Posted: 2/5/2009 12:03:19 PM EDT
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I've got a new Asus Eee running a Linux OS.
Soldiers I work with recommended it as a good travel/work laptop, so here I go - a few days into it, and I'm hating life. Apparently this thing came with an Asus proprietary Linux release. All I've ever heard about Linux is how versatile and "nanny free" it is - well I can't even change my desktop background. The Pidgin release that came with it is crap (wont let me go "invisible" until AFTER I've logged on). Can't figure out how to put a diff't version on this thing. Found out some of the software I use daily (Nuclear Coffee's VideoGet) isn't available in a Linux compatible release, and my company's sites wont work with Mozilla Firefox. Any advice on what to do or how to fix these issues? I'm seriously considering just selling this little piece of shit before I bounce it off a wall. 
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Your eee PC's OS is probably much the same as that on an Acer Aspire One: A proprietary release that 's a derivative of a much more flexible Linux distribution yet does not conform to that distributions standards. These proprietary OS's at times even confuse the most knowledgeable followers of the derivative Linux distro. As of this reading there is not one single Linux netbook distro that will totally work out of the box. There always seems to be some sort of hardware/driver/whatever compatibility issue that someone has to write a custom driver for. Some incompatibility issues are never sorted out.
Linux is a joy to a few, a challenge to a few others, and a nightmare for the casual user who just wants to push a button or two in order to fix a problem. In the case of netbooks the novelty of size wears off when the OS is not casual user friendly. Most of the netbooks sold in this country have XP and I predict that it will stay that way. Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, says he stands opposed to the development of a "one size fits all" Linux distribution in order to address the fact that Linux hasn't gained any market share. What confounds you and me is the way developers use Linux to create custom OS's for certain needs which is what Linux is all about. But at this point I am not answering your questions. On to your situation... The desktop is probably xfce. Can you right click anywhere on the desktop to reveal drop down menus that resemble those in XP (start>programs>etc.)? Can you easily access the internal workin's? if not, a good start is perusing the forums for your netbook and learning how to modify your desk top to the 'advanced version". That's a good place to start. Doubful if you can change your desktop background with the push of a radio button or clickin on a picture. You'll probably have to write lines of code. Yeah, I feel your pain. Linux frees you from the shackles of Microswift and less exposure to viri, malware, trojans but there's a price if you're not a Linux 'geek' when it comes to incompatibility issues. All the modifications I've done with my "One" I have done only after a healthy amount of research on Linux help forums and only after someone has found a sure-fire fix. As of now I am dealing with a blank "add-ons" window after a Firefox upgrade I have no frickin' clue how to fix it. |
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Some of the software on these Linux netbooks is as proprietary as the OS.
I damn well know Firefox is on my AA1. Shit, I can't even access "check for updates"...I have to wait for Acer to issue an update via their Live Update server. I'm just venting. Steve Jobs needs to pull his head out of his skinny ass and make an affordable Mac netbook. They'd sell a gazzillion of them. I'm not holding my breath. |
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lighten up francis!
you really shouldn't be hating life over that.. btw, this is being sent from my pc900 
go into pidgin preferences and change the status tab settings to boot with the last setting..just make sure you set it to away before you close. you can change the 'theme" it's unbloated, there are other aps you can load, check some of the user pages (google it) I like mine, it serves me well. ' |
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Ironically, my sister in law just emailed me tonight with a question of 'How do I change my background on this Asus laptop?' I was like, shit....no problem. then I looked it up. Now, I am a linux guy, I run linux at home (Ubuntu), and have been waiting for the 'perfect' eee to come along. (Every time I decide to buy, I read about the new thing that's about to drop. This month: Dual Core Atom CPUs!) But shit, when I saw the 'hack' you have to do to simply change the background, I have to admit, my enthusiasm for the OS quickly dropped.
Now, to make you feel a bit better, I hear Ubuntu is developing a dedicated OS for this tiny notebooks, so hopefully, they will bring their easy to use desktop OS to it. As far as changing the background goes...well, I guess I'll have to get a hold of the SiL's one and dust off my 1337 h4xx0r 5ki11z.... |
| Which model do you have? I have two Eee PCs. One it the original 701 and the other is a 900HA. If you go to the eeeuser site (RyJones linked to it above) you can find instructions on getting a more "standard" version of Linux on it that will more flexible and easy to mange things like customizations and software updates. I am using default Ubuntu with Adam's kernel. Depending on your model you can follow the setup instructions here: Array.org EeePC Ubuntu |
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Thsnks for all the input. In surfing the Eee forums I learned that there is a way to unlock "advanced mode" in the Eee - it makes the interface a lot more like a regular computer.
Will post updates as the saga continues for any other arfcommers that end up with one of these - after getting over the initial frustration and figuring out how to get in and make things happen with advanced mode, I'm thinking this little guy may end up being ideal for my application w/ the factory OS afterall. |
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Now, to make you feel a bit better, I hear Ubuntu is developing a dedicated OS for this tiny notebooks, so hopefully, they will bring their easy to use desktop OS to it. http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr http://www.eeebuntu.org/index.php?page=main |
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anyone else have a pc900 and notice that somethings just don't function correctly?
mine functions ok, its just that there are a few minor nit-picky things that could be better (M$ has the same kind of issues, it's just that they do it much worse than the 'tux guys) I might go the advance mode today.. I want to read a few more threads as I'd be more po'd to have to restore this thing the more I have it set up the way I like. |
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anyone else have a pc900 and notice that somethings just don't function correctly? mine functions ok, its just that there are a few minor nit-picky things that could be better (M$ has the same kind of issues, it's just that they do it much worse than the 'tux guys) I might go the advance mode today.. I want to read a few more threads as I'd be more po'd to have to restore this thing the more I have it set up the way I like. This link helped me a lot with getting into advanced mode - Enable Advanced Desktop I used "the easy way." Went smooth and works well. |
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Quoted:
anyone else have a pc900 and notice that somethings just don't function correctly? mine functions ok, its just that there are a few minor nit-picky things that could be better (M$ has the same kind of issues, it's just that they do it much worse than the 'tux guys) I might go the advance mode today.. I want to read a few more threads as I'd be more po'd to have to restore this thing the more I have it set up the way I like. The 'advanced desktop' in a Linux AA1 is, thankfully, very simple to enable: Open command window and type in xterm leave the 'open in terminal' box unchecked. Hit 'enter'. A terminal window will open and you simply type in xfce-show-settings and then hit 'enter'. A desktop manager window will open you click on the "desktop" icon, go to 'behaviors", and click 'enable advanced desktop with right-click", then close both open windows. You're done. Now it won't change the look of the desktop but you will be able to access all your system settings and programs by right clicking on the desktop....sort of like going into XP and clicking "start". If you want to physically change the desktop to resemble something more "windows-like" you can but there's a bit more work involved. Haven't tried it yet. In fact, you can tweak things so that you can readily toggle back and forth as you like betwen the AA1's xfce (simple) desktop and the normal Linpus desktop. |
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Update 7FEB2009
Well the saga continues. I think I tried too much to quick at adding software and whatnot, had a few icons go invisible and I decided to reload the machine now rather than have bugs get worse once I had a lot of data on it. This thing is scoring big points for portability and battery life - not so much the Linux OS (which is a Xandros release of Linux I found out). Overall it's going well, but the software support for Linux may lead to my putting XP on this machine. Seems there aren't any Linux programs that will handle some of the simple tasks I need to do. |
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Update 7FEB2009 Overall it's going well, but the software support for Linux may lead to my putting XP on this machine. Seems there aren't any Linux programs that will handle some of the simple tasks I need to do. http://www.linuxalt.com/ |
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anyone else have a pc900 and notice that somethings just don't function correctly? mine functions ok, its just that there are a few minor nit-picky things that could be better (M$ has the same kind of issues, it's just that they do it much worse than the 'tux guys) I might go the advance mode today.. I want to read a few more threads as I'd be more po'd to have to restore this thing the more I have it set up the way I like. This link helped me a lot with getting into advanced mode - Enable Advanced Desktop I used "the easy way." Went smooth and works well. somethings not right.. It cant find the repositories (yes, my wan is up and running) 
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| I moved my 701 over to Easy Peasy (formerly Ubuntu eee) and haven't looked back. I was already an Ubuntu user, and while i could use the Xandros distro on the eee, I was much more comfortable with Ubuntu. I used an app called Unetbootin to throw the .iso file onto a thumb drive, and the rest was simple. |
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I moved my 701 over to Easy Peasy (formerly Ubuntu eee) and haven't looked back. I was already an Ubuntu user, and while i could use the Xandros distro on the eee, I was much more comfortable with Ubuntu. I used an app called Unetbootin to throw the .iso file onto a thumb drive, and the rest was simple. which version of EP? I put on EP1.0 (ubuntu 8.10) and had problems/issues on my PC900 and bailed on it, back to the original xandros. There are also issues with FF3 with it. I hear the earlier versions (pre 8.10) worked better. (YMMV) |