Thursday, April 22, 2010
Even More About the Netbook
So after a couple of weeks with the netbook, I'm quite satisfied.
Some thoughts:
1. The keyboard is awkward, but not terribly so. It's usable, just take some adjustment. I have a chiclet keyboard on all of the other computers I use, so it's really just a size issue. If you hate chiclet keyboards (think: keys are separate, and there are space between the keys), then consider a different option.
2. Performance is mediocre if you do lots of media. HTML/JPEG rendering is fine, but video taxes the machine, and HD video is unplayable (literally, it won't play).
3. I'm using Linux as a principal OS for the first time in a while. I really am impressed with the quality of Ubuntu (in this case). I really am not sure why anyone would use Windows. I haven't booted into Windows in a few days, although I don't anticipate blowing away that partition. I need Windows to run iTunes, I suppose. I need tuneranger, or some other tool to sync my iTunes library.
4. Battery life is unbelievable. I charge this thing less often than my phone. Now, it's NOT my principal machine, except on the road. However, I carry it around as much as is useful. Incidentally, I'm NOT writing this on my netbook. Hmm...
5. Perfect for the cafe lifestyle. I will probably work at a cafe tomorrow, and am actually looking forward. I'll probably bring my mouse.
6. The touchpad is useful, but not great. Actually, the touchpad is very good (although of course small). I prefer edge scrolling to two-finger scrolling, and it supports both (under Linux!). The touchpad itself isn't exactly a separate surface; it's a nubbly region of the same material as the wrist-rest. Oh, and touch-to-click works well. The problem is the button; they've used one long surface for the button, rather than two separate buttons, and it takes a little too much effort to both position my thumb and to press.
I had planned on purchasing a new MacBook Pro, but I like the 13" form-factor, and that size didn't exactly get a real processor upgrade. There are some good articles (macrumors|tuaw|artechnica) on why, but the nutshell is that Apple went for the typical user, who watches a lot of video and doesn't compile much. So for now, no
Some thoughts:
1. The keyboard is awkward, but not terribly so. It's usable, just take some adjustment. I have a chiclet keyboard on all of the other computers I use, so it's really just a size issue. If you hate chiclet keyboards (think: keys are separate, and there are space between the keys), then consider a different option.
2. Performance is mediocre if you do lots of media. HTML/JPEG rendering is fine, but video taxes the machine, and HD video is unplayable (literally, it won't play).
3. I'm using Linux as a principal OS for the first time in a while. I really am impressed with the quality of Ubuntu (in this case). I really am not sure why anyone would use Windows. I haven't booted into Windows in a few days, although I don't anticipate blowing away that partition. I need Windows to run iTunes, I suppose. I need tuneranger, or some other tool to sync my iTunes library.
4. Battery life is unbelievable. I charge this thing less often than my phone. Now, it's NOT my principal machine, except on the road. However, I carry it around as much as is useful. Incidentally, I'm NOT writing this on my netbook. Hmm...
5. Perfect for the cafe lifestyle. I will probably work at a cafe tomorrow, and am actually looking forward. I'll probably bring my mouse.
6. The touchpad is useful, but not great. Actually, the touchpad is very good (although of course small). I prefer edge scrolling to two-finger scrolling, and it supports both (under Linux!). The touchpad itself isn't exactly a separate surface; it's a nubbly region of the same material as the wrist-rest. Oh, and touch-to-click works well. The problem is the button; they've used one long surface for the button, rather than two separate buttons, and it takes a little too much effort to both position my thumb and to press.
I had planned on purchasing a new MacBook Pro, but I like the 13" form-factor, and that size didn't exactly get a real processor upgrade. There are some good articles (macrumors|tuaw|artechnica) on why, but the nutshell is that Apple went for the typical user, who watches a lot of video and doesn't compile much. So for now, no
Thursday, April 8, 2010
iPad First Impressions
I'm a little late (almost five days) in the first impressions category, but I thought I'd post these. A colleague and friend got one from, of all people, Woz, because he's a senior docent at the Silicon Valley computer museum.
1. It's heavier than I expected, and felt heavier than the less-than 1Kg advertised weight.
2. Typing is awkward, but, as on the iPhone, Dragon speech recognition works well. I thought that the much-bigger keyboard would make it possible to actually type, but that's not the ideal interaction. I haven't tried a bluetooth keyboard.
3. No problems with wireless, or anything else, for that matter.
I think it's neat, but for me, it would be a toy, and wouldn't replace a computer. That's why I got the netbook. It's not a workhorse, but it will replace a computer on my upcoming trip. We'll see how that goes. If it goes well, I'll keep it.
So what would the iPad be good for? It would be an ideal infocenter in a car. It could serve as a head unit for music, and as a great GPS (screen is large), but what it would need is much, much more voice interaction. In fact, that's my single favorite feature on the iPhone 3Gs (voice dialing).
Oh, you can watch movies on it, but this whole streaming/cloud thing is not appealing to me for long movies. Also, I need closed captioning/subtitles.
1. It's heavier than I expected, and felt heavier than the less-than 1Kg advertised weight.
2. Typing is awkward, but, as on the iPhone, Dragon speech recognition works well. I thought that the much-bigger keyboard would make it possible to actually type, but that's not the ideal interaction. I haven't tried a bluetooth keyboard.
3. No problems with wireless, or anything else, for that matter.
I think it's neat, but for me, it would be a toy, and wouldn't replace a computer. That's why I got the netbook. It's not a workhorse, but it will replace a computer on my upcoming trip. We'll see how that goes. If it goes well, I'll keep it.
So what would the iPad be good for? It would be an ideal infocenter in a car. It could serve as a head unit for music, and as a great GPS (screen is large), but what it would need is much, much more voice interaction. In fact, that's my single favorite feature on the iPhone 3Gs (voice dialing).
Oh, you can watch movies on it, but this whole streaming/cloud thing is not appealing to me for long movies. Also, I need closed captioning/subtitles.
More on My Netbook
It took forever to get Linux installed. The first problem was getting my Asus to rad from a USB boot device. The whole idiotic partitioning scheme took probably an hour to solve. Essentially, you can only have 4 primary partitions, but what must be a primary partition is not clear. So I made my second and third linux partitions (/home and swap) as part of an extended partition.
Now begins the fun of:
a. running Windows
b. updating everything
c. installing software
Overall, I love the package. However, it's sloooooooooow.
The Asus has an Intel Atom N450 processor, which exchanges performance for low power use. As that's the big purpose of a netbook, it's not surprising, but installing and configuring seems to take longer than I'd like. For example, I want to install a licensed copy of Office 2007. I downloaded it from the work repository, and then I have to uninstall the free trial (which left behind several language packs that have to be uninstalled separately, and now in a foreign language, so screw it). I've never liked the installation process on Windows.
I'm still happy; it's just that my happiness is increasing slowly.
Now begins the fun of:
a. running Windows
b. updating everything
c. installing software
Overall, I love the package. However, it's sloooooooooow.
The Asus has an Intel Atom N450 processor, which exchanges performance for low power use. As that's the big purpose of a netbook, it's not surprising, but installing and configuring seems to take longer than I'd like. For example, I want to install a licensed copy of Office 2007. I downloaded it from the work repository, and then I have to uninstall the free trial (which left behind several language packs that have to be uninstalled separately, and now in a foreign language, so screw it). I've never liked the installation process on Windows.
I'm still happy; it's just that my happiness is increasing slowly.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Asus eee PC Netbook!
My netbook has arrived. It's tiny, and the claimed battery life is immense. We'll see. There are a few nice things:
* It's tiny and light
* Screen seems excellent
* Faster than I thought it might be
* No crashing so far
* Excellent trackpad
* HD is partitioned, making it exceptionally easy to install Fedora (tomorrow)
Problems:
* Keyboard will take some getting used to
* The trackpad button is an engineering failure; it's just plain hard to push
* The neat thing about the trackpad, that it's just a textured surface, takes getting used to
* Windows 7, um, sucks, UI-wise, at least for a novice
* On top of that, Windows 7, and MS applications in general, make exceedingly poor use of screen real estate; this is not so good on 1024x600
* I want old-style "Windows Classic" start bar. I didn't like the XP start bar, but I could switch it back (and always did). I am glad that they kept the Windows Classic theme
* Why does Windows 7 (and MacOS, for that matter) let you set up NTP, but won't allow you to sync? It happens "on a schedule"...
* Even with the Atom N450, it's not exactly a powerhouse of a machine, but you make sacrifices for battery life and portability
* I cannot, for the life of me, determine if the Atom N450 is x64 (e.g., compliant with x86-64). In other words, can I install a 64-bit OS? The pre-configured install is a 32-bit Windows 7 starter
* Bizarrely, the model number is nowhere to be found on the actual machine
More thoughts will come as I get used to the thing. No excellent resources so far on the Windows side, but there's excellent info on getting Linux running. I would run Ubuntu, but we use Fedora at work.
* It's tiny and light
* Screen seems excellent
* Faster than I thought it might be
* No crashing so far
* Excellent trackpad
* HD is partitioned, making it exceptionally easy to install Fedora (tomorrow)
Problems:
* Keyboard will take some getting used to
* The trackpad button is an engineering failure; it's just plain hard to push
* The neat thing about the trackpad, that it's just a textured surface, takes getting used to
* Windows 7, um, sucks, UI-wise, at least for a novice
* On top of that, Windows 7, and MS applications in general, make exceedingly poor use of screen real estate; this is not so good on 1024x600
* I want old-style "Windows Classic" start bar. I didn't like the XP start bar, but I could switch it back (and always did). I am glad that they kept the Windows Classic theme
* Why does Windows 7 (and MacOS, for that matter) let you set up NTP, but won't allow you to sync? It happens "on a schedule"...
* Even with the Atom N450, it's not exactly a powerhouse of a machine, but you make sacrifices for battery life and portability
* I cannot, for the life of me, determine if the Atom N450 is x64 (e.g., compliant with x86-64). In other words, can I install a 64-bit OS? The pre-configured install is a 32-bit Windows 7 starter
* Bizarrely, the model number is nowhere to be found on the actual machine
More thoughts will come as I get used to the thing. No excellent resources so far on the Windows side, but there's excellent info on getting Linux running. I would run Ubuntu, but we use Fedora at work.
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