gOS is a flavor of Linux. It’s too bad they’re not still allowing the public to buy the OLPCs as those things are the cat’s meow, according to everything I’ve read. You couldn’t run XP on it (at least not yet, MS is working on it, it seems), but I’m sure you could put OpenOffice on it (if it doesn’t already come with it) and that can save files in Word’s .doc format.
What is the GUI of these Linux machines like? Would it be super-easy for, say, a dolt such as myself who has never used Linux before?
Both machines are mighty tempting to me. I’m getting a case of the gimmes like I’ve never had before. I’m sure it’s exacerbated by the fact that my HP DV4000 is on its last leg and my birthday is coming…
If you’re running an Ubuntu flavor of Linux, you’ll pretty much do fine. Unlike some other versions (commonly called “flavors” or “distros”), Ubuntu is designed to be easy to use. There’s a tremendous about of fantastic free support available on the various Ubuntu/Kubunutu (Kubuntu is a fork of Ubuntu which IMHO is more like Windows in appearance) forums and Mark Shuttleworth (the first space tourist and cofounder of PayPal) is bankrolling it. Mandriva is another novice user friendly distro.
What I’d do, if I were thinking about switching to Linux is get a couple of “live CDs” of the various distros. A live CD allows you to try out Linux without changing your harddrive. The only downside to a live CD is that it will run slower on your machine than an install would.
Generally, if you’re married to a particular program that hasn’t been ported to Linux, you’ll probably be somewhat disappointed with Linux. However, if you’ve got a fast enough machine, you might be able to run the program using WINE which enables many Windows programs to run under Linux (and it’s fairly easy to set up and configure).
One of my PCs is a dual boot machine, with me being able to choose between Linux or XP Pro. The reason that it’s not completely Linux is it’s a pretty old box, so using WINE to run a few programs is out, and I’m too lazy to figure out how to do a couple of things in Linux that I know how to do in Windoze.
The public was able to buy them for a few months through the Give One Get One program, where you pay for two laptops and one goes to a child in a participating country. They got way more demand than they expected, so there is hope that they will open that program again.
I have one myself, purchased through that program. You absolutely must have small hands to operate the keyboard with any speed (or be willing to plug in a full-size USB keyboard, something I haven’t tried yet since I have the required tiny girly hands). It is indeed a great little thing, but the software is still in development and they are still ironing out issues with, for example, WiFi.
It doesn’t come with OpenOffice, and I doubt it has the specs to support XP. It is not a high-powered machine, it was designed with durability, low cost, and cooperation in mind. The OS is a very specialized version of Linux, and there are a fair number of applications written for it, but nowhere near the number you can get for Ubuntu. It does come with a very basic word-processing program, among other things, which can save in .rtf, .txt, and .doc formats.
As for Ubuntu on regular laptops, Linux GUIs are very similar to Windows and Mac GUIs these days. The differences between, say, Kubuntu and Windows XP aren’t much greater than the difference between Leopard (Mac OS) and Windows XP. You just have to get used to the differences. They’re mostly self-explanatory, although it helps to have a Linux-savvy friend and/or excellent Google skills.
I assume if you are running Word you installed an aftermarket version of XP on it. As sold it doesn’t have XP but Linux. Linux is a nice OS but it’s not compatible with lots of PC tasks for a casual user. It’s also got on 4 or 8 GB of storage, which is awfully limiting these days. The Eee is fine so long as you don’t expect it to replace a laptop entirely. Personally, I think it’s overpriced for what it does when you can get a fully functional Windows PC for close to the same price. I don’t think you can even sync your Ipod with an Eee.
I knew about the Give One Get One program, but I didn’t realize it had been so successful. I really think that’s the way they should go, and if they can ever get the cost down to the promised $100, I’ll happily plunk down the $200 to get myself one.
MS has said that they will get XP working on it. How they’ll do it, I don’t know (not that I’d run XP on it).
IME, the Ubuntu/Kubuntu forums are fantastic, with my questions having been answered in just a few hours (at most) with no snarky “Oh, you’re a n00b” comments.
Tuckerfan and Dragonblink, thank you for your responses. (Apologies if I’ve hijacked the thread). I used to have a copy of Red Hat floating around here, but obviously that’s been ages ago and I never got around to trying it.
Could you tell me where you heard this? - it seems quite astonishing in several ways.
It’s been in a couple of BBC articles on bbcnews.com. They’ve quoted folks from MS, so it’s not like the OLPC folks are just making this up.
It sure would be worth the $50 dollars for the machine, but it’s got the drawback that I was looking to avoid: weight. I’m not going to lug around 2,5kg of weight everyday to do some typing, which I why I was looking at the EeePc – it’s not so much the low, low price, as the small, small size (and weight).
But I’m still undecided…
Fair enough - it does seem really odd though - partly because the sped of the device is quite a challenge for the task, but partly because it’s XP - I wouldn’t be expecting MS to be investing any effort in getting that onto new platforms right now - with Vista on the scene.
XP’s a gateway drug, man. Get 'em hooked on that, and then they’ll be forced to upgrade to Vista. 
MS is probably looking to ensure market penetration in that part of the world. Or it’s a training session for their next OS, since they’ve decided that Vista’s bloatware and plan on getting out a replacement in 2010.
2010: Aero glass interface for a Linux kernel, I reckon
No, not really.
Hope it’s OK to bump this thread back up, but I stumbled across an interesting link the other day. Everex (Supplier of those $200 gOS PCs sold in Wal-Mart) is about to release a sub-notebook called the Cloudbook.
Looks to be a similar form factor to the eeePC, but different in spec - it will have a 30GB hard drive (some might consider that a step backward in terms of power consumption and speed though), it will also run gOS - a Ubuntu Linux derivative with a lightweight, OSX-wannabe GUI called Enlightenment - which is pretty good.
Keyboard looks to be similar to the eeePC though.
Some guy on YouTube reviewed the European Packard Bell-branded version of the Everex PC a couple of months ago.
(warning, guy’s voice and ponderous delivery will send you to sleep, do not watch link while operating machinery)
Looks quite good, except it’s quite a bit more expensive that the Eee over here. And if you thought the Eee’s touchpad was small, wait till you see the “thumbpad” on this thing.
Yeah, I mentioned that back up in post #20. :smack:
Ironically, I’ve heard from a couple people that the Cloudbook actually gets better battery life than the Eee. I find that very interesting, since you’d think the hard drive would draw more power than the flash memory the Eee uses. I must say that I find the Eee’s battery life ridiculously disappointing, given how small and low-power it’s supposed to be. Fortunately, those $30-$40 external battery packs they sell at Wal-Mart and the like for portable DVD players allow you to run the Eee for 5-6 hours, which makes it useful for those of us who use it for taking notes at school, where you often can’t get near a power outlet and have classes for 4-6 hours in a row.
But before it started dying, I was using my Sony Vaio Picturebook C1VP, and its quad-capacity battery gave me over 8 hours of battery life with a 20GB hard drive and a 1024x480 screen (compared to the Eee’s 4GB flash drive and 800x480 screen). So the Eee’s battery life was a huge disappointment to me.
Alphasmart – runs around $10 on Ebay nowadays, plus shipping, but it’svery light so that’s not a problem.
300 hours on two AA batteries. I note the Neo gets 700 hours on 3 AA batteries, but costs $242.
Instant on – you turn it on, you’re writing. It’s that simple. No waiting for the OS to boot. No waiting for the app to boot. Just turn it on and start typing.
Really, if all you want is a tool for writing text, those expensive, heavy, battery-draining, slow-operating notebooks are total losers by comparison.
That is interesting. The cloudbook seems a bit more of a computer to me than the eeePC - I confess, I haven’t set the specs alongside each other for close comparison though, it’s just the marketing probably - the eeePC is being sold as a cool expensive toy - the cloudbook looks like they’re pushing it as a compact but practical computer.
Hope you guys don’t mind the bump, but I am thinking back and forth between an eeepc now, and this thread feels new enough that I don’t want to make a new thread.
Like Enterprise, I am looking for a laptop to mostly write on, as well as basic web surfing. I currently use an IBM Thinkpad x23 that I bought on ebay second hand ($200!), and I’ve been extremely happy with it, but the poor thing is on its last legs (I just had to sit on the keyboard in front of a crowded coffee shop to get it to turn on. If anything, this machine is good for character building) and I’m looking at what else is out there. So far the only alternative listed here that caught my attention is the Cloudbook, but I want to read up on it a bit more.
The eeepc is attractive to me because of the size, of course, but videos of the machine show it to be very quick as well. Honestly, I can say my only concern is the keyboard, as I have big ol’ hands. I saw someone with an eeepc last weekend and asked him how he liked it, I should have been a little intrusive and asked to try it out.
Anyhow, if anyone is concerned with the OS, I want to share this link I found. Apparently there is a version of Xubuntu that has been tinkered with to fit well with eeepc. Ubuntu has already been talked about in this thread, and I’d like to echo that it is a great OS. The fact that there’s a flavor of it customized for eeepc is pretty attractive to me.
Also, to offer another alternative, the Ideapad U110 is very appealing. Small (11" widescreen), powerful, tons of features (there’s a security program that SCANS YOUR FACE WHAT THE HELL), and from what I hear the other models on the Ideapad line run Ubuntu well (which makes sense, Lenovo has always been Linux friendly). I personally don’t like the way it looks (okay, I actually hate it) but it is certainly appealing. However, it’s rumored to be over $1000 at launch, so I’m still looking at the eeepc.
Anyhow, I am going to go ahead and bump this, in hopes that more people have had hands-on experience with the machine and can comment on the screen and keyboard, or, if I’m really lucky, eeexubuntu.