This morning I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix on a refurbished EEEpc 900A. The OS it came with was not very good: Most of the updates weren't working, There was 70MB of free storage (yes, MegaBytes) and it just clearly wasn't intended for a power user. The only way to get to a terminal was ctrl-t, and the window that came up just wasn't user friendly.
One nice app that was included was stellarium, a deceptively simple desktop starmap. I've wanted to learn constellations and star names better, and stellarium is a perfect tool for that, plus tracking all the planets, and zooming close enough to see the movement of their moons. It's not a technological breakthrough, but it's a perfect kind of pocket guide and I think it suits the netbook form factor very well.
But it's also available in the stellarium package for ubuntu, so ubuntu is what I used.
I'm happy to say that what I got was more of the same high quality I've come to expect from ubuntu. After installing some of my favorites apps, and uninstalling a few others, I have a small and light computer with a very easy to use launcher and a full screen windowing system. (and yes you can switch to a regular window manager, but so far I haven't felt the need to.)
The other issue which worried me about modern netbooks was heat. This laptop does not get hot. It's warm when you touch it with your hand, but not at all uncomfortable the way most other laptops tend to be. I'm surprised it even requires a fan.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
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