eepc question

[Jarod Wilson]

On Tue, 2008-09-30 at 12:33 -0400, Mark J. Dulcey wrote:
> Jarod Wilson wrote:
> > On Tue, 2008-09-30 at 11:31 -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> >> I'm just asking for a recommendation for a decent low-end laptop. I
> >> don't think I could talk her into Linux, but I would probably recommend
> >> a Vaio, Thinkpad, HP, or even a Dell with XP if she could get XP
> >> commercially.
> > 
> > Ah, so my earlier suggestion of the $330 Acer Aspire One might not be
> > ideal, but for a few bucks more ($400, iirc), you can get an AAO with a
> > sata disk instead of an ssd, with Windows XP installed.
> 
> $350 at Micro Center with a 120GB hard disk and 3 cell battery, and they 
> have plenty of them. About $400 with a 160GB disk and 6 cell battery if 
> you can find someplace that has one; that version is scarce. If I were 
> going to buy an Aspire One (which I'm actually thinking about but don't 
> have the cash right now) I'd go with one of those versions, shrink the 
> XP partition to 10 or 20GB, and make it a dual-boot system that runs 
> Linux most of the time, keeping the XP in reserve just in case I needed 
> to do something that required it.

I thought long and hard about getting that version, but decided for my
use case, I didn't really need the space, and having a silent, low-power
ssd was a bonus. (I haven't run windows as anything but a kvm guest in
years, save the miserable experience of Vista which shipped on my
ThinkPad and was quickly eradicated).

> Netbooks like the Aspire One aren't the fastest systems around and the 
> screens are a bit small, but they're light and easy to carry so they 
> might be a better choice for a serious traveler than a 6-7 pound laptop,

They're definitely fast enough for web, email and shell, but I'd not
want to do any serious code hacking, compiling, etc. on 'em. I've taken
to carrying both my AAO and my Lenovo ThinkPad T61 to and from work most
days. I use the ThinkPad for anything heavy, the AAO if I need to go
mobile about the office, around the house, or want to take a system with
me somewhere like a lug meeting (not that I generally have time to make
it to any meetings lately).
 
> and they're a lot cheaper than a Lenovo X300 or similar full-featured 
> ultralight system. The Aspire One is probably the best bargain in the 
> category (though it has forced down the prices of its competitors); its 
> only misfeature is the awkward trackpad with the buttons on the sides. 
> (That's not a dealbreaker for me because I hate all trackpads and use 
> them only when it's inconvenient to use a mouse.)

Yeah, the trackpad buttons are the only thing I don't really like, but I
can deal with that. I prefer tap-clicking anyway.

> But there are a lot of 
> options now; the various Eee models, the MSI Wind, and the ones from 
> Lenovo and Dell. The HP MiniNote seems overpriced and underpowered to 
> me, so I'd stay away from it.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 was the only other one I really considered
getting, but last I looked, they weren't taking new orders, due to
unexpectedly high demand.


-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org