The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

So, the netbook, ehhhhh? How’s that going for me? It’s all installed, upgraded, and named. (It’s Mokona-chan, to go with my main PC, which is named Yuuko-san. I am so lame.) I’ve been using it for awhile.

I quite like Easy Peasy.

Instead of a normal desktop, it’s basically just a series of big icons to launch things, and, honestly, I think that works very well for what I’m going to be using it for. I favorited Firefox and Pidgin so they’re right there, whenever I turn on the machine. I click on both, and I am off and running. I am a big fan of the Netbook Remix base they’re using. It’s a very good idea.
Along the top is what Windows people would call the task bar. It’s a little weird, but functional. Basically, the majority of the bar states what program you’re currently using and has a close button. It kind of looks like a huge Firefox tab or something. To the left of that are a bunch of little icons showing the other windows you have open. A click on them brings them to the forefront. This works pretty well, too!
The only thing I wish it had was Alt-tabbing between various programs, as that’s something I use constantly on my main PC, and since I am unskilled with the trackpad, would be convenient on the netbook too, in order to switch between Firefox and an IM conversation quickly. I’m sure there’s such a keyboard shortcut in Ubunutu and whatnot. I’ll just have to look it up sometime.

Hardware-wise, the machine is really quite usable. The trackpad… well, it’s a trackpad. I’ve never been a huge fan of them, though I understand why they are important. To carry a mouse around with this thing kind of takes out all the benefit of having a tiny, portable computer, you know? Still, if I was going on a trip or something, I would probably pack a mouse. The one feature I do like is the fact that the trackpad has a little multi-touch action going. A two-finger swipe scrolls the screen like a scroll wheel. It could work a little better (I have tap to click on, and that confuses it sometimes) but it’s still a nice little feature.
The keyboard is also shocking me in how fast I am learning to touch-type with it. I’m already doing pretty well! Sure, there are still typos, but I can tell that, after a little more practice, it won’t be an issue, even with the little keyboard. That’s good, because when I want to chat, I gotta be able to type at the speed of my thoughts. That’s just how I roll. I am kind of unhappy with some of the layout, though. For example, the 1 key is way the fuck out of the way, where the ` or ~ key would be on a normal keyboard. I can’t type exclamation points without hitting tab or something, and that bothers me. It also bothers me that the comma button is bigger than the button for a period. Are you serious, Asus? Which does someone use more, commas or periods? Well, I guess it depends on their idiom, but having the period button so tiny is also a really silly design choice. If you get a lot of sentences from me in chat ending in commas, you’ll know that I’m on my lappy.

Performance-wise, it basically does everything I need it to. It can’t seem to deal with Spoony’s horrible video player (I love you, Spoony, but you have to admit that Blip.tv’s player is shit) but it can play Youtube videos flawlessly. I can chat and surf the internets without any lag from the processor (Is this because of my RAM upgrade? I’m actually thinking it probably is) and that’s really all I need out of the thing. Sure, it could be more powerful. But for the, what, 200 bucks total I paid for this little thing? 250? It’s working like a champ.

I’m pretty sad I couldn’t get Windows 7 on the machine, to try it out, but as is, it is working just great. To anyone getting a Linux-based EeePC, I completely recommend doing away with Xandros, the distro that comes on there. It just wasn’t working well. Easy Peasy offers the same easy accessibility and seems to be running a ton, ton better. (Granted, I upgraded the RAM and SSD since installing Easy Peasy, but…) And I’m pretty happy with my purchase.