[Wolves] Ubuntu on Eee PC - Worth it?

[Alan Pope]

On Mon, Jan 07, 2008 at 09:05:37PM +0000, Rob Parker wrote:
> Hey, I've noticed quite a few people on this list have brought Eee PC,
> and I (well my father)has recently ordered one from EfficientPC (and it
> is yet to arrive),

Is it for you or him? :)

> and was wondering whether any have tried installing
> Ubuntu, 

I have two EEE PCs. One my wife uses and one for me. Hers runs the stock 
Xandros install with very little changes. Mine runs eeeXubuntu at the 
moment. In the past I have tried Ubuntu but GNOME isn't super quick on this 
CPU and RAM footprint, so I decided to use XFCE (eeeXubuntu) instead. 

As a long time Ubuntu (GNOME) user I find XFCE very usable. I found the KDE 
apps under Xandros very capable but quite annoying in some ways, which is 
the main reason I dumped Xandros for X/Ubuntu.

>and if how good does it run compared to the default OS, as I
> feel I would prefer a 'normal' GNOME desktop to the seemlingly
> 'childish-looking' icon interface or KDE.

Don't knock it the UI of Xandros may well look childish, but it Just Works 
(TM). No faffing, it's really quite refreshing to see a Linux that pretty 
much anyone can use. Clearly personal preference means that it may not be 
appropriate for you, sure, but it is fantastic for many people.

> I read https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC and was wondering, first
> how well if all gconf omptimization 

I have not done any gconf optimisation, I just installed eeeXubuntu Rel 3.

> how well do and apps and the
> interface fit on the small screen,

Many don't. Depends what you use. I tend to fullscreen apps like firefox and 
my terminals. Everyones use cases are different though of course. Right now 
I am working with two shells, firefox, skype and tomboy open and the machine 
runs just fine.

> and second how much worse (if any) is
> the time taken to boot and shut down compared to the default OS (which
> I've heard boots 15 seconds).

It isn't 15 Seconds. It's nearer 25 if you're counting. I really don't care 
myself. I tend to waste enough of the day that a few second here and there 
don't matter to me (I tend to boot my computer less than 5 times a day, so 
one minute "lost" to that really isn't worth gripping my shit over.

> Also does suspend and resume work, and is
> the wireless reliable?

Yes.

> Also I was thinking of buying a ~4Gb SD card to increase capacity, I
> guess the best thing to do would be hardlink dirs from it to my home
> directory? (for folders such as Documents, Pictures, Music and Vidoes,
> etc)

Up to you. I Have an 8G SDHC card (which has just filled up thanks to my 
podcatcher downloading some HD videos I'll probably never watch) and just 
leave /home on the internal flash and store data on the SDHC/USB cards.

Cheers,
Al.