Netbook Browsers and Linux Distros

[Tubaryan12]

I just dual booted my Acer netbook with Ubuntu 11.04 with Chromium browser. Surfs almost as fast as my Win7 computer. Now all I need a cheap wireless mouse and I'm all set.

[UDELBR]

Chrome is a really weird browser. I need to read all the docs. It has no bookmarks. Well, it HAS to have them, but it is not plainly apparent where they are. I will read up tonight to learn how to navigate this browser.

Plenty of Chrome users have commented on the lack of a bookmark toolbar. There is one; it's just up top. You can put nested folders up there, too.



Pretty clunky, and despite several years of complaints, Google's made it clear they're not gonna do anything about it. Here's an addon that'll add a useful bookmarks popup: http://tinyurl.com/5uod52z" target="_blank" target="_blank

[Wyvern]

I have used Chrome as my main browser for a couple years and find it faster. The bookmark facility is really easy to use once you know and will even synchronise across multiple computers using Google account - so I add bookmark on my desktop PC and it is also there when I open my Netbook, neat!

[bisontuba]

Hi-
I would consider checking an iPad1 or iPad2 or some other tablet--very handy for 'on the road.' There are a lot--and even more coming out--in the tablet field. Netbooks are cute useful gadgets, but tablets are just so handy--you have soooo many choices today and soon more coming. Take a look:

http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=TAB" target="_blank

Good luck!
mark

[Wyvern]

What to get all depends on your personal requirements and priorities. You should first list exactly what you want it to do and any other criteria such as weight, size and budget - and then see what fulfils your specifications.

I have just got an iPad 2 for my wife as she wanted light and portable to mainly uses for video chatting, web browsing, watching TV on-line and viewing/editing photos. However for my own use which is more business orientated I think a netbook is better. I managed do all my business for 2 months earlier this year while in China using a Samsung NC10 (with added 2Gb memory) which has served me well for the last 2 years.

[gwwilk]

I have used Chrome as my main browser for a couple years and find it faster. The bookmark facility is really easy to use once you know and will even synchronise across multiple computers using Google account - so I add bookmark on my desktop PC and it is also there when I open my Netbook, neat!

Another recent Chrome addition is 'Google Cloud Print' which you can activate on your PC under 'Wrench', 'Options', 'Under the Hood' at the bottom if your Chrome is up to date. I've printed the test page successfully to several of my printers from my Android devices. Here's Google's help page: http://www.google.com/support/cloudprint/

[bort]

Netbooks are great, and I used one for freelance work/travel for about 2 years before it became too impractical. For me, a small/light laptop ended up being a better option.

The iPad is very nice, my wife has one. For travelling, it is absolutely perfect! Easy to find directions, research places to go, email, movies on the plane, eBooks...

BUT, if I had to do any actual work, the iPad is a poor choice. Too cumbersome to do a lot of typing, and nearly all of my work is in MS Word and Excel. Having spent 10+ years on those programs and being super quick on a keyboard/mouse, it's just too painful to try to do on a tablet... until I can hook up a keyboard/mouse, at least.

[Rick Denney]

Plenty of Chrome users have commented on the lack of a bookmark toolbar. There is one; it's just up top. You can put nested folders up there, too.

The latest version of Firefox for Windows 7 works the same way.

On the subject: I also have one of those little Acer Aspire One AOA150 netbooks. Mine is running the original XP-Home that came with it, and it works fine.

The only thing that prevents its wider use is the low screen resolution. But it's enough for when a bigger computer isn't an option. I often take mine with me when I travel so that I don't have to use my gubmint laptop for personal stuff. It's small enough to stuff in my briefcase along with my work computer.

I bought the 6-cell battery for this computer off ebay, and it lasts about five or six hours running XP. (There was a problem with the first-gen BIOS on this computer and it would not recharge batteries properly if they became fully depleted. Problem was solved when I reflashed the BIOS.) I'm using a Microsoft Arc Touch wireless mouse, which straightens to very flat so that it will fit in a small briefcase pocket, but can be bent into a curve for us (doing so also turns it on). The dongle is sufficiently tiny. I am normally happy with a touchpad, but the one on that particular Acer is dreadful, with the buttons in the wrong place. The mouse is to expensive for this computer, but it's so portable use it also on my gubmint laptop when I need more control than with the trackpad.

Performance hasn't been a problem for me. I use OpenOffice and CorelDraw X5 home suite, which includes PhotoPaint. It's a reasonable substitute for Photoshop when I need to do something quick, like adjust curves, sharpen, and downsize a digital photo made during a trip. It has a built-in SD card reader, which is fine for when I have my little Leica digicam with me on a business trip. It will not read compact flash cards, though, so when I'm on vacation with my big Canon and this is the computer I'm using as a digital wallet for photos, I have to bring a card-reader with me.

I bought an external USB DVD combo drive, but I often don't carry it with me. I do when I'm traveling on vacation and take this computer as my only computer.

By the way, this computer, the power brick, the external optical drive, and the wireless mouse fit perfectly in a Bible case that I bought at a Christian book store. Maybe it won't be such a theft target if potential thieves think it's a Bible. (Hey, I do have Bible-reading software loaded on it.)

On the subject of this netbook versus others, the keyboard was the only issue. On this model, it is compressed slightly, but I'm still able to go nearly full speed on it once I remind myself of the narrowness. A poorly place backspace key is a bigger problem (I NEED my backspace key!). But I prefer the narrow conventional buttons to the newer weird-feeling buttons, even though the latter are conventionally spaced. That more than anything becomes discriminating between netbooks for those who will do production typing. I have found Acer's support site to be reasonable, and also these netbooks have been popular enough to attract aftermarket stuff that works (such as that six-cell battery).

I have played with an iPad, and I have an iPhone. The iPad is big, but it's nearly as big as the Acer, and cannot be used for typing by the ten-fingered. I find it no easier to hunt and peck on the iPad than on the iPhone, and both are exquisite torture. The iPhone, however, has a key advantage: It's already in my pocket because I have to have a phone with me. The iPad would be in my briefcase, which isn't always with me. And if I had an iPad, I would still have to have the iPhone. For e-reading on airplanes (and I re-earned United Premiere status for 2011 three weeks ago, even though I've flown on four different airlines this year), I prefer a Kindle--it's easier to read and a battery charge lasts for weeks rather than hours. The iPad and its imitators do not fulfill my requirements.

On the subject of soldering on the motherboard of the Acer, I would not consider it, and I have plenty of experience soldering electronics as a hobby. These boards are designed for surface-mount technology, and the pins on the memory chips are tiny and close together. It takes a very well control soldering iron with a slender and sharp point, meticulous static control procedures, a steady hand, and a strong magnifier. Solder bridges are likely, and difficult to see and correct. Too much heat and the chip is toast. You could very easily turn the motherboard into a computer sculpture rather than a working computer, and then have no way back.

That said, I haven't really run into memory issues on mine, but I don't use it for intensive applications.

Rick "who uses the Acer a lot--when it's appropriate" Denney

[TubaTodd]

As a Linux enthusiast and Linux nerd by profession, I would like to commend you on your exploration into Linux and open source software. I've been a Mandrake, Red Hat, Fedora, Slackware and Ubuntu user going back 10 years. I've recently become disillusioned with this whole "lets reinvent the desktop paradigm" crap that has brought us the less than stellar Gnome 3 and Unity desktop environments. I too have recently installed Mint 11 on my main machine and I must say that I like it. It's essentially a cleaner Ubuntu 11.04 with Gnome 2.

Getting back to your original topic, I'm a Chrome and Firefox user. Chrome isn't good at everything and Firefox has gotten a lot better since version 4. Epiphany is basically Firefox lite (UI wise) with webkit as the backend (like Chrome and Safari).

You might like Midori. It's pretty light.

Since you are familiar with Linux and seem to enjoy playing around with new things, have you tried Suse Studio? It's a site that allows you to build custom machine images. It's pretty amazing. I wish Ubuntu/Debian had something like this.

http://www.susestudio.com

[Donn]

Plus, German Suse would presumably be pronounced like we pronounce "Sousa", so I can imagine the attraction for a tuba player.

[Donn]

I guess they can pronounce it however they want, but I believe "hash bang" would be more traditional.

UNIX interpreted scripts start with #!, followed by the full path of the interpreter executable file. These two characters are thus the 16 bit "magic number" by which UNIX recognizes the type of executable files (two characters add up to 16 bits), and of course for this type the protocol is to exec the specified interpreter file, appending the name of the script file as an argument. Since the various interpreters (sh, awk, etc.) all treat # as a comment to end of line, they are in turn oblivious to this top line by which they were invoked, in an elegance and economy typical of UNIX.