Want to install OS X on your Eee?
Boing Boing has a chart listing down what works and what doesn’t when you install Hackintosh on your netbook. Apparently the MSI Wind and Dell Mini 9 winds.
Installing Ubuntu on the Eee PC 901
Installing Ubuntu on the Asus Eee is no problem at all. Getting the audio, WiFi, Bluetooth, and webcam to work isn’t. Fortunately for us, Tombuntu has provided us with a guide to install Ubuntu on the Eee PC 901.
Be sure to read through the comments for more tips.
MeeGo Linux 1.0 Released
If you remember, Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin project recently merged to make a Linux operating system optimized for netbooks, phones, and other internet-connected devices like tablet computers. The result of the merger was MeeGo Linux. Since Maemo is set to replace Symbian in Nokia’s N-Series and Moblin has one of the prettiest interfaces in Linux computing, expectations for this project are understandably high – for example, I was impressed with Maemo and I found Moblin neat. More »
Install Ubuntu on Windows with no partitioning
I’m pretty sure there are lots of you who are pretty curious as to what really is the big deal with Linux, and there may be a few Linux virgins among you guys who are willing to run it on your machines. However, I’m willing to bet that most of you guys aren’t that tech-savvy and that you would’ve wanted to install it on your Asus Eee PCs, but the thing is, the instructions regarding creating a Live CD, mounting the .ISO file, and partitioning the hard drive might be a little overwhelming for newbies. If you’re really into installing Ubuntu (or any other Linux flavor for that matter) you might solder on and be successful if you have the time to do so, but if you’re to scared to even give it a try, theres this little trick you can use to save you time and effort. More »
Windows 7 beats Ubuntu 10.04 on battery life
Us geeks rejoiced when the latest and greatest Ubuntu version, 10.04 was released. It has a new look and feel, faster boot times, and it’s more cloud-centric than ever, and, well, it’s great. But you know, Windows actually beats Ubuntu for once. More »
Jolicloud “Robby” uses Google Chrome for web apps, and nettop support
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 »
Leeenux Linux hits version 2.0
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 »
Asus on Android and Chrome smartbooks: we’re still thinking about it
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 »
New Year, New OS (Jolicloud Pre-Beta, to be exact)
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 »
Panda Cloud Antivirus: First Impressions
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.
