We've been talking about getting laptops for the past year since the other faculty members already had theirs. She got her Compaq Presario (B1200?) during the enlistment period for her thesis work. I've been using my PSP as sort of cue cards for lectures in the form of PDFs or CBRs. I've been harping on getting a netbook / UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) / nanobook for basic stuff, eg. surfing, ftp, writing, spreadsheets, email, rss feeds, web stuff, etc. Not really looking for one to accomplish heavy graphics work, I do that at home on a desktop. Never really was heavy into gaming. I wanted something small, light and simple. Something 14, 12-inches or smaller. I did look at the Compaq Presario B1200 for a while, but choose against it since Iyra already has one.Yugatech has a comparison of 7-inch UMPCs. Based on that plus lotsa trips around the malls and comparisons over the net, I ruled out the Redfox Wizbook, Neo eXplore X1-branded Intel Classmate PC, and Asus EEE. There's just something about them that didn't seem right for me (Weak processor? Low RAM? The look? It was one of those at one point or another). I narrowed down my choices to the Everex Cloudbook, Astone UMPC CE-260, Deep Blue H1 and HP Mini-Note 2133.
Didn't realize it early on but my choices turned out to have either a VIA C7-M 1.2 Ghz or a VIA Esther 1.0 Ghz processor. I didn't like the space between LCD and the keyboard of the Cloudbook and the Astone. The Mini-Note is priced too high for me at the moment (It's higher than PhP25k... Maybe next time?). So I got the Deep Blue H1 (around Php17k).
Specs:- VIA Esther 1.0 GHz
- 1GB DDR2
- 7.0-inch TFT
- 40GB HD
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 10/100Mbps LAN
- 802.11b/g Wireless
- 1.20 kg
- 0.3 megapixel webcam
- 4-in-1 card reader
- touchpad
- reportedly up to 4½ hours battery life.
OS isn't much of a concern for me since I believe I could change distros if neccessary. The Deep Blue H1 comes with Linpus Linux ver. 9.4 Lite. Sounds wimpy, I know. I'd perfectly understand if the Linux mascot was a cat, but it's a penguin, and it makes him look like a wus (or in this case a pus). But so far things are running fine.
Startup time from power button press till usability takes about 47 to 50 seconds.
Tried doing stuff I would normally do. Linpus has:- Internet: Firefox (net), Thunderbird (email), Filezilla (ftp), Pidgin (im), Liferea (rss), plus shortcut links to Youtube, Googledocs, Wikipedia, Googlemaps, Windows Live Spaces.
- Productivity: OpenOffice Writer (doc), Calc (spreadsheet) and Impress (presentation), Stardict (dictionary), Linpus Calendar, Text Editor and Calculator
- Media: Tux Paint, Adobe Reader (PDF), FBReader (ebook), SMPlayer (video), Banshee (mp3), F-Spot (photo), Linpus Image Viewer, Webcam Viewer
- X Windows System Desktop Environment: Default Gnome, can be switched to XFCE
Power-down from onscreen button press with no apps running takes 10 to 11 seconds.
So far so good. - Was able to access my accounts on mutiply, youtube, gmail, stickam, etc. without squinting too much. :D
- Got to test pidgin by chatting with Iyra (who had this inkling that I was online testing this little baby and buzzed me).
- Opened and edited documents, pdfs, etc
- Watched a video.
The only cons I've encountered so far were:
- Liferea keeps hanging on me. Maybe importing my long opml rss feed list was too much for it. So that means I may stick to Bloglines in Firefox.
- Bottom heating up. May be normal but will buy or fabricate a notebook cooler just in case.
Astone's looks too fragile... I don't particularly like the raised screen. And yes, Linpus sucks balls. :)) My Deep Blue doesn't heat up as much, though, even after being turned on overnight.
ReplyDeleteI plan to write about Deep Blue when I succeed in my next few experiments... ;)
I think the heating up may be because of me letting it run on my bed.. No airflow. :D Wanna try running other stuff and distros too. Haven't tested the wifi yet, does yours work okay? Get this, I tried making a back up of the drivers cd... It can't be read in a newer LG DVD drive. Had to rip it using an old Samsung DVD drive. O_o;;
ReplyDeleteWhat's the screen res on this thing? No horizontal scrollbar on gmail, i see.
ReplyDeletewow, pareho kami ng laffy ni ma'am iyra... hehe
ReplyDeleteSir Igor,
ReplyDeleteI'm currently using the WiFi connection. Admittedly, I'm only one wall separated from the wireless router, but I've never had any problems connecting or reconnecting except for one time when we had to reconfigure the router, and upon resetting the router, the computer could not find the router unless the computer itself was reset. :o There are also times where it takes about five minutes for it to find and connect to a WiFi network. By comparison, my old-ish notebook on Win XP takes only about two minutes (hey, it is old!).
I am told that Windows XP (suitably stripped down, though), and the various Ubuntu flavors work nicely on the Deep Blue. I'm still working on the prerequisites before I do an Ubuntu install on my Deep Blue, so I'll get back to you on that matter.
Another bad thing about Linpus is that any attempt to upgrade the built-in software results in them being inaccessible from the default interface. :o Also, the Xfce interface eventually becomes unavailable after a certain number of boots. I guess I'll have to write about those too later.
"Get this, I tried making a back up of the drivers cd... It can't be read in a newer LG DVD drive. Had to rip it using an old Samsung DVD drive."
I'm astonished. :o I haven't had problems on my Sony DVD, so maybe something they changed in the LG drive is causing it.
Lastly, were you given the XP drivers for Deep Blue (in case you do decide to try running XP on the thing)? I've a copy if you want them. :)
Sir,
ReplyDeleteThe screen resolution can apparently be adjusted up to 1024 by 768. This, though, is at the expense of reeeaaallly small text. I tend to hook mine up to an LCD monitor when at home, and contend with the small text when mobile.
* Ubuntu, nice. :D Have to try that too. Maybe later when I find an external dvd. :D
ReplyDelete* Thanks for the input re: updates and xfce. Will give you input when any of them happen on mine too.
*Yeah, maybe it's the LG. I can access the drivers now on the Samsung. Thanks for the offer! (If things hit the fan I'll know who to msg.) :D
@Geex
ReplyDeleteOonga. Seems Compaq, Acer and Asus (non-EEE) are the laptops of choice at the SLIS. :D
Finally found out what was wrong. Seems the drivers cd wasn't the only one not working. I thought my LG dvd was already busted and due for replacement. But as it turned out, the H1 drivers cd (the last on I tried to access) left a little memento inside my LG. The center hole sticker, which I already removed, hitched a ride on the cd and made it's way into a part of the dvd preventing anything from playing or being burned. Got it out and everything is working fine now :D
ReplyDeleteWindows o_O
ReplyDeleteJust a tad faster than the other pcs at home. 56secs on XP, ASUS mb, core2 4400 @2ghz, 2Gb ram and a whooping 2.26 mins on XP, celeron 2.13Ghz, 512Mb ram. But those 2 have other stuff to load like wacom tablets, capture cards, etc.
ReplyDeleteTried disabling services you don't need?
ReplyDeleteYup, most of them. I think the one slowing it down is public domain torrent seeding. I still have classic 70's kung fu and horror stuff up for the past sem.
ReplyDeletenosebleed 0_o;; tech talk hahaha!!!
ReplyDeleteWow, you give back to the community!
ReplyDeleteI salute you.
On a related note, I wish to copy these 70's Kung Fu stuff you speak of.
XD
yeah, right! =)
ReplyDeleteHey, hey.... why me? =P
ReplyDeleteDalhin ko sa Wed. :D
ReplyDeleteOh my. A good thing you found it at once. :D
ReplyDeleteoist, kay enzo mdaw yang computer na yan ah! Balato mo na tito ninong LOL
ReplyDeleteupdate: I've confirmed the weakness of the built-in WiFi receiver just today. Signal strength dropped sharply when I'm about two floors or so away from the transmitter. You might want to use a dongle if you really need to do things fast and wireless. :)
ReplyDeletehello! total stranger here... got myself a Deep Blue H1 too...
ReplyDeleteI got the Linux version but loaded it with Windows XP Pro, which has crashed twice already, until I learned how to strip it down, so far so good...
just wanna ask how Linpus Linux lite is with Wi-Fi? i've heard scathing reviews about this particular aspect...
Hello. So far mine works okay at work and at home. No probs with wifi with the Linpus. I'm also planning to try XP (for the Smart LG KU250 fone / modem). Is the Blue okay with WinXP?
ReplyDeletewell, aside from the couple of times that it crashed (which might've been more my fault because i assumed that the machine can take all the heat that windows gives), it's works just fine. then again, i installed a bootleg copy of xp pro, which from what i understand, is a lot heavier than xp home.
ReplyDeleteto compensate, i disabled a lot of windows programs (media player, IE, MSN messenger) and didn't install MS office. instead, got the portable apps version of many popular freeware/opensource programs - mozilla, openoffice, pidgin, etc. and even replaced windows explorer with a version of Blackbox.
Sir Igor, mind if I add my two centavos? :)
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of XP stripping... I would recommend either of XPLite (if you can afford it or find a bootleg somewhere) or nLite (freeware! yay!). Otherwise, if your applications do not really need the functionality of Windows (i.e., there are *nix equivalents of the stuff you need/want), stick to a *nix distro. ;)
"instead, got the portable apps version of many popular freeware/opensource programs - mozilla, openoffice, pidgin, etc. and even replaced windows explorer with a version of Blackbox."
- always a good idea. ;) The "registry" concept is the most damning and vexing aspect of Microsoft OSs, IMNSHO.
Fine by me, man. :D
ReplyDeleteHehehe.
We all benefit from it. :D
Oh, another thing, should you have the idea. Deep Blue H1 on Linpus apparently can't handle Wine or CrossOver (asking for too much memory), so running Windows apps natively on Linux through those two, I can't recommend in good conscience. I don't know about other distros, though.
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: Today the hard disk failed leading to "No OS found" after a "journal commit I/O error".
ReplyDeleteWhoa. :o What exactly were you doing before you saw the message, sir?
ReplyDeleteOr did something jar the notebook (abrupt bump, fall, etc.)?
It was working fine on my bed, no motion. Booted a couple of times, okay. I rebooted one last time. Then that came along the "journal commit I/O error". After several attempts, no dice. It looks like hardware, either a cable error or the hard disk itself. It boots pendriveLinux and Slax USBs. So I'm guessing the hard disk.
ReplyDeleteYeesh. Hope it's still covered by the warranty...
ReplyDeleteI think it still is. :D
ReplyDeleteHello! Were you able to play music through Banshee? I can't seem to play the .mp3's I imported.
ReplyDeleteohh. I remember being able to play mp3s. But I've since had Xp installed.
ReplyDelete