I finally took the plunge and bought a NetBook, and decided to share my thoughts and experiences in the first 24 hours. I’d like to start with a few notes on NetBooks in general.
Personally, I knew what I was getting in to. I had seen them in the stores, people using them, I knew how small they are. You can’t truly appreciate their compact size though until you use one. I like the ultra-portable form factor; in it’s sleeve, it is smaller than a high-school text book. Many people though will find the screen and keyboard much too small for comfort (check eBay, that’s one of the largest reasons for individual sellers parting with them [that I've seen]).
Weight-wise, it’s nice not carrying around the lead brick that is my laptop. One gotcha however, is that the NetBook isn’t overly stable. I set it down on my recliner (which is only on a few degree incline), and it flipped over almost immediately. This isn’t a major issue, just make sure you don’t sneeze too hard in its direction, it may end up on the floor.
As for some 1000HEB specifics; The battery life is great. Although it would have been nice to get the 1000HE with 50% more life, I’ve found I get nearly the rated life out of the battery just doing general web surfing (which is what it’s designed to do). I must point out though, that I’ve gotten much better life under Ubuntu than Windows. In Windows, I wasn’t able to squeeze more than 5 hours, Ubuntu on the other hand, gave me a solid 6 with the screen at almost half-brightness and the wireless turned on.
The LCD backlit display is superb, colors are vivid and blacks are deep. I definitely couldn’t bring myself to buy another CCFL backlit display again. I like the matte finish on the 1000HEB. My gateway tablet has the gloss finish, and it’s nice to not have that incredible glare.
Input devices. SO much to say about input devices. Anyone accustomed to a full sized keyboard will no-doubtedly agree with me that getting ussed to a reduced-size keyboard is a little harsh. That being said, the 92% sized keyboard on the EEE is very useable with some practice, I couldn’t imagine one of the NetBooks sporting only 85%; it would be well outside of my comfort zone.
The chiclet keys are nice, I think they’re much better than the standard beveled style, especially for this form factor. The right-shift, however, is too small, and I find myself occassionally arrowing-up instead. Speaking of arrows, the arrow keys are the smallest on the keyboard, and difficult to get used to. So far, they’re probably my biggest complaint about this little guy.
My last hardware note is the touchpad. The pad itself has a good feel, and supports multi-touch. The buttons however, are very stiff, and a little difficult to work with. I like feedback for buttons, but these are a bit much.
Overall, the biggest thing to consider will ultimately be the software. I initially booted to the fresh image of Windows XP SP 3. XP has been a little outdated for my tastes for a while, and the fact that it still had Internet Explorer 6 out of the box, made it feel a little antiquated. 52 updates later, and I had IE 8 and an up-to-date 8.5 year old OS. All of that aside, it felt a little sluggish. Screen re-draws weren’t exactly fluid, and there was a bit more stuttering than I could handle. I know the Atom is a low-power CPU, but the performance in the first hour on Windows just wasn’t to my liking.
I decided to give Ubuntu NetBook Remix a try. I’m no stranger to Linux, I have an OpenSUSE desktop, CentOS firewall, and use SLES and RHEL daily at work. Despite that, I don’t think anyone should hesitate to try this spin. Even though I’m more of a command-line kinda guy, I like the interface. It’s very user-friendly, responsive, and the package selection is well chosen. Clearly, this was designed for NetBook use.
All of my hardware was recognized immediately (Wireless card, webcam, audio). I especially like the always-maximized environment. Although 1024×600 is a great resolution for such a small screen, it is still a small screen, and working with windows in such an environment is cumbersome, and difficult to read.
UNR also has an option to install all of the little goodies necessary for a true web experience without hassle. Within 15 minutes I had the Adobe Flash player (you can choose open-source alternatives), as well as the Sun Java Runtime Environment and all of the popular CODECs (MP3, WMA/V, etc.) installed with point-and-click ease. It also comes with FireFox 3.5; a browser not only released this year, but in this decade.
Despite less than 10 hours of use, I could write a novella about my experience so far. I think I’ve given enough information though that anyone out there could make an edicated decision about whether or not a NetBook is right for them, and which OS to choose.
ASUS EEE 1000HEB Pros:
- Lightweight
- Good Battery Life
- Good keyboarding experience
- Excellent display
- Stays cool (you won’t be sterilized having this on your lap)
ASUS EEE 1000HEB Cons:
- Ships with Window XP & Internet Explorer 6
- No BlueTooth
- Switching OS isn’t straightforward (must disable boot booster in BIOS)
- Touchpad buttons are VERY stiff, takes getting used to
Ubuntu NetBook Remix Pros:
- Great hardware support
- Well laid-out User Interface
- Great package selection out of the box and for add-ons
- Better power management than Windows XP
- Responsive
- And so on…
Ubuntu NetBook Remix Cons:
- None yet (considering how critical I can be, that’s high praise)