Ok, so hands down linux is much more robust an OS compared to windows,heck it is better at almost everything practically usable, thanks to its powerful UNIX kernel and a large open source base.What is that I hear? "I have heard that before, but windows is still a monopoly over almost entire PC industry, and every software that is made is made with only windows in mind as it will sell with the closed source OS."
Though that is not entirely true, with most of the major applications availabe for linux too, it is true that some of the most used ones are not.
Consider for example, utorrent, a simple c coded torrent client ehich i really like running neatly on one corner in my windows session.
Though there is transmission built into linux itself, is good, i find its minimalistic look, no support for tracker and peer addition, and feel coupled with the not so good number of connections possible a dealbreaker.
So in order to keep the power of unix and open source with utorrent, i decided to use a little software called as wine for linux.
you can get it from here.
After installing it from the terminal window, you can run most windows programs on it, including a few games.
Thogh still in beta stages, the latest version does have a very large support base for many windows apps.
Aditionally when installed you can also change the options as to which os it should replicate, vista,xp or the older 98..
It stores all the data you use here is virtual disks c and z, which can easily be accessed from linux itself.
Now if only linux would support directx and i could play games like crysis on it..I would have no reason to stay with windows and its truant "genuine only" policies.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The Eeeasy experience
So, on my quest to find a laptop, which truly did what it was initially conceived to do, that is, 1)to be portable, unlike its bulky brother, desktop, and 2)have a price tag which was justifiable in the light of above said inclusion, I found one which came pretty close to the ideal condition.
The "laptop" or more precisely the netbook that I am talking of here, is the eee pc, from the gamer-centric company, asus (though this laptop is not really for even legacy games).
The eee line of netbooks was first made by asus a year or so back, with their main focus over budget portability, rather than performance, which was a refreshing change for once from the ridiculously priced , under performing laptops like macbook air (mac fanboys will really hate me for this..)
Initially shipped versions had within them "remix" versions of popular linux distros like xandros, which made them very user friendly, with most functions availabe at the touch of a on screen shortcut.
They didnot have the power to run windows or run games,because they were just not made for that.
These netbooks excelled at one thing above all- portability.
Initial models had 7inch screen sizes and weighed under a kg, making them ideal for travel.
Aditionally, they predominently had SSD's within them, so for the most part they were shock proof too.
However as the market matured, and a pleothera of these sub-notebooks flew in grom literally every company, the product line was improved, the one that I got was the eee 1000h, which had some intresting features.
First up, was that it came with xp, though the home edition, this was the only legal way to get xp,ie.in the ULPC's now that windows had done away with selling the OS, thanks to vista.
unlike its older sibling though, the 1000h had a 10 inch screen, larger than any of them, whic makes it easier to scroll and read web pages on it.
then there was the weight which was now very close to the borders of the subnotebook region, at around 1.45 kg, partly due to its 6cell Li-ion battery, and a HDD being present of the laptop instead of a solid state drive.
Though this means that it is more prone to mechanical shock, it does give this version of eee a 80gb hard drive space, enogh to install multiple OS's and store downloaded data, unlike the older 4g models which had just 4gb space.
Also on it is a 6 cell battery instead of 3 cell ones on older models, which improves battery times quite drastically, though i found that the long battery span per charge is generally more so because of the bundled application called as hybrid engine from asus.
What it does is that when the laptop is running on battery, it "underclocks" the CPU, from 1.6 GHz to 800MHz and hence reduces the voltage used by it.
The Cpu itself, intel atom which was recently released from intel for these subnotebooks is quite under and over clockable and uses very little power.
The build quality of the laptop was quite good, thogh there was a slight flex on the keys to the right of the laptop, though nothing much to be worried about.
Apart from that, the biggest hurdle in the older netbooks is rectified here, which is that for such small devices, the keyboard is generally cramped up, for example in the older 4g models the keys were so small that it would be hard to type without hitting the wrong key accidentally.Here however the keyboard is almost full sized compared to the usual laptops and after a little practice, one gets adept at using it.
The other intresting thing on this laptop was its touchpad, which with the right drivers can be used with three fingers simultaneously to simulate many conditions.Though it had bugs with recognizing the multiple finger taps, it is more of a software bug which should be rectified soon enough.
For example, 2 finger tap enables sroll, 2 finger motion of moving diagonally away or together zooms or zooms out the fram, three finger tap gives right click and so on..
other than that, it also had a wireless n support though nothing on wimax.The draft n is almost ready and hence this will enable much faster throughputs.
Webcam and microphone was also thrown in for the support of video chatting, skype comes preloaded in xp for that, and the laptop also has a button exclusively to open skype(which thankfully can be programmed to behave differently as i rarely ever use video chatting).
Speakers are phenomenally good too, with a sticker saying that they are dolby certified.Though the sound is not 5.1 channel good, it is exceptional for speakers of this size on such a small laptop.
The audio chipset itself is from realtek and supports hd.
the lcd too is good with bright colors appearing very nice and text easily redable at half the maximum brightness too..though you will not be able to play games or 1080p hd videos on it..thanks to the integrated intel gma 950 video chipset.
all in all though, it fits perfectly in as a second or third laptop for almost anyone who needs a "on-the-go" laptop.For everything else like running adobe CS or playing crysis there is always the good old trusty desktop..
The "laptop" or more precisely the netbook that I am talking of here, is the eee pc, from the gamer-centric company, asus (though this laptop is not really for even legacy games).
The eee line of netbooks was first made by asus a year or so back, with their main focus over budget portability, rather than performance, which was a refreshing change for once from the ridiculously priced , under performing laptops like macbook air (mac fanboys will really hate me for this..)
Initially shipped versions had within them "remix" versions of popular linux distros like xandros, which made them very user friendly, with most functions availabe at the touch of a on screen shortcut.
They didnot have the power to run windows or run games,because they were just not made for that.
These netbooks excelled at one thing above all- portability.
Initial models had 7inch screen sizes and weighed under a kg, making them ideal for travel.
Aditionally, they predominently had SSD's within them, so for the most part they were shock proof too.
However as the market matured, and a pleothera of these sub-notebooks flew in grom literally every company, the product line was improved, the one that I got was the eee 1000h, which had some intresting features.
First up, was that it came with xp, though the home edition, this was the only legal way to get xp,ie.in the ULPC's now that windows had done away with selling the OS, thanks to vista.
unlike its older sibling though, the 1000h had a 10 inch screen, larger than any of them, whic makes it easier to scroll and read web pages on it.
then there was the weight which was now very close to the borders of the subnotebook region, at around 1.45 kg, partly due to its 6cell Li-ion battery, and a HDD being present of the laptop instead of a solid state drive.
Though this means that it is more prone to mechanical shock, it does give this version of eee a 80gb hard drive space, enogh to install multiple OS's and store downloaded data, unlike the older 4g models which had just 4gb space.
Also on it is a 6 cell battery instead of 3 cell ones on older models, which improves battery times quite drastically, though i found that the long battery span per charge is generally more so because of the bundled application called as hybrid engine from asus.
What it does is that when the laptop is running on battery, it "underclocks" the CPU, from 1.6 GHz to 800MHz and hence reduces the voltage used by it.
The Cpu itself, intel atom which was recently released from intel for these subnotebooks is quite under and over clockable and uses very little power.
The build quality of the laptop was quite good, thogh there was a slight flex on the keys to the right of the laptop, though nothing much to be worried about.
Apart from that, the biggest hurdle in the older netbooks is rectified here, which is that for such small devices, the keyboard is generally cramped up, for example in the older 4g models the keys were so small that it would be hard to type without hitting the wrong key accidentally.Here however the keyboard is almost full sized compared to the usual laptops and after a little practice, one gets adept at using it.
The other intresting thing on this laptop was its touchpad, which with the right drivers can be used with three fingers simultaneously to simulate many conditions.Though it had bugs with recognizing the multiple finger taps, it is more of a software bug which should be rectified soon enough.
For example, 2 finger tap enables sroll, 2 finger motion of moving diagonally away or together zooms or zooms out the fram, three finger tap gives right click and so on..
other than that, it also had a wireless n support though nothing on wimax.The draft n is almost ready and hence this will enable much faster throughputs.
Webcam and microphone was also thrown in for the support of video chatting, skype comes preloaded in xp for that, and the laptop also has a button exclusively to open skype(which thankfully can be programmed to behave differently as i rarely ever use video chatting).
Speakers are phenomenally good too, with a sticker saying that they are dolby certified.Though the sound is not 5.1 channel good, it is exceptional for speakers of this size on such a small laptop.
The audio chipset itself is from realtek and supports hd.
the lcd too is good with bright colors appearing very nice and text easily redable at half the maximum brightness too..though you will not be able to play games or 1080p hd videos on it..thanks to the integrated intel gma 950 video chipset.
all in all though, it fits perfectly in as a second or third laptop for almost anyone who needs a "on-the-go" laptop.For everything else like running adobe CS or playing crysis there is always the good old trusty desktop..
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