps on a netbook with no optical drive?
Happy Linux World
A PC running a 1gHz CPU and 512MB RAM can handle nearly any Linux distribution just fine. Make it a gigabyte of RAM and you're golden. Want secure Internet? Check. Want thousands of great applications to choose from? Check. Want easy software management, installation and removal with a few clicks? Check. Want something reliable and peppy and even on lower-powered hardware? Check.Want to use your netbook strictly as an Internet client, using Google Apps and other online applications? No problem. Want to use both 'net and local apps? Easy peasey. Want to try out different applications and different Linuxes? Piece of cake. Want to use a cool 4GB solid-state Flash drive? My Debian workstation uses 1.8GB for KDE, Fluxbox, and XFCE and a gazillion applications, including photo and audio production, OpenOffice and KOffice, games, network and system utilities, and other apps. And all without having to answer to the mothership, without being under the watchful eye of Big Brother Windows Genuine Advantage and his thumb-breaker, the Business Software Alliance.
Most computer users don't want an inflexible little Internet machine that runs only a Web browser, especially not for three or four hundred dollars or more. Something like that should come free in a box of cereal. Most want all the functionality of a full-sized notebook, only smaller, lighter, and with significantly longer battery life. A little less power is OK, and these days let's get real-- what we consider low-power is the supercomputer of a few years ago.
It's too bad that ASUS, who launched the modern netbook craze, couldn't resist the siren call of Microsoft and threw Linux away. But it's their loss, as thankfully other vendors are releasing small Linux notebooks and netbooks, whatever you want to call them, and are actually showing some competence with Linux. Like making sure that all the hardware is supported, and that everything works. I don't know why so many vendors make such an uphill struggle out of OEM Linux, it's magnitudes easier than any other OS.
No matter how you parse it or what you call them, Linux on netbooks is a winner for both vendors and customers. And that's not all, there is another new kid moving in to the 'hood: the Crunchpad. It's taken a long time and heroic efforts, but at long last we're seeing a bit of choice and some real invention and creativity returning to the personal computer space.
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I agree with this: "Netbooks Are Little Notebooks, and Linux on Netbooks Rocks" - http://is.gd/1r0RE #netbook #linux Read More
Dear Carla:
Would you mind changing the color of the text to black in your posts? It is too hard to read for my eyes. Other than that I enjoy your posts and agree with you most of the times. Thanks a lot.
Good write-up. I'm actually glad that ASUS is no longer in the game. That cut-down Xandros thing they were shipping the Eee with really was not painting a good picture to people about what "Linux" is. On my Acer Aspire One I also canned the preloaded Linpus, after giving it a good three month trial. Now running Linux Mint it just seems better, more slick, more complete. Give the hardware any label you want, but to me it's just a portable pee cee, and gawrsh I want to do things on it that I can do with any other PC, because it can.
If you ask me, this article feels a bit fanboyish. Yes, Linux on netbooks is nice, and I run it daily, but I don't think Windows XP should generally give a worse experience than Linux for most users, especially to those who are already used to it. Plus consider the horrible, horrible Linux distros that several companies invented for their netbooks (like Xandros for the Eee PC) - it only made all of your positive Linux points more diffficult.
You don't mention the option that Netbooks become "smaller" using moblin, android etc and how this overlaps the market for full-function 3G phones. It's an interesting market because the mobile phone market relies on people replacing their phone every 12 months. There has to come a point where a smart phone and the netbook collide.
The big 3G networks give away Netbooks with 3G contracts in most EU countries now - but interestingly, most of the netbooks have Windows XP pre-installed and the consequence is a poor user experience since consumers (quite rightly) think of it as a small PC replacement.
Is there also 'upwards pressure' from the mobile phone manufacturers to ensure that the hardware platform for mobile 3G telephony is not commoditised?
Carla, I couldn't agree more with you. I've just bought a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v with Ubuntu 8.04 pre-installed and have to say it's great! Does everything I need for web and office work and is pretty snappy with a great screen and Ubuntu works without problems, had LAN and Wifi working within 15 mins and applied all updates plus Skype within the hour of starting it, why would I want Windows on it?
I agree with iGiron. Web designers have lighten the black in their text to make it easier to read, which was fine and dandy when everyone had CRTs. But nowadays most people have LCDs and the lighten text is to hard to read.
But don't throw out the technology completely. When everyone gets an OLED monitor, not only will you have to lighten the text, you'll have to darken the background. It's going to be awesome.
I found that using Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my netbook has worked great. I did move a 1GB RAM strip from my laptop to my netbook, but I have not been able to discern any difference in speed. I guess there is a speed improvement though. I enjoy having apps like OpenOffice.org and others on it as I have used them. In the future I anticipe using my netbook as a presentation source hooked to an LCD projector. I have hooked it to my 37-inch LCD HD tv to view presentations. That works neat as all I have to do is hook a VGA cable from the tv to the laptop and turn them on. Walla! a large screen computer. The window manager takes care of all the display sizing correctly.
The bottom line is, that netbooks have a place and they are more capable that many believe. Yes a Linux distro on a netbook is the way to go.
Finally a word of wisdom. If I hear one more "They aren't real laptops," I think I'm going to snap. My 701 served me well for a year, and the only reason I replaced it with my current 1000ha was because I wanted to keep a mirror of the Debian repositories with me at all times. In both cases, they completely replaced my home desktop and "powerful" laptop.
But lets also be real with Asus. They didn't abandon Linux, they destroyed it. The Xandros custom version they put on their machines was a joke, completely uneditable without more hacking skill than that of Linus Travolds himself. It was locked down, buggy, and full of limited choices. They had no option but to drop it as the screams of their customers. If only they put on a normal distribution, like Ubuntu, without the lock down. I think it would have been very, very different.
I fail to see what using Linux on netbooks does to solve their major problem: the small screen and the crappy keyboard.
OpenOffice is already barely usable on a 13,3" screen. I don't even want to imagine how bad it is on a 10" screen.
As for the advantages of Linux, you greatly exaggerate them. Applications are easy to install only if they are present in the distro repository in the version you want. Otherwise, they're not.
As for reliability, it's reliable only until the next Intel drivers update breaks everything.
The only real advantage I see in netbooks is that they're so crappy and cheap that you can carry one everywhere without fearing that you will lose it.
I am not a fan of Xandros and the ASUS decision to use it. But that was years ago. Let's keep in mind that Asus did bring out the first 'netbook' and they brought it with linux. Since then, with it's popularity, we've seen many more netbooks and a lot of work done on linux for these netbooks. So I'll commend the initial efforts of Xandros, look forward to future Asus eeepc offerings and enjoy my favourite, snappy, non-windows OS.
3D. I wish for a netbook with some reasonable 3D capability. ION would be nice.
Hans
Ever since I bought this small wonder I thought: "I waited for so long!" But as stated above, noone cares about the CUSTOMER. They only care about PROFIT. My netbook runs on Ubuntu right now, because that proprietary software called Xandros (a specific flavor, tailored for EEE PC 701) wasn't updated (I wouldn't dare say upgraded) since I don't remember. Asus - unfortunate for them - don't really give much about those who run these every day. I can do everything: navigate on the web, write my term paper, chat, connect with people on Skype, and so on.
I am pleased to have one machine running Linux. Thank you Linus Torvalds!