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Re: [LUG] netbooks blamed for microsoft losing money

 

Dave Foxcroft wrote:
>> I was looking at netbooks on Ebuyer and found the HP Compaq 2133 here
>>
>> http://www.ebuyer.com/search?store=5&cat=10&subcat=2619
>>
>> It gets great reviews but a lot of them say "This is a great netbook when you 
>> ditch the crappy Linux and install XP."  Mostly it seems that the wireless 
>> networking and inbuilt webcam don't work, a pretty familiar story which I 
>> won't try to solve here.
>>   
>>     
>
> That 'crappy linux' is SLED 10 according to the specs!! - if they are 
> calling that crappy I'd hate to see what they think of a few other distro's
>   
>> Also, reading between the lines, none of these people are going out and buying 
>> a new XP package, they're installing one they have lying around from years of 
>> Microsoft based computers. This for sure is not helping Microsoft sales 
>> figures.
>>
>> George
>>
>> PS I quite fancy this HP 2133
>>   
>>     
> I think it's a good spec for the money so much so that I bought one for 
> our IT mad seven year old.. and SLED is staying on it!
>
> Dave
>
>   
Well I now have 2 x HP2133's - both with SLED 10 on them and..... I have 
to agree with most of the reviews - IT IS AWFUL !!!
This distro/netbook combo gives  Linux a bad name, very much a 'cobbled 
together' affair with several items that don't work out of the box - 
wireless,webcam,mic ...etc.

I think that the HP 2133 is a better machine, buildwise, than both the 
AAO and EEEPC but the poor choice of distro and installation really lets 
it down compared to them.

I have stuck an OEM XP install (yeah I know !!) on one of them just to 
see how it would work and.... nothing to do but install the drivers (all 
on the HP site) and away it went - EVERYTHING works like a dream

I'm now looking for another distro to put on them that doesnt involve 
Novell, SUSE or Ubuntu (cos I really dislike it!!) - I don't want to 
have to compile kernels, mess around with NDIS' or have to 'bodge' the 
distro with various other packages to get everything working - am I 
confident I will find one? NAH!! - I'll have to accept that I'll have to 
spend hours/days working on them to get them to work as intended.

It seems to me that if you want to use Linux on a netbook, you have to 
either put up with some cut down version intended for 10 year olds or 
devote hours of your time researching, sourcing and configuring and then 
not have all the functionality that you would have if you used 'that 
other OS'

Is it any wonder why Linux has such a hard time making inroads when 
manufacturers like HP do such a bad job in attempting to tout it to joe 
public- It makes me wonder if this isn't a deliberate act on thier part.

I'm off to go and scrape the SLED 10 stickers of them and dig out a pile 
of LiveCD's and see which will best suit

Dave




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