On Tue, 18 Mar 2014, Alexandre wrote:
On Tue, 18 Mar 2014, Thierry de Coulon wrote:
On Monday 17 March 2014 18.30:07 Felmon Davis wrote:
the trick will be, I think, getting the touchpad to work. I abhor touchpads but still want it to work. also there are only two usb ports.
I hate touchpads too, which is why almost all my laptops are/where Thinkpads. I've taken a look at the c720 (they say 1.25 kg) and Lenovo's x131e (1.8 kg!)
I seem to be on a binge since I just got a Thinkpad x131e too! it's ok and is meant to replace my trusty netbook but there are some things I dislike about it and I find it hard to abandon this netbook.
and I must say I'm more and more surprized at the Chromebook trend.
They are cheap ok. However, I just purchased a second hand Thinkad X200 for less than $250, it weights 1.4 kg and runs Debain perfectly (with TDE of course) on a 64 GB SSD. The X201 is just a little more expensive for Touchpad friends.
of course the Chromebook is cheaper new than the second-hand Thinkpad you cite but not so much if one buys a nice big ssd card.
I understand it is fun to see if these netbooks can run with Linux, but I doubt it is really usefull.
oh, I have no doubt it is really useful depending on your purposes. in fact, the more I look at it, it would be more likely to replace my netbook (my steady helpmate) than the fancy new Thinkpad! (I wanted the Thinkpad for the power, however.)
'would' be more likely because there are some drawbacks so I'm undecided if I'll even keep it.
it doesn't have a proper BIOS, a fact I very much dislike; a lot of 'open software' research went into this but Google is playing lock-down; even opening it voids the warranty - basically no 'user-serviceable parts'. the keyboard is weird, lacks function keys. no ethernet but a usb ethernet dongle works fine but only two usb ports, which is also a problem for me since I like to use a usb-connected trackball.
less than a week to go then keep or return. but if I keep it, it will be more than a 'toy'.
F.
Hi,
I'm glad you've been able to install a complete Linux on your Chromebook. It means that Linux support for it has improved in the last few months!
technically I have not installed it; I'm booting off a live usb. I will probably install though for better testing.
I have 2 netbooks: The original first-generation Asus EEE 2G surf and the one I bought last summer: Asus EEE X101CH.
I'm using a Samsung N150 Plus. I also have an Acer Aspire One but I used it only occasionally and have given it to my partner.
At the time I looked to replace my underpowered first-gen EEE, I saw for sale an used Acer Chromebook, but I wasn't too interested by it because of the fact that while its a x86 machine, it is not IBM PC compatible (BIOS and friends). Sadly, I also need Windows for industrial Windows-only software, so this Chromebook was not interesting.
I bought the Acer netbook (standard netbook) at Wal-Mart and I returned it 2 days later because I didn't liked the overall quality of the product, being used to Asus and big bros like IBM. Right after, I bought my new Asus EEE X101CH. It has a few issue with Linux, such as supporting only 2d graphics, and the Wifi is not as rock-solid (more than wired connection) as it was on my old EEE, but it is very powerful, at least for my needs.
I'm miffed that you cannot replace the wifi card in the Thinkpad X131e without a lot of messing around; they've built some stupid limitation in the BIOS, 'whitelisting' only some Broadcom and some Intel cards.
It also needed to run bleeding-edge distros like Ubuntu, because it didn't booted at all on PCLinuxOS, which as an older 3.2-series kernel. Overall, it is a great machine and I like its 3.5hrs+ battery life.
well, you can always install a kernel you desire.
It is sad that netbooks aren't made anymore (now a rare exception), because they were good small machines, at an affordable price and in a very useful size.
indeed!!!
I liked the 10 inch form-factor. I refuse to buy anything wider than 11 inches.
F.