Solid State Notebooks, Also Linux

endure

PCWorld are selling the Advent 4211 which is the MSI Wind in disguise. The only differences are that it's only available in black and it's £40 cheaper than the Wind at £279. Windows XP, 80GB drive and an excellent 10" screen. I was playing with one in my local PCW and I'm very tempted.

amcluesent

>PCWorld are selling the Advent 4211<

I'm tempted too, but will wait until usefully sized battery is installed; the 4-cell is a bit feeble for the intended use IMHO.

wolfman

I still think Linux has some way to go. For me it works very well, but I put the time in to make it so.

I would agree with others in that Windows is still more familiar, and typically works better when purchasing a pc. It also has a huge amount of software available (not that Linux doesn't) for extending it.

For simple use Ubuntu for example (I prefer debian based distro's) is very good. The recent rebuild of the bluetooth stack has caused problems though. And as mentioned power management is still flakey. You still really need to be able to use the command line too.

This is fine for me, but my folks who I sort of forced onto it have struggled a little bit, whereas with Windows they never did.

Not Ibex, but the release of Ubuntu after, and it'll be topping Vista easily in my opinion. Or at least I hope.

For now though Linux remains a distro for people that have time to learn it, and get involved, and that don't mind the odd thing not working straight away. And if you fit that, then it's great.

Leopard

Jake'sGran wrote: »

I really do thank you all very much and I have read every post even though a lot of it is meaningless to me, not being a Geek! But, the above extract is more relevant for me. I love my computer. It's a Dell and I have just discovered it was del'd in Jan 02. I have had problems lots of times and never use anything but these forums for the answers. There are so many helpful Geeks around. The last time I had a going very slow problem it was fixed very easily with help from here and Ccleaner. Although I won't download it I will go see what Ubuntu is all about and will check out the alternative to AVG that was mentioned. I already have Open Office as I lost MS Office. Word was what I needed. They are on my system but I cannot get them to open. Thanks again.

Jake's G,

The most powerful, most elegant and most desirable solid-state notebook is THIS.

Geeks don't like it, though, because it runs neither Windows nor Linux unless you install these specifically.

Out of the box, it runs Apple's OS 10.5.4, instead, which works a treat, synchs with an iPhone and doesn't need constant geek tinkering to make it function properly.

That's horrific to those who prefer to spend more time messing about with their computers than doing anything constructive with them.

But it's nice for people who get out a bit, have real lives and like to use their computers to do something useful.

The problem that Geeks have with Macs is that they don't break down. That infuriates them. They can't spend hours on end typing in line after line of unintelligible code in an attempt to make it boot; the wretched thing does it all by itself.

How many threads do you ever see on here about people having problems with a Mac?

And how many thousands are there on here about people having problems with Windows?

Never mind; just let them carry on wittering on about it to their hearts' content, here, having hi-jacked your thread with no apology. It keeps them out of other people's way. :beer:

IcyEars

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

What rubbish! When I last reinstalled XP I had to dig out the driver disks for the following: wifi card, freeview card, printer, graphics card, my camera, motherboard drivers, some AMD dual core patch for XP... Even as a geek I find this a pain :mad: and un-user-friendly.

Linux if it is preinstalled (like windows) will come preconfigured with all drivers installed and will work just fine and is nothing to be scared of. If you just browse the web and check emails then firefox and thunderbird will do the job, if you need to do a bit of word processing then openoffice will work as well as word.

Well said Chancellor.

weegie.geek

Leopard wrote: »

Jake's G,

The most powerful, most elegant and most desirable solid-state notebook is THIS.

Most powerful? Off the shelf, perhaps. Elegant and desirable? Not good to start a half-witted rant with opinion portrayed as fact, is it?

Geeks don't like it, though, because it runs neither Windows nor Linux unless you install these specifically.

I see as much geekiness from mac people as I do from the windows or linux mob, and a disproportionate amount of zealotry to go with it.

Quite good that you point out the fact that an OS won't run on it unless you install it. Class A logic there.

Out of the box, it runs Apple's OS 10.5.4, instead, which works a treat, synchs with an iPhone and doesn't need constant geek tinkering to make it function properly.

If you've had a PC that needed constant tinkering you had a crappy PC.

That's horrific to those who prefer to spend more time messing about with their computers than doing anything constructive with them.

Can't vouch for anyone else, but generally my PC just works, much like any other of the dozens of computers I've owned.

But it's nice for people who get out a bit, have real lives and like to use their computers to do something useful.

Ah, so the choice you make of what OS to use directly relates to what you have a "real life"?

If you have a real life, what are you doing trolling on forums at half 1 in the morning?

The problem that Geeks have with Macs is that they don't break down. That infuriates them. They can't spend hours on end typing in line after line of unintelligible code in an attempt to make it boot; the wretched thing does it all by itself.

They don't break down? complete and utter tosh.

When was the last time any PC user spent "hours on end typing in line after line of unintelligible code"?

How many threads do you ever see on here about people having problems with a Mac?

And how many thousands are there on here about people having problems with Windows?

That couldn't be anything to do with the fact that Windows-based machines outnumber OSX-based machines 20-odd to 1, could it?

There are so few people with macs that when they DO have a problem it makes sense to go to a mac-specific forum for help, as opposed to a general forum where mac users will, as I said, be vastly outnumbered.

Never mind; just let them carry on wittering on about it to their hearts' content, here, having hi-jacked your thread with no apology. It keeps them out of other people's way. :beer:

What, and you haven't attempted to hijack his thread with your pro-apple propaganda? The other posts started on topic and the discussion moved off at a tangent, but your post's only on topic because you mentioned an SSD.

Zealots of any kind are pathetic, but ones who troll forums in the middle of the night spouting lies and nonsense take the biscuit...

There are arguments for and against windows/linux/osx. Certain OSes suit certain people better depending on what they do with their computer.

For the things most people do (browse the web, listen to some music, send a few emails) all three would be fine, but macs are too expensive and linux scares them. They know windows, so go for windows.

It's great that you're happy with your mac. I like them but I like to play games among other things, and that's where a mac would really let me down. Some other things I do I'd probably be able to do on a mac but I can do them on a windows-based box just as well, for half the price, hardware-wise. It's a bit of a no-brainer for me and many others but you don't have to defend your choice of machine by talking crap.

Maybe you'd get a few more converts if you weren't telling so many lies and half-truths.

[Deleted User]

weegie.geek wrote: »

Can't vouch for anyone else, but generally my PC just works, much like any other of the dozens of computers I've owned.

As I've said before, my main PC at home has only been switched off to add new hardware or drivers, and I've not had one problem that required a reboot.

When was the last time any PC user spent "hours on end typing in line after line of unintelligible code"?

I think around 1994 when you had to spend hours tinkering with AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS and making bootdisks to enable memmaker to free more memory to play games, at a guess.

I wonder if Leopard sleeps under a bridge?

Anyway, to get back on topic. I've decided to get the Asus EEE PC 900 1GB Black with Linux. Depending how my experience of wireless and using my K850 as a modem decides whether Linux stays, or XPSP2 gets installed on it. Mainly went for the Linux one because the SSD Drive is 8GB bigger than the one you get if you go for XP preinstalled. For £270 I think they're cracking value, and just the thing for when your train gets delayed and you're left bored around Manchester Picadilly..

[Deleted User]

What, wait..

Ignoring the high concentration of dross in your post, you think that you're superior to everyone because you can afford a Macbook Air?

I could afford a Macbook Air if I wanted one, but I don't.

I don't think you'll be making too many friends on these forums with an attitude like that.

On topic.

I have settled, pending a trip to PC World to have a play, on the 20GB SSD Asus EEE PC 900. One of my favourite retailers is doing them for £259.99 inc. delivery, win!

Jake'sGran

weegie.geek wrote: »

Most powerful? Off the shelf, perhaps. Elegant and desirable? Not good to start a half-witted rant with opinion portrayed as fact, is it?.

For the things most people do (browse the web, listen to some music, send a few emails) all three would be fine, but macs are too expensive and linux scares them. They know windows, so go for windows.


Maybe you'd get a few more converts if you weren't telling so many lies and half-truths.

Re. "For the things.... This is me! And reading forums which I enjoy hugely.
I can afford any kind of computer but what I have got is fine (Dell Dimensions 4300 and only 256MB RAM). (Can you believe, it was £700+ in 2002?)


be-alright - your quote

I have settled, pending a trip to PC World to have a play, on the 20GB SSD Asus EEE PC 900. One of my favourite retailers is doing them for £259.99 inc. delivery, win!

....................

According to the same Times article where I read about the Acer Aspire One with Linux (£234) they also covered thr ASUS EEEPC 901 and said.....

"An inexpensive and very portable Windows laptop, but the Aspire one is the more usable machine"

It was quoted at £319.

[Deleted User]

I'm wary of the small battery with the Acer, that's my only concern between the two after reading into it a bit more