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Ubuntu to the Rescue (of the netbooks)

Kevin Kurtz - 5/18/09 2:32PM

Recently, I bought a new netbook (recently being about 2 months ago). I, at one point or another, had an Asus EEE 701. It was quite terrible, the screen space was too small and so was the keyboard. Don't get me wrong, was a great little machine, but just not for me. I sold it about six months after buying it. My new netbook, Dell Mini 9, is much better suited for my needs. Problem is that these companies keep insisting on installing Windows on these hardware crippled machines. I don't know what their problems are, but they need to learn soon. (Dell offers an Ubuntu install, but its not much cheaper and only comes standard on the even more crippled model). I installed Ubuntu's Netbook Remix on it and haven't regretted it for a second. I, also, implemented some tweaks to better suit an SSD (solid state disk, the new type of harddrive in low power computers), but I'll let you google the commands and changes for these as I'm not going to remember them at this point (big one is norelatime option when mounting so you don't record time accessed every time you open a file).

I have been doing much better with GNU/Linux recently. I have an Nvidia card instead of an ATI now, which seemed to help BOATLOADS with the choppy video playback issues I am used to having in alternate OS's. Wine is far enough along that it flawlessly runs Project64 (my Nintendo 64 emulator I use for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) with my Logitech joypad. I finally, after many long months of practicing, have a good understanding of the command line without having to look up the commands every ten seconds (for instance, I can use apt-get and even iptables without referencing anything most of the time). AND FINALLY, Flash 10 works decently! Now that I don't have to drop off flash videos (or play some of them at 10 frames per second) the operating system is fairly usable. It's to the point that I set it up on my mom and sister's netbooks. It's getting that ready for primetime use. It's about time in my opinion. But now I feel comfortable explaining things they need to do over the phone or even writing scripts to do them. After many years of waiting, I've finally ditched Windows all together. (Quite a view change for me if you read some of my former rants. I love Windows, don't get me wrong, but it is becoming increasingly less useful as time goes on. And with the invent of Vista, much less usable on old hardware. Not everyone has a $2,000 PC, Redmond. Learn it. And something isn't Vista Capable if it can only render your Aero interface at 10fps).

Back to the original point, Windows should never touch a netbook! It's not meant to run on old or slow hardware. It doesnt play well with tiny resolutions. And most important of all, IT SHOULD NEVER EVER EVER BE ON AN SSD! Windows is constantly caching things to the harddrive. Continously writing. Even with the best wear-leveling routines (build in functions to keep from writing to the same spot on the drive over and over again) you are going to wear the drive out in no time. SSD drives have a very limited number of write cycles, much like a flash (thumb, or usb) drive. They are built on flash memory that only can be written to so many time (something like 1,000 cycles is common I believe). If Windows is constantly writing data you will wear that out in a year. Unlike Ubuntu (or any open OS), where you can make changes to limit writes (or make the source disk entirely read only). *There is a software package I know of that will make your Windows boot partition read only. All the work is done in a RAM drive. This only works if you have a reasonable amount of RAM. It also makes changing anything insanely difficult, but if Windows is the only option for you, look into it as it will greatly increase the life of your netbook* Couple that amazing feature with the ability to install low power window managers that significantly increase speed and efficency (try running a Windows interface or even a full Gnome or KDE interface on an Intel Atom processor... bad plan). With a few good tweaks, netbooks are as speedy as any other notebook. As long as you are smart about it and can deal with the limited screen real estate I suggest buying one.