At BarCampKL last weekend (wow, time flies), one of the more interesting talks I attended was Preetam Rai’s session, on Netbooks. Carolyn was suspicious that a Mac head was at a netbook session, but the reality is, I’ve always been interested in netbooks, ever since I picked up the Asus Eee PC 701.
I didn’t “live tweet” the session, but I did take notes:
- Keep in mind the small screen – 800×480 is crap. 1024×600 seems to be the new preferred resolution, and it might make things like Google Reader easier to use
- What browser? Chrome seems to work well – I’ve been Chrome free, considering I don’t run Windows… All this may change, but it seems like the interface of Chrome, the lack of a top toolbar, is a pretty good thing
- Dock, to make it more OSX like, Rocket Dock – read Preetam’s post about Netbook Tweaks 1: Rocketdock
- Magnification – The Magnifier, EZ Magnifier
- Anti-virus – use AVG (free)
- MSN Messenger – hack to remove ads, mess.be. Otherwise use Pidgin, which as an alternative to MSN Messenger
- Office – MSOffice isn’t so user friendly on small screens because the toolbars take lots of space. OpenOffice.org is also a problem, in terms of toolbars. Mozilla Prism, then use Google Docs, with offline mode
- Using Linux? Well, you can contact your local LUG
- Battery life? Turn of wifi, bluetooth when you don’t need it. Low power saving mode.
- Windows? Disable computer discovery, bluetooth management
- Linux? Mind the filesystem, also keep in touch with fstab. You don’t want to kill your SSD
- How do you speed it up? Upgrade the RAM.
- Keyboard? 701 has a horrible keyboard. HP seems to do pretty well with their keyboards. Ditto with MSI Winds, the Lenovo, and newer Asus EeePC’s – so the keyboards are getting better
So, with regards to Linux, the Ubuntu Netbook Remix seems to get the most traction. I am partial to Fedora… If I pick up an Asus 1000HE, do I just “enjoy” using Windows? So many thoughts…