Please, can anyone tell me if this system is any good, pros and cons?
Friend's interested in buying a dinky little puter from PCWorld & at a more affordable price comes with Linux loaded.....for XP it comes in at abt £100 more, so....??? Any info you can give I'll pass on and she'll be v.v. grateful. Thanks.
Pro - It will work reliably & be considerably less susceptible to viruses.
Con - If they are used to using windows it may take a few minutes to figure out where things are. Canon branded products can't usually be used as drivers are usually unavailable.
Out of interest which computer is it? On their website they only seem to list the 'ASUS EeePC900' as being available with a choice of either linux or XP & it costs £299 either way.
Thank you! I've copied and sent your answer on. PC World and ToysRus are selling the linux loaded one you found, at £180.....with Windows loaded it comes in at £299.
Thanks again for the info. 8)
Lishka
Hi there. I use ubuntu linux and I've not yet found anything that I could do on windows that I can't do on linux. I also find it to be more reliable and stable that windows.
I also have a canon printer and have got that working under the latest version of ubuntu without any problems.
What variant of linux does it come with. The website is a little short of info.
My advice would be to go for it.
Thanks for that, also..I've sent it on...my bet is that she'll be buying one today 8)
'fraid I don't have any information other than that link BM posted, which another friend (yeah! boasting now.I've got TWO ;D) sent me when they bought theirs, but last night it was too late to rouse them to ask the q re: linux direct, so I posted here.
Knew you lot wouldn't let me down!
Lishka
The Asus EEE PC range comes with Xandros linux.
Lishka your friend may be looking at different laptops & assuming they are the same because they have very similar names.
On the toys r us site they are offering identical laptops with a choice of xp or linux with a £20 price difference.
Linux laptop @ £179 (http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Product.aspx/TruHome/TruComputers/TruComputersLaptop/815489)
Xp laptop @ £199 (http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Product.aspx/TruHome/TruComputers/TruComputersLaptop/771953)
On the PC world site they are offering almost the same thing but with a 2GB hard drive rather than 4 GB. They do also offer the same computer as Toys R Us but at £199 & only with linux they don't offer it with xp.
Linux laptop @ £179.99 (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0610421846.1217755368@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdadeekhjmjfkcflgceggdhhmdgmj.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=804069&category_oid=-35074#productInformationSection)
With any of the above laptops I would be asking what do they want it for? Will it be up to the job? They are very low spec machines that can't be upgraded easily or cheaply so it is somewhat limited what they are capable of. The hard drives are tiny by todays standards a blank dvd has more storage space on it than one of these laptops.
If they do buy one of these they should definitely get the linux version XP is too demanding when it comes to the resources & the laptop would run incredibly slowly & as XP requires a minimum of 1.5GB available hard drive space that would mean almost half the drive gone before they put anything else on it.
Ok, time to 'fess up. I have one of these. The 2g Surf model.
Yes it is tiny. Yes it has a tiny hard drive.
I just wanted it for travelling, so weight is an issue. I wanted to be able to catch up on email, browse websites and store some pics. All these get big ticks from the Asus!
I agree, it has its limits, but as I do not want to play games or store huge amounts of stuff on it, it's just perfect!
Linus Xandros is fine, at first it seems a bit odd, but really it is just point and click.
Anything that gets me away from Msoft is A Good Thing IMHO!
;)
OoooH! My Other Friend has finally surfaced from under the duvet where she's been kept company by her little new friend perhaps? ;) ;D
But what have you started, Katie?!...me, puter illiterate, fancy fones illiterate, digi-camera illiterate (thinking I can't even spell illiterate cos it looks funny).....but I LURVE little gadgets....got them all stored on a Shelf for Useless Things I Thort was a Good Idea at the Time.....but hey! would be neat to have one of these in my handbag 8)......shall I/shan't I? And how do I get this working.....got a Belkin ADSL Modem with Wireless-G router which accommodates my PC + laptop atm so what would I have to do, please?.....
PS....at least I've got something functioning.....IlliteratesRUs, according to my old-fashioned Chambers dictionary say I've spelled it right....
;D ;D ;D ;D
I have the same router, PC pillocks finally got it right (at the 2nd attempt) and it works fine, your mini laptop would pick it up perfectly.
IF (!) you get one, you get it out of the box, charge it for approx 2-3 hrs, open it up and follow easy peasy instructions. It boots up really quickly. The most painless start to a web-based relationship I have ever had!
;)
I have set-up my desktop computer with a Vi-Power caddy for the system disk, I have two drawers for the caddy (one with XP and the other with Ubuntu v8.04). By swapping the draws I can use either system. I seldom use XP now, usually only for software or hardware which only works under Windows. I am very happy with the Ubuntu version of Linux. I do manage four web domains, my own site is http://www.erowell.co.uk (http://www.erowell.co.uk).
can i swap my vista for Linux and doing so will it work im using a hp ver new micro pc cost about £600
and if i can how much is the software as im sick of trojans and malwares doing my head in it is :(
With Ubuntu, the OS is free as is all the software (and there's hundreds of applications to choose from). It will work on any PC produced in the last five years (if it's got USB sockets, and had Windows 2000/NT/XP or Vista on it, it's recent enough). For a full series of magazines (15 to date) go to http://fullcirclemagazine.org/ (http://fullcirclemagazine.org/)
You can download a free copy of Ubuntu linux or request a free cd from their site. http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu
I swapped from XP to Mandriva Spring 2008 Linux. Wow, fantastic. I still have XP on another partition but very rarely use it.
Have not looked back! ;D
Oh, and no viruses at all. Cant run under Linux ;D
So......after reading all this about Linux, I'm tempted..
How painless will it be to completely dump Vista and install Linux, please?
My year-old laptop came with Vista installed and I really really don't like it - and to be free of AVG or Avast etc would be a bonus too 8)
And thanks BaccyMan for the link to the site :-*
Lishka
hmmm.....bought me babby from Toy'sR'Us and can't get an internet connection. And you said it would be easy Katy :'(
With the Belkin router I have, mentioned below, any idea why nothing's happening?
I wonder if there is a little switch that turns the wifi on?
This was pointed out to me when I went ranting and raving back to the shop once.
Tnaks ACE, I'll have another look tonite....going out to battle with a severely overgorwn garden now for 6 hours - gotta be easier work than battling with a b. puter :o