Oolite Bulletins

Just to throw in my 2 pence/cents.

I originally bought a netbook some 3 years ago to use for writing on. At the time I bought a Toshiba (can't remember the model). It's did okay with 3d stuff, was dual core but had a pretty bad keyboard.
I quickly got sick of the keyboard and the screen for any level of writing on. I just found the lack of screen real estate to be a real nightmare and frustrating all the time.


I ended up switching back to an old Dell X300 laptop which was a bigger screen, much better keyboard, seriously thin and weighed pretty much nothing. I got the extra long life batter for it, which makes it a bit bigger but gave me something like an average of 15 hours battery life and to be honest, if I closed the lid every time I left it, I could go nearly a week before charging. This was running Ubuntu. Windows would drain it much quicker.

Eventually, when the hard drive died in the X300, I bought a Dell Studio XPS 13.
http://www.europc.co.uk/dell-studio-xps ... =feedexact
Despite the many issues you can have with it (hot running graphics card, dodgy touch media buttons, glossy screen and now a dying hard drive) it's a really good bit of kit.
With the latest BIOS, which fixes a lot of the heat issues, a modified screen cover (I removed it, cut the centre out and underneath is a matt screen ) it's a great laptop. I think 13" is definitely the sweet spot for a laptop.

I used to have it triple boot, Win7, MacOS SL, Ubuntu Studio with no problems. Mac compatibility is not superb but it will work with effort. The graphics card is an Nvidia 9400M G. It runs pretty much any game I throw at it (played through Portal 2) with setting fairly high. It supports shaders. OOlite runs like a charm on it.
Seeing as at the time it was a £850 laptop and I got it for £650 (end of line discount) It's served me pretty well. Once I get another HDD, all will be well. Also looking at getting 8GB as it's only £40 at the moment.
I particularly like the back lit keyboard which if I had to buy another laptop would be a deal breaker for me.


Before you buy a netbook for writing on, borrow one to see if you can live with it.

!m!

Thargoid wrote:

It wouldn't work on my business PC - U3 is blocked unfortunately. Plus I've had enough USB keys die on me to ever rely on one as a portable workstation hub.

The non-portable version of the app is here - looks just the same and not much nicer a package (still doesn't have an installer with it). Seems an OK app, if perhaps a little too sparse and anonymous. We shall see how it compares to Notepad++ or Word 2010 in use.

And given your profession I'd not be so sure about it not leaving a trace - some of them do leave a fair amount of stuff on the host PC in my experience (at least under WinXP - look in the AppData folder).

THat was just a glib throwaway comment T I just meant with nothing actually installed on the host machine - even fairly locked down machines don't often complain too much about running stuff off his stick (and it's not his only source of work - of course he syncs back to his personal machine at the COP every day...)

maaarcooose wrote:

Just to throw in my 2 pence/cents.

I originally bought a netbook some 3 years ago to use for writing on. At the time I bought a Toshiba (can't remember the model). It's did okay with 3d stuff, was dual core but had a pretty bad keyboard.
I quickly got sick of the keyboard and the screen for any level of writing on. I just found the lack of screen real estate to be a real nightmare and frustrating all the time.


I ended up switching back to an old Dell X300 laptop which was a bigger screen, much better keyboard, seriously thin and weighed pretty much nothing. I got the extra long life batter for it, which makes it a bit bigger but gave me something like an average of 15 hours battery life and to be honest, if I closed the lid every time I left it, I could go nearly a week before charging. This was running Ubuntu. Windows would drain it much quicker.

Eventually, when the hard drive died in the X300, I bought a Dell Studio XPS 13.
http://www.europc.co.uk/dell-studio-xps ... =feedexact
Despite the many issues you can have with it (hot running graphics card, dodgy touch media buttons, glossy screen and now a dying hard drive) it's a really good bit of kit.
With the latest BIOS, which fixes a lot of the heat issues, a modified screen cover (I removed it, cut the centre out and underneath is a matt screen ) it's a great laptop. I think 13" is definitely the sweet spot for a laptop.

I used to have it triple boot, Win7, MacOS SL, Ubuntu Studio with no problems. Mac compatibility is not superb but it will work with effort. The graphics card is an Nvidia 9400M G. It runs pretty much any game I throw at it (played through Portal 2) with setting fairly high. It supports shaders. OOlite runs like a charm on it.
Seeing as at the time it was a £850 laptop and I got it for £650 (end of line discount) It's served me pretty well. Once I get another HDD, all will be well. Also looking at getting 8GB as it's only £40 at the moment.
I particularly like the back lit keyboard which if I had to buy another laptop would be a deal breaker for me.


Before you buy a netbook for writing on, borrow one to see if you can live with it.

!m!

As I'm forced to use Dell's at work - I wouldn't have another if I was paid. Sorry, but definitely thrice bitten on the Dell front...

I have tried quite a few netbooks, I've used a colleagues Samsung NC10 for a few days - and I'm quite happy with the size keyboard - you're right 1024x600 is small on a 10.1" screen - but I didn't really have an issue and with some of the styles of apps listed up this thread - you can maximise screen real-estate.

Portability is really key for me - I don't want anything much bigger than the A5 note book I currently use - and hence a netbook. I have been think about this for about a year - and I've tried a few notebooks too - but they're too much cash and too big for what I actually want to use it for.

But it's good to have your thoughts on it - thanks for taking the time to comment.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

THat was just a glib throwaway comment T I just meant with nothing actually installed on the host machine - even fairly locked down machines don't often complain too much about running stuff off his stick (and it's not his only source of work - of course he syncs back to his personal machine at the COP every day...)

Our machines here are Win7 Pro and locked down with App Locker. Basically we have no admin rights, and only executables installed into the program files directory (to do that required admin rights - even to copy/paste files/folders into said directory) and apps specifically on the "allow list" will run - unauthorised apps off keys or elsewhere on the HD just get blocked by policy and don't run. There are ways around this, but it's getting into the dodgy territory, especially if something untoward ends up happening as a result.

This is basically why I gave up on running Oolite (and other stuff) from the USB key and migrated to the netbook.

Thargoid wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

THat was just a glib throwaway comment T I just meant with nothing actually installed on the host machine - even fairly locked down machines don't often complain too much about running stuff off his stick (and it's not his only source of work - of course he syncs back to his personal machine at the COP every day...)

Our machines here are Win7 Pro and locked down with App Locker. Basically we have no admin rights, and only executables installed into the program files directory (to do that required admin rights - even to copy/paste files/folders into said directory) and apps specifically on the "allow list" will run - unauthorised apps off keys or elsewhere on the HD just get blocked by policy and don't run. There are ways around this, but it's getting into the dodgy territory, especially if something untoward ends up happening as a result.

This is basically why I gave up on running Oolite (and other stuff) from the USB key and migrated to the netbook.

The MOD has moved from XP yet - and here where I work there are distinctly MOD and Academic machines - the Academic machines are not locked down (very much) the MOD ones are (initially by a simple statement of "that shalt not plug a USB stick into a USB port" and later as they rolled it out via active software blocking. For a bit they went too far and even USB mouses and keyboards stopped working, much to the annoyance of the academics who discovered even the Gyration wireless mouses (MOD provided and installed!) and were used as powerpoint clickers/pointers didn't work - which is want you want in a room full of bored military officers...

Still have bought one [a netbook]...

Still looking like the ASUS 1015PX EeePC as the front runner.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

---snip---
room full of bored military officers...
---more snip---

Surly something you have imagined, surly all military officers are attentive and interested at all times.

(Auch!, I started laughing while writing that)

Gimi wrote:

DaddyHoggy wrote:

---snip---
room full of bored military officers...
---more snip---

Surly something you have imagined, surly all military officers are attentive and interested at all times.

(Auch!, I started laughing while writing that)

I've got a very good bunch of 11 at the moment - but they're volunteers rather than under orders - it makes a huge difference.

(There's one group that we only see for a few hours every few weeks - you can feel the hate for the academics build up each we see them again - it can actually be quite hostile near the end of the course (unless the Military DS is in attendance)