Goin' Mobile

[Flying Duck]

When I got my last laptop a couple of years ago I got the smallest Gateway had at the time. Was happy that it would fit in a side case or city case.

Well, over the past couple of years everybody's been popping out "netbooks" so I decided to ask for one for Xmas. After doing a bunch of online research I edned up deciding upon as ASUS eee from Best Buy. It's got built in WiFi, 160GB hard drive and runs XP Home.

Aside from being small portable and light. The model I chose claims 8.5 hours battery life and one guy in a review said he was able to get 11 hours out of it by having the display dimmed.

Anyhow, it's a cool little unit for only $299 and looks like it'll be great for taking with me riding. I'm using it to post this message.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Eee+ ... &cp=1&lp=1


I also got a little padded neoprene case for it foir another $17.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Targus+-+A7 ... &cp=1&lp=1


I'll try some reeporting from the road on my way up the coast in about 10 days.

[Flying Duck]

[drikko]

Been using one of those for a year at least now, it's my favourite PC. In fact I'm sitting outside my tent up at Noosa right now, it's as hot as hell, humid, just stopped raining which was great as it cooled things down a tad. I've got the 3G USB stick in checking things out here and other forums. So what I am saying as a traveling PC these things are awesome. You can get a 12V adapter off ebay for them easily. I take it sailing, on the bike, camping whatever, have bought a USB TV tuner for it, use it play movies on etc etc. For movies I boot off a USB stick into Ubuntu linux as the movie player works better than windows.

You can get nav programs, use a bluetooth GPS adapter and get moving maps and nav in the car. use it for nav in the boat as well.

You will have fun with it!

[Flying Duck]

For movies I boot off a USB stick into Ubuntu linux as the movie player works better than windows.

Boy, that sure was easy to do. Thanks for the suggestion.

[drikko]

Which one did you use? The easiest one is http://www.geteasypeasy.com/

[Flying Duck]

i haven't downloaded one yet, just got the Ubuntu boot working. I got the USB stick working, now working on making a bootable Ubuntu SD card. (and watching football.)


Thanks for the recommendation.

[drikko]

And having a beer of course.....

[Flying Duck]

Oops. I'd actually just picked a generic V9.x of Ubuntu. That easypeasy looks like the ticket for a netbook though so I'll go that way.

Beer later....

[Flying Duck]

Well, it was a bit of a challenge with a few technical hurdles but I managed to get it set up to dual boot both XP and EasyPeasy from the hard disk.

[Tim (Midland Section)]

I too run Ubuntu 9.10 mainly from USB stick ATM. But it is running well on an old Pentium 2 which I keep at work.
I found it here http://www.ubuntu.com/
Is Easypeasy specially modified for Netbooks?

[Flying Duck]

I too run Ubuntu 9.10 mainly from USB stick ATM. But it is running well on an old Pentium 2 which I keep at work.
I found it here http://www.ubuntu.com/
Is Easypeasy specially modified for Netbooks?

Yes. it was originally named "Ubuntu eee" so I'm assuming it was for the ASUS eee netbooks.

[mtnroads]

Ya gotta love the open source folks - I run Ubuntu on both my personal PC's and it is great not having to have to spend the annual tariff on Microsoft software updates and antivirus. Not to mention my hardware lasts a lot longer and doesn't need to be reloaded with a fresh Windoze each year after clogging up and slowing down.

Funny - tonight I was in Best Buy and looked at all of those netbooks myself. It's the time of year when I get my personal planning system set up for the next year and started thinking one of those might be a practical tool. I have an old HP IPAQ that's very portable but slow, and if I got a netbook the first thing I'd do is wipe it clean and install one of the light versions of Linux. I hadn't heard of EasyPeasy before - ha ha.

[Flying Duck]

Why would you tithe to MS for antivirus? Just get the free edition of AVG.

http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg- ... ee-edition

[supercat1]

and let's be honest, the only reason to have a pc is to play games. and linux doesn't do that very well currently ... so you gotta stick with windows. once something else comes out that plays games as well, is as supported, and costs less, i'll jump ship in a heart beat!

[mnb]

I've considered a netbook for a mobile system for sometime, but the 10.5" screens have limited real estate for use with GPS Routing software.

Has anyone used MapSource on a NetBook and how 'doable' is it?

[Saltcreek]

Just get the free edition of AVG.

+1 to that. I've been using it for years successfully. I'm even considering paying for the upgrade.

[lrome48]

Just get the free edition of AVG.

+1 to that. I've been using it for years successfully. I'm even considering paying for the upgrade.

Looks like you are going to have to....AVG discontinued the free version

[Flying Duck]

Looks like you are going to have to....AVG discontinued the free version

Nope.

http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free

[drikko]

As FD says, it's still free, they just keep trying to make it harder to find. I work for one of the big AV companies that will remain nameless here but still use AVG at home!