Finally, Jolicloud “Robby” is coming out before this month ends. I know, I know, you’re probably wondering what’s new with the update. First off, there will be supporyt for Intel Atom Pine Trail and VIA C7-M processors. But from the Jolicloud blog’s announcement of the Robby, here are other new features:
Until now, we have been using Mozilla Prism for the rendering of web apps. After evaluating the different technologies and opportunities, we have decided to switch our entire web application platform to a Chrome foundation. All our 600+ web apps in the App Center will be automatically converted to Chrome.
As a user, you won’t need to do anything manually, everything will be done automatically via the update manager.
The Jolicloud team believes that switching to Chrome will lead to a faster browsing experience on older netbooks because of the better memory usage. More »
So let’s say you run into a bit of a problem with your beloved netbook and you can’t quite remember what are the specs of your Eee PC. You’d take a peek into your PC’s manual to find the specs, but the problem is that the manual’s nowhere to be found. What do you do?
Before you panic and/or rip out your computer’s guts just to figure out what exact model number your motherboard has, there’s actually an easier way to figure out your computer’s specs – both hardware and software. Just download and install LookInMyPC, a tool that generates a complete, comprehensive system profile that includes information on all installed hardware and software. More »
If you’re on the lookout for a lightweight Linux installation that would be perfect for your Asus Eee PC – especially if you’re unluckily stuck with the really old Eee PC 701s – try Leeenux Linux. The weirdly-named lightweight Linux distribution is made mainly for Asus Eee PCs with 7″ screens, but that doesn’t mean that other netbooks can’t use it as well. The developer boasts that everything works out-of-the-box, and that every new release uses less resources than ever. The amazing thing about Leeenux is that when it’s installed, it only takes 1.2 GB of storage space, so if you have the 2GB surf models, you’re going to have some space left on your Eee PC. More »
Running Windows 7 on your Eee PC and confused at all the changes Microsoft put in the operating system? Yeah, I know the last operating system you used was Windows XP (and you actually tried out that Linux sorcery for a couple of days, but you couldn’t figure out what the heck a “terminal” meant) and you don’t like all this fancy eye candy Bill Gates put into your computer. You’d want your computer to be less confusing, thank you very much.
Maybe this might interest you then. It’s a little secret for Windows 7 users, called “GodMode” it’s basically a folder where all system configuration shortcuts are contained. Yes, it even beats Control Panel, believe it or not. It’s a bit overwhelming to figure out, and I’m using it now on my Windows 7 machine and I don’t understand half of what’s in that folder. But I like having one easy shortcut to control EVERYTHING on my computer. I don’t like hunting for solutions or Googling where to change this obscure setting when it’s all, you know, in one big easy to find shortcut on my Documents folder. More »
Asus apparently has no plans yet to make a Google Chrome OS or even an Android smartbook. Back at CES, a lot of devices by different computer manufacturers were running Google Android, and somehow Asus isn’t one of them.
Were they burned with the Xandros OS experience and now they’re not even attempting to create a smartbook that doesn’t run any Windows flavor at all? Remember, smartbooks are running on an ARM chipset, which makes installing Windows on it impossible. More »
I finally went through with something I was planning a few months back. I installed a Linux distro on my Asus Eee PC 701. Actually, the main reason I didn’t push thru with installing Linux is that I didn’t want to leave the comfort of a Windows installation. I know there are a lot of Linux fanboys among you readers, but I really depend on Windows a lot and I really can’t afford turning Linux into my main operating system.
Once I was able to get my hands on a brand-new laptop, I didn’t hesitate removing the Windows XP installation on my Asus Eee PC so I can put Jolicloud on it. As I have the only the 4gb Eee PC, I went for the Pro Install. I downloaded a Jolicloud ISO and was able to quickly mount it on a flash drive. The Jolicloud website has the easiest instructions, and because of that I was able to get Jolicloud up and running on my mini laptop in no time. More »
One of the biggest concerns I had when switching from the default Linux installation to Windows XP on my Eee PC 701 is that I’m moving from a world of relative security by obscurity to an operating system targeted by virus makers and hackers from all over the world. I had to look for a free anti-virus software that will be light enough and will not spam me with ads to upgrade to the paid version.
For more than three years, Avast! has been my anti-virus of choice. What’s not to love about it? It’s free and it has an amazing detection rate. It doesn’t even muck up my system, unlike some users of Norton and McAfee that I encountered before.
However, as any longtime Avast! user knows, everytime it updates its virus database, we get a slowdown before we hear the notification “Your virus database has been updated.”
Okay, for netbooks running on limited resources (particularly the Eee PC 701 – which I own) this slowdown could mean crashes. And it has happened way too often for me.
Fed up after a bad day when all my apps just kept on crashing one after the other, I went ahead and downloaded Panda Cloud Antivirus. I’ve been pretty much apprehensive of cloud applications. Especially when it means you have to entrust your entire security to a cloud-based app.
But I went and installed it anyway. The installation was pretty quick and painless, which was surprising for an anti-virus. The initial setup was pretty simple too: sign up for a Panda Cloud account, and log in to activate the anti-virus. There was a bit of a problem with the initial connection – it looked like Panda Cloud Antivirus took ages to connect (check out the screenshot on top) but somehow it was just a bug and the UI just didn’t refresh to display that it was already connected.
After a couple of hours testing this thing (doing scans, checking out my Panda account), my system was running way lighter than before. Now I haven’t done anything heavy duty yet. I’ll get to that in my next post. For now, all I can say is that I still won’t trust Panda Cloud Antivirus with my main system, but for netbooks it’s perfect.
A more in-depth review soon.
Download Panda Cloud Antivirus here.
While the entire world is abuzz about Google’s attempt to rule the operating system market with its cloud-based linux distro, the Google Chrome OS, we all seem to have forgotten that there was another cloud-based operating system that arrived much earlier.
I’m talking about Jolicloud here, you guys.
It looks like Jolicloud isn’t going to be put down by Google Chrome OS that easily, because they just released a video that showcases the amazing boot-up speed of Jolicloud. On their official Twitter account, the Jolicloud team put up a link to a video that shows the Jolicloud booting up on a Asus Eee PC 901 (not exactly the fastest Eee PC out there). And you get to boot up Jolicloud in 13 seconds.
The video and more after the break: More »
Okay, I’ve said time and again that I am not impressed with Google’s Chrome OS, but I guess I need to try it out hands-on before I pass my final judgment on the new Linux distro.
Fortunately, TechCrunch has created a guide to install Google Chrome OS on your Eee PC. Well, actually, it’s not a real installation because it requires a virtual machine. I don’t think there’s actually a way to run and install the OS like any other traditional Linux distro, and because of the cloud nature of Chrome OS, I don’t even think we should even attempt installing it. More »
If you still have your old Eee PC 1000H and you wish to upgrade from XP to Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system, Windows 7, then you must read Asus’s upgrade path first.
Basically, it involves a BIOS upgrade first, then installation of Windows 7, and then the drivers. Afterwards you get information on the Super Hybrid Engine and the Asus Update software.
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