Dell's Subnotebook To Ship With Ubuntu 251
k33l0r writes "Dell's entry into the sub-notebook market, the Inspiron 910, will ship with Ubuntu preinstalled. This was confirmed this morning when Gizmodo published (leaked) specifications for the Inspiron 910." I hope that's not the final form of the keyboard, though -- lots of wasted space on each side.
That's good news (Score:4, Interesting)
I wish my EEE 901 had shipped with ubuntu too, instead of Xandros.
Not that it's bad for beginners, but I'm not sure I want such a toy OS. I know Ubuntu eee exists, but I'd musch rather have the official distro. Or debian...
Ubuntu runs fine on EEE and Classmate (Score:5, Informative)
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On a 901?
I thought the network hardware (amongst other bits) wasn't supported right now?
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Wireless doesn't work OTB. You need to fool around a bit with either madwifi or ndiswrapper.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC/Fixes [ubuntu.com]
Reportedly this should work OTB come version I later this year.
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"This may be Ubuntu's market if they can sign up more OEM's."
It occurs to me that GNOME on these things is almost as awkward and out-of-place as XP
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Re:That's good news (Score:5, Informative)
There's nothing wrong with Ubuntu.
What I don't want is a hacked together, unsupported one-man project on what seems to be fairly generic hardware. "Ubuntu eee" is such a thing, at present, and not the official distro.
Re:That's good news (Score:4)
Not that it's bad for beginners, but I'm not sure I want such a toy OS.
I've heard comments like this a lot and I am curious as to why you consider Xandros a toy operating system. I am a long time Fedora user and have been using Linux seriously for over 12 years and I am quite happy with the distribution that came with my EEE. I don't use the easy mode that the EEE defaults to (though I actually do like that mode), but nothing about the distribution seems "toy" to me.
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At the present time I'm not aware of anyone having managed to get advanced mode going on the distribution that comes with the 901. That's why I consider it a bit of a toy OS. I should have said toy desktop perhaps.
Either way, I'm a debian true believer that recently defected to ubuntu on the desktop.
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Have you tried the eee (900 in my case)? The version of xandros on there is dreadful. Firstly, the package repositories are minute. Most of the packages I'm interested in aren't there (gvim, latex, xfig, gv, fvwm2, doxygen, xv, xpdf). That's one major strike against it. Secondly, it doesn't have any kind of standard login procedure, so I had to do some odd hand hacking to get fvwm2 to run.
Other than that, the GUI is not good for "real work". I define that as work that I like to do, and for that, I use prett
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The xandros repositories aren't as good as ubuntu's. At least, not in my area. The default install of opencv doesn't work with the built-in camera on my 701, and the scipy build is out of date, which made the very first thing I wanted to do with it impossible.
Now I've got a spare 4GB stick to install hardy to, so I'm going to give it another shot.
Mandriva supports the Eee PC (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That's good news (Score:4, Interesting)
I have the opposite view. I have the default Xandros on my EEE PC and like it more than Ubuntu. Still no gcc(haven't figured that one out), but I can:
1. Tweak my mousewheel settings(still can't find that in Ubuntu)
2. tweak the GUI easily(through that big config manager)
3. add/remove/tweak start menu items easily. Look at that, I added MAME to the Games section. Look at that, it put wireshark in a start menu section by itself.
4. Effortlessly hook up to a wireless network
5. Numerous other things that have been frustrating in Unbuntu.
I bought a used IBM desktop(4 Ghz) and it seems sluggish with Unbuntu on it compared to the EEE. Even turning off the bells & whistles didn't do much of a difference.
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So, like, you know this doesn't work on the 901 right?
Some specs (Score:4, Informative)
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8.9" WSVGA TL 1024x600 (WLED) screen
I wonder if that screen is one of those awful "glare" screens. Anyway, does anyone have specs on the brightness of that screen? Other netbooks do not have sufficient brightness for use under a bright sky. This picture [gizmodo.com] seems to show it's surface is mirroring :-(
Thankfully the pictures do show an RJ45 interface, specs published a while back on a german site made me believe there would be only WLAN included.
If the keyboard is usable and that screen is halfway decent, it just
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Actually, your article clearly states that the Intel processor uses less power than the Athlon toward the end. The point of that article to compare two *desktop* solutions, meaning complete motherboards.
In this case, the total AMD system uses less power than the total Intel system, which is noteworthy, but doesn't necessarily have any bearing at all on this particular laptop, or on the Atom processor itself.
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Note that the atom vs. Athlon benchmark you reference uses an old chipset for the atom. I seriously doubt that they would use that desktop chipset on this ultra-mobile... but I could be mistaken.
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Although the Athlon 64 2000+ uses more power than Intelâ(TM)s Atom 230 CPU, the entire system requires less energy both when idle and during full load operation because of the chipset.
So that invalidates your comment about the Athlon using less power; it doesn't. And to go on about the chipset...
The Achilles heel of the Intel system is its old system platform with the 945GC chipset, while AMD offers a more modern 780G platform.
This bit looks good, I like that, but there's a problem:
The AMD platform has one disadvantage, however: at present, the 780G chip set is only available on a microATX board, where Intel offers a significantly smaller miniITX board.
Well now... It appears that they're talking about a desktop platform! That's not what's going on here at all. It looks to be the case that in a UMPC, without the power saving chipset from AMD, the Athlon is actually the loser here.
This sub notebook.... (Score:5, Funny)
Get it? Sub notebook?
Oh, alright! I'm going back to work...well, I'll just pretend I have work.
Re:This sub notebook.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This sub notebook.... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, man. That comment was, like, deep.
Re:This sub notebook.... (Score:5, Funny)
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Never, ever, repeat this joke again.
Keyboard (Score:2, Informative)
I hope that's not the final form of the keyboard, though -- lots of wasted space on each side
I reckon it IS the final look, given it's true what the source cited in the article says, and the thing is shipping next Friday.
Anyway, you can use that space for a couple stickers...
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get myself a copy of the XO laptop
How do you get your copies to work? Mine always come out flat, flimsy, and don't work.
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Having to implement changes today for a shipping date next Friday...
LUG--xury!!
In my day we'd ship it Monday, test it Tuesday, build it Wednesday and design it on't Thursday.
(And no I've never worked for Microsoft).
Probably the right way to go (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, I have the MSI Wind (Score:2)
Tom's Hardware suggested the Celeron is faster than the Atom, but really the Atom seems able to do whatever is necessary and any slight slowdown is compensated by the unnoticeable fan
Re:Probably the right way to go (Score:4, Interesting)
No docking support... (Score:4, Interesting)
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This would seem a lot neater, if not more worth while, if it had a dock option. I just look at what HP did with the 1100 tablet and it's dock and think that they had the right idea with some slight short comings. Something in the same vein could have been done with this.
Use a USB Docking Station if you want more ports.
That's not the only issue with that keyboard (Score:2, Informative)
The wasted space isn't the only problem. What's worse (and far, far worse IMHO) is the way the keyboard is laid out. The 3rd row down is placed too far to the left - the A and Q almost line up. Caps-Lock is WAY too short, and enter is too wide. Bit of the inverse of the crap Apple [stack.nl] once pulled off. To add insult to injury, the >, <, ? and " keys have a different size.
Really, I'd run away from that keyboard FAST.
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Yes, because it's a full function computer that requires a full-sized keyboard, with all the function keys.
Apart from the ASD.. line being a bit too far to the left, the keyboard looks ideally suited for such a device. The alpha keys are larger to make typing easier, at the cost of the other keys.
Who uses caps lock apart from people who have remapped it to control?
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From what little I've seen of her typing, my girlfriend uses caps lock instead of shift.
I've also used caps lock at times when I've been typing a large amount of stuff in capitals (oddly enough), such as SQL statements and pl/sql code, which our local coding rules mandate should be in caps (now that I'm the most senior dev after a couple of others left, that may change...)
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Who uses caps lock apart from people who have remapped it to control?
I USE IT ALL THE TIME!
On a more serious note and to avoid the caps filter, maybe even losing the caps locks key all together wouldn't be a bad thing for a sub notebook (perhaps making a function of some sort, for those rare people who really need to use it). As a programmer, I use it fairly often, but I suspect that I spend almost as much time backspacing after leaving it on accidentally.
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Who uses caps lock apart from people who have remapped it to control?
Not sure. I have it totally disabled to prevent hitting it by accident, which used to happen a lot because of my elite typing speed skills. But seriously, I used to hit it accidentally all the time and it was really annoying.
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i USE CAPSLOCK, YOU INSENSITIVE CLOD!
(Here is some non-caps waffle to get past the shout-filter)
Re:That's not the only issue with that keyboard (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been waiting for a chance to post this rant...
Will someone in charge of the tech sites please ban "Laptop" people from reviewing these Netbook thingies. Please god let the "PDA" people review them instead? I'm sick of reading the constant complaints about the size, travel and weighting of the keyboards compared to top of the range laptops and even desktops. Will someone therefore please review these for what they are - PDAs with keyboards - and compare the keyboard to, say, any Windows-Mobile stylus device or even the iPhone. Yes, those ones without keyboards at all.
And yes, we know you can't play doom 4 on them under vista, that's because WE DONT NEED THE Mhz to do that. 400MHz + 128MB RAM + a few gig storage is perfectly adequate for browsing ebay from the bathtub, cheers /rant
sorry about that
Re:That's not the only issue with that keyboard (Score:4, Funny)
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If it's a linux computer... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If it's a linux computer... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Totally slashdotted.. (Score:2)
Eh? (Score:2, Offtopic)
{Off topic pedantry}
Ubuntu can run on a spiral ring notebook? It would make more sense to install it on a laptop. If it is pre-installed, that would mean that it is NOT installed. Pre means before (not 'in advance'). As in... not yet. Pre Civil War means before the Civil War, not Civil War already in progress. Pre- is for events... not verbs. A machine with no operating system installed at all would be "pre"-installed. A "pre"-heated oven would be room temperature.
Marketing and MBA speak is killing
Re:Eh? (Score:4, Informative)
Curious, but both Merriam-Webster [merriam-webster.com] and the Oxford English Dictionary seem to disagree with you. Since you need to have a subscription to the OED, I'll quote what they say:
pre-, prefix
With verbs, or participial adjectives and verbal nouns derived from them, in sense 'fore-, before, previously, in advance'.
Would you like to amend your statement to say that the OED is killing the English language? Because that would be a pretty silly argument to make.
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Ubuntu can run on a spiral ring notebook? It would make more sense to install it on a laptop.
Notebook has been another term for laptops for years now. Deal with it already.
If it is pre-installed, that would mean that it is NOT installed. Pre means before (not 'in advance'). As in... not yet. Pre Civil War means before the Civil War, not Civil War already in progress. Pre- is for events... not verbs.
Yes, it's installed prior to the customer receiving the laptop. Pre-reception installation is a bit unwieldy, so we shorten it to pre-installation. This is another commonly accepted (and rather logical) use of the language.
Marketing and MBA speak is killing the English language faster than a failing education system and buggy spell check programs.
None of this is marketing or MBA speak. This is normal, everyday use of the language. One day, do us all a favor and come down from your ivory tower where you only speak pure English. By the way, I hope you're
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Not preheated specifically, but the general abuse of pre-. It's in advertising and board rooms across the US. Watch a few commercials. Go to a meeting. Read a cookbook.
Funny? (Score:2)
I don't know why, maybe its the lack of coffee, but I actually chuckled when I read that.
Linux on the laptop may come before the desktop (Score:2)
What people use laptops and netbooks for is easier for linux to do than to try to be everything for everyone on the desktop.
Just got my eee1000H for $556 (Score:3, Interesting)
The other 10" netbook (MSI Wind) is selling on Amazon for $569. It seems that netbooks with 10 inches of screen (measured diagonally btw) are settling into that price range.
I must say, however, that $300 for an 8.9" screen is a darn good deal for a powerful netbook from Dell. --Though for 10" screens, the Asus eee line still impresses me more than any of the others so far; they've got a year's worth of product development under their belts at this point where everybody else is still scrambling, and Asus seems to be the only manufacturer which isn't shipping units with "crystal-bright" screens, which I know some people prefer, but for me clinched the deal by virtue of its absence. --The other perk is the presence of a massive user support community. This is the first time, possibly in my life, when I've found myself in with the popular crowd. It feels kind of weird to have the 'it' item. I can't decide if I feel dirty or elated. It's rare when "Popular" also means "Damn Good".
The other elements which I'm impressed with on the 1000H are the default 6-cell battery and its nice long life, the responsive and properly sized keyboard with its sensible layout, the screen real-estate, great audio, quiet fan/HD, and excellent body design, (it's nice and rugged; doesn't feel cheaply made like some of the other netbooks I've handled). I was also pleasantly surprised with the hibernate feature in XP; until it came through the door, I was resigned to putting up with long start-up times, but with the hibernate feature it goes from cold to me typing at full speed in about 14 seconds, though I suspect that would be longer if I doubled up the memory. It currently has 1 gig, but I've not noticed any limiting issues with that at all. A gig is a lot; though it might become a bit annoying if I decide to do any heavy Photoshop work on the thing, although I can't realistically see that happening very often.
The one thing I do find is that the trackpad keys are a bit too stiff for my liking. --But at least they're in the right place, at the bottom of the trackpad. I don't know what several other designers were thinking when they put them to the sides. Weird. The only other thing I would caution people about is that the eee1000 is just this side of being too big and heavy. You need a bit of muscle to hold it in one hand while typing with the other; it's best on your lap or knee or some other surface. A Blackberry it is not, but it still slides very nicely into a backpack and it's easy enough to treat like a book around the house rather than a piece of fold-up furniture.
I've not tried out the 8.9" eee, and it does seem that the competitors have some nice netbooks out in that range, so I don't know if I'd go with Asus for one of those if I wanted the smaller screen. This new Dell machine, aside from the glossy screen, looks like a pretty decent choice if they can deliver on the projected price.
-FL
S10's specs comparison (Score:3, Informative)
Ho, ho! And the horses are at the gate!
Levono is being a bit coy, it seems. (Just went through their S10 info).
You get half the memory (512Mb) and half the battery size (3 cell) of the eee1000, and there's apparently no option on their sales page to upgrade either of these on the main package. Going through their accessories page, you can separately order a gig of memory for $35 and they don't even offer a 6 cell battery yet for the S10. I would hope they make that option available soon for the main pack
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But does it run linux?
The question to ask is if it will run Windows? Dell will probably end up giving XP as an option. However, are they pre-installing Ubuntu because XP will not run satisfactorily with the base system configuration (512MB RAM, etc.), or because XP is more expensive?
I strongly suspect the former, and that Linux flavours and derivatives are being preferred by the OEMs mainly because they're leaner, faster, and offer much better boot times (aka Instant-On versions such as Splashtop) than XP or Vista. This has prob
XP runs fine on 384 MB (Score:3, Informative)
However, are they pre-installing Ubuntu because XP will not run satisfactorily with the base system configuration (512MB RAM, etc.), or because XP is more expensive?
In a way, a combination of both. My 7-year-old Dell PC has a CPU and RAM comparable to today's netbooks (0.86 GHz PIII, 384 MB RAM), and it runs Windows XP, Firefox 3, VirtualDub, Lockjaw, and StepMania just fine. But then I keep it comparatively clean, without a lot of icons in the tray and with no antivirus other than ClamWin's weekly full system scan. I'm guessing that XP will run just fine on this system, but the trialware that subsidizes an XP license does not.
You wanna bet that they aren't already working on an "XP-Lite" version to counter this threat?
There already is Windows XP Lite. It's cal
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XP runs fine with half a gig of ram, even with 256 meg it's tolerable (though at that ram level you will probablly need swap which is a problem if you only have a SSD). The orignal EEEs screen was rather small but the 1024x600 of the newer EEE models is fine for most apps (and if an app decides to pop up an oversized dialog the windows load on the EEE provides a tray icon letting you go to scaled or top/bottom scroll mode to deal with it)
I suspect the real reasons for theese cheap ultraportable vendors keep
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ubuntu =~
Re:That is great news! But.. (Score:5, Interesting)
MS ISV astroturf (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MS ISV astroturf (Score:5, Informative)
Can I ask why not?
I agree there's a significant effort from ISVs who are encouraged to "get out on the web and support the product", but there's also abundant evidence that Microsoft uses marketing groups like DCI and Law Media Group to astroturf more directly.
Why wouldn't they?
Re:MS ISV astroturf (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:MS ISV astroturf (Score:5, Funny)
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Well, because Windows IS a better, deeper experience. DUH!
Yes and Gary Glitter is an upstanding member of society.
Re:MS ISV astroturf (Score:5, Insightful)
While I'm a Linux zealot, I am willing to deploy Windows and MAC when I need to and it makes since from a performance/cost perspective.
Then you are not, in fact, a Linux zealot. A zealot wouldn't care about those factors. No, you're a Linux supporter, and have the damn sense to recognize that Linux isn't always the proper choice. This isn't (ok, it is, but it shouldn't be) out of the ordinary.
Re:That is great news! But.. (Score:4, Informative)
Experienced users are indeed more likely to prefer the Windows option -- as long as they are experienced as in they have Windows experience.
And Windows users who try to use their existing skills and habits generally also find themselves having many issues. In fact, Windows "Power Users" frequently have more problems with Linux than people with little or no computer experience, for this very reason. Typically, the most vehement "Linux is not ready for the desktop yet" arguments come from ingrained Windows users who reason that if they couldn't make the switch, a less-experienced user has no chance. But this is the exact opposite of the truth.
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm [oneandoneis2.org]
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On the other hand , if they are experienced with Linux , they are going to get a lot more out of it then ever possible with Windows.
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Same rag had two security articles last month flagged on the cover, the Fortify report on security in Open Source and the Debian SSL issue, 90% of their ads are either directly for MS products or for products that run in an MS ecosystem but they are essential reading on who's
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It seems that, with the gadget crowd, Linux support is always sweet in the beginning as they oogle over the new machine but as soon as something new comes out the old gadget is left to collect dust. Suddenly Ubuntu moves on a version or two and people still running the old gadget are left in no man's land with support issues. The people who really understand Linux are too busy with the new gadget to support the ol
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I have found this to be less the case with Linux than any other OS. Linux distros tend to be very good with backward hardware support so it is usually very easy to upgrade your existing hardware to the newest distro version.
With Ubuntu upgrades, even to beta releases if you set your prefences to allow them, happen as easily as any other update. I've heard of some people having problems after upgrades but I don't believe they are very widespread. Compares with Windows upgrades I've done Ubuntu is better at p
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Re:That is great news! But.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think this discussion started from someone wondering if Dell will continue to support this laptop several years down the road. To me it seems that as hardware matures its support just gets better. Just think of how many posts you hear about people putting xubuntu on their "old P2 sitting around collecting dust" and it "just works" because that hardware is well understood. So as long as Dell provides enough information about the hardware at the onset, then it will be supported well at first and as bugs/issues arise they will be incorporated into the mainstream codebases.
Re:That is great news! But.. (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, I'm running Ubuntu on the EEE-PC due to update problems. To get the advanced Xandros desktop working, I had to do an upgrade. Somehow in there I ended up with a circular dependency involving python, I think, which made it impossible to revert back or go forward. Installing EEEUbuntu via USB thumb drive was the easiest way to fix the issue and get a full desktop.
Re:That is great news! But.. (Score:4, Insightful)
While the community based support for Linux have always been enough to cover my needs; there are a number of people offering Linux support who is more than willing to take your money and give you all the additional help you would require.
With the Open Source community continuing to grow I am certain it is only a matter of time until Linux gets the recognition it is beginning to deserve.
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A gadget like this doesn't need support. You install Linux and then you leave it alone - don't fix it if it ain't broke. It will keep running for many years and keep working just like the day you bought it.
How often do you update the software in your refrigerator?
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How often do you update the software in your refrigerator?
My current refrigerator doesn't connect to the Internet, so it's not vunerable to new exploits.
You install Linux and then you leave it alone - don't fix it if it ain't broke. It will keep running for many years and keep working just like the day you bought it.
It should be fine for *three* years (if you apply the security updates regularly) - that's when the support is currently scheduled to end for Ubuntu 8.04. If you are still using it then, it *is*
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It should be fine for *three* years
That's three years from when it was released not three years from now. Ok so two years 8 months isn't too bad but when the next LTS release arrives the old one will have only 1 year left. Say it takes vendors 9 months to switch to the new LTS release and (assuimg the vendors don't abandon ubuntu before that) you will have machines being sold with only 9 months security updates support left.
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I likely will not go "100%" Linux for a long long time. Most of it has to do with working in a Windows shop and, frankly, liking my games.
Well that's clearly a non-argument.
"sudo apt-get install pixfrogger" should satisfy any gamer's needs for a lifetime.
Re:That is great news! But.. (Score:5, Informative)
You a little deliberately short on specifics, your comment might be worthwhile if you were able to pinpoint a device that shipped with Linux on it where the creator of that product has dropped support, but is still around. Even so, you're still very vague with what's supported or not.
It seems that, with the gadget crowd, Linux support is always sweet in the beginning as they oogle over the new machine but as soon as something new comes out the old gadget is left to collect dust. Suddenly Ubuntu moves on a version or two and people still running the old gadget are left in no man's land with support issues. The people who really understand Linux are too busy with the new gadget to support the old. It's the long term user who's left holding the bag.
This is a large company (Dell) buying software from another reasonably large company (Canonical) so it's not really fair to talk about devices that maybe never supported Linux in the first place, made by who knows, supported only by geeks.
You talk specifically about Ubuntu dropping support for features from a previous release and then ignoring the users left out in the cold because of the new-shiny. Could you name an example of that actually happening? Because it's been my experience that my hardware works better with each release, and I haven't seen forums bubbling over with ignored support issues with older hardware as you imply.
Will Dell continue to support this as the distro progresses or should the unit come with a sticker warning the user not to upgrade beyond the current version? It's kind of burned my ass the number of times I tried to pull some older gadgets over to Linux only to find that if I use the distro's 2 or 3 year old package I was fine but if I wanted the latest and greatest I was busied with the work of just getting basic functionality going. The upgrade cycle concerns me too much in some cases to give Linux a try if the only support I have is community based.
Not everyone in the world has the weak consumer laws that you're obviously subject to... if Dell release a product and drop support for it within an unreasonably short timeframe, in much of the world they'll be pilloried and made and example of by the law - because many countries don't allow people to drop a product and run unless they're out of business. So no, I'd say there's no chance whatsoever that Dell will not "continue to support" it, unless they want to be bankrupted in court.
At any rate there's far, far less chance that Dell will fail to support an operating system that they can pick up and fix themselves if necessary, than there is that they'll drop support for something where they have no recourse if the manufacturer decides to discontinue support. Like, Ooh... I don't know... Windows, and most of the third party device drivers for it.
I likely will not go "100%" Linux for a long long time. Most of it has to do with working in a Windows shop and, frankly, liking my games. But even if that wasn't an issue I still haven't warmed up to the community support aspect.
Yes, because Microsoft is just bending over backwards to support it's customers when they have problems. It's not like anyone has to google through forums to find solutions for windows problems because Microsoft's support is SOOOO outstanding.
Seriously, what does Microsoft offer in the way of support to a single home user that isn't available for a cheaper price for Ubuntu or another commercially supported distribution? This supposed support sounds like a fallacy to me, pretty much like the rest of this post. It's fine that you like Windows, but there's no need to make up FUD about Linux to justify your standpoint.
Windows seems like a perfectly fine solution for a certain class of user, and to them I say "To each their own, and mind your fucking bullshit when you talk about mine"
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Yes, because Microsoft is just bending over backwards to support it's customers when they have problems. It's not like anyone has to google through forums to find solutions for windows problems because Microsoft's support is SOOOO outstanding.
Actually we had an issue in work during an AD upgrade, phoned MS they charged us £200 before taking to us, couldnt resolve the bug, we found a fix and told them, they said "umm should be ok to do that" (ie they had no clue). And we never saw our £200 again.. Now THAT is what i call real support!
On another note I have a dell vostro 1500 and ubuntu support for it out of the box was crap, 7.04 installed but wpa2 wireless was very unstable & ubuntu would not boot without me loading p
[citation needed] (Score:2)
I don't know which gadgets you are talking about.
As far as I'm concerned, old stuff doesn't get dropped. It happened to me a lot, lack of upgraded drivers, when changing OS, mainly due to manufacturer going out of business, or dropping product lines, but no in Linux, mainly because drivers crawl into mainstream Linux, and the manufacturer no longer has full control and responsibility over the driver. Usually, just recompiling the driver just works(TM).
Even if that _were_ the case (which it is't), Dell compu
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Even if that _were_ the case (which it is't),
Actually, which it is the case in my case.
If I may so h
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I'd be very interested to know what particular devices
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They are supposed to be supported for several years.
Three years on the desktop (5 on the server) and a two year release cycle. That means one year of overlap
Which means depending on the point in the release cycle you install at you will have between 1 and 3 years before you have to upgrade or lose security updates. And that is assuming that the vendor can start shipping a new LTS release as soon as it is released, if they can't the figures get even worse.
compare that to MS who's current lifecycle policy pro
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I have not called them, but I did have an issue with a broken Windows Update resolved completely through email. For free.
Considering the final fix was to import a registry file, and the level of debugging required to figure this out, I was not getting a scripted response.
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I think people forget that Ubuntu is a tuned, fast distro. The lagging I notice just comes from Flash and Javascript on websites, not from the actual OS.
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SSD? Try SD (Score:2)
And good luck with upgrading the storage on this one, it has a PCI Express minicard SSD instead of a standard SATA drive.
Is there an ExpressCard or USB slot? If so, add an SDHC adapter.
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Nothing wrong with that - it's just a standard PCIe SATA controller plus flash (it appears as a regular disk). The deal is these things are smaller and a standard formfactor than a regular SATA disk. (Most drives in the 1.8" class have ZIF-IDE or CE-ATA interfaces - very few have SATA and if so, they're proprietary connectors).
Many netbooks these days use the PCIe minicard as SSD (the Eee