Thursday 22 January 2009

New Year – New Eee


5 Jan. '09

So, here I am trudging to work on the first day back after the holidays, I seem to have developed a cold overnight, it is freezing, still dark and there is snow on the ground, which is already dirtied by the feet of gloomy commuters just like me.However there is a light, and it comes in the form of Windows XP – now you didn’t see that coming did you!??!!

As many of you may know I got a Linux based eee PC 901 at the end of the summer last year, and whilst I love the size and portability of the hardware I really struggled with the Linux platform. It seemed to me that absolutely nothing I wanted was compatible, the mobile broadband dongle, my cannon ixus camera, channel 4 OD, iTunes, Office, etc, etc.

Anyway, I must have been a good girl this year as Father Christmas brought me a copy of Windows XP professional! My Dad and I then spent several hours working to install the new operating system and optimise the performance of XP on the eee PC. I will confess that Dad put in many more hours (days actually!!!) than I did on this project and for that I am very, very grateful.

I have had the XP operating system installed for about a week now, but this will be the first week I will use the newly configured machine in anger. So far performance wise it feels at least as fast as Linux, if not a little quicker! Plus, I have a great deal more software on the machine making it much more useful for facilitating work on the move. Who would have thought the number 42 bus could become an office so easily!!! :-)

The Linux eee PC 901 was sold with 2 drives, on the smaller fast drive we have installed a cut down version of Windows XP Professional using n-Lite, this weighs in at 2.45 GB. We have split the slower second drive in two and we use one partition for programmes and the other for my files.

I will keep you posted as to how the performance holds up as I begin to push the system over the coming weeks.

I am looking for a machine that will support and facilitate me in my work not a machine that becomes a project in itself!! I believe the Linux platform is not for the non-techie, or the person who just wants to get on with the task in hand. It is for the hands on techie, who likes an ongoing project, has time on their hands and wants to support the concept of open source software.

Obviously I am being a bit controversial here, of course I am aware that there are benefits to Linux otherwise I wouldn’t have bought the machine in the first instance, but I am hoping to prompt some comments which might form a debate…

… Your thoughts !!!??!?

22 Jan. 09

Update: The eeePC is working fantastically; it is so fast and appears to do absolutely everything I want. However, I will confess it was a bit unhappy when I spilt a cup of tea over it last weekend, fortunately it dried out and started working again, phew!

… but I wouldn’t recommend this as a procedure!

Otherwise, the switch to XP has been the best decision. In fact my dad and I were so impressed he has now bought himself a Linux 901 eeePC and converted it to Windows :-)

2 comments:

Jan Pruimboom said...

I'm the proud owner of an eeepc that works with windows xp. I'm not a big fan of windows but this machine works best with it.

I always carry it around too....

Unknown said...

Well, I was shocked that you replaced Linux with Windows as a main OS.
I do agree that Linux is not an easy system for new comers (as it was with me a year ago) but once you understand the basic concepts of open source software & specially the Linux system, you will definitely see the difference in performance, flexibility & security -no antivirus is required-

by the way did you know that most internet servers use Linus OS? Linux can run for years with no reboot before crashing.
There's a quote for somebody about the difference between Linux & Win OS:
"To crash a Windows system, you onlt have to work at it; but to crash a Linux system you have to work on it."

It can be hard to get accustomed to Linux. After all we have been using Microsoft's for decades.

Besides, Linux is free, unlike Windows.
You can simply download it. Install it & even customize it -if you're a programmer- & then upload it for others to use your custom built system.
You can also run it as "Live" directly from a CD or DVD. no need to install. It also doesn;t require much spec's to work perfectly. It needs the minimum of requirements.

Linux -& the open source community-will free us from commercial companies like Microsoft & Windows.

I suggest you try Linux, specially as a beginner, Ubuntu or Fedora.