Experiments with the eee
It's been a while since I last handled the eee.
I haven't gotten around to changing the default Xandros OS to either Ubunty or Fedora. Frankly, the OS works just fine for me. And as long as I can get a command-line and an internet connection, I'm a happy camper.
But it's been an unusually quiet weekend so I decided to focus a bit more on this cute little monster.
First off, an upgrade. It was a simple matter of doing a
Next, the OS change. I did attempt to install Ubuntu Hardy Heron on the eee, but hit a snag while creating a USB bootable flash disk. I had a spare 1GB flash disk at hand, and was able to dump the netboot image from the Ubuntu archives. For some reason, the eee cannot recognize it. Again, I'll have to dig into this later, but as I've said, Xandros works fine for me for now so I'll stick with it at the moment.
Since I cannot change the OS, I opted to optimize whatever I have for now. One major "annoyance" is the screen real estate (i.e., the lack thereof). Firefox, for example, have large chrome properties that need to be slimmed down. I'm using the basic display mode for Xandros, so there's desktop screen space is not a primary concern. Since I mostly use the eee for browsing, I need to trim the fat off Firefox.
I had to download the TinyMenu extension. This reduced the menu to a vertical one, which is nifty since I was able to move the navigation bar buttons alongside it. I reduced the space even further by using a minimalist theme called Mini Firefox. I then hid navigation bar buttons that are currently disabled through some tweaks in
The result:
I haven't gotten around to changing the default Xandros OS to either Ubunty or Fedora. Frankly, the OS works just fine for me. And as long as I can get a command-line and an internet connection, I'm a happy camper.
But it's been an unusually quiet weekend so I decided to focus a bit more on this cute little monster.
First off, an upgrade. It was a simple matter of doing a
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade. The bad side is, since the OS uses unionfs, the 4GB storage is now down to only ~260MB free (or around 83% in use). I'll have to look at the repackaged updates from the XEPC project, if the storage factor becomes critical, but for now, I can live with this.Next, the OS change. I did attempt to install Ubuntu Hardy Heron on the eee, but hit a snag while creating a USB bootable flash disk. I had a spare 1GB flash disk at hand, and was able to dump the netboot image from the Ubuntu archives. For some reason, the eee cannot recognize it. Again, I'll have to dig into this later, but as I've said, Xandros works fine for me for now so I'll stick with it at the moment.
Since I cannot change the OS, I opted to optimize whatever I have for now. One major "annoyance" is the screen real estate (i.e., the lack thereof). Firefox, for example, have large chrome properties that need to be slimmed down. I'm using the basic display mode for Xandros, so there's desktop screen space is not a primary concern. Since I mostly use the eee for browsing, I need to trim the fat off Firefox.
I had to download the TinyMenu extension. This reduced the menu to a vertical one, which is nifty since I was able to move the navigation bar buttons alongside it. I reduced the space even further by using a minimalist theme called Mini Firefox. I then hid navigation bar buttons that are currently disabled through some tweaks in
userChrome.css:
#back-button[disabled="true"], #forward-button[disabled="true"],
#stop-button[disabled="true"], .search-go-button-stack { display: none !important; }
The result:
I have been planning to get an ultraportable but holding out until models with either the Atom or Isaiah chips are available. Hopefully I will not have to hold out until September. :)
ReplyDeletetwo QA items:
1MB flashdisk? My spider-sense tingles with a probable mis-key. about two to the left and one row up. /lol
"he 4GB storage is now down to only ~260MB free (or around 83%)" - reads a little abrupt. did you mean "(or around 83% in use)"? my math is not adding up but I am not a math geek. :)
if you don't use it frequently, maybe you can loan your 701 to me for a week. :D
ciao!
Erk. You got me there, Erin, thanks. Edited accordingly. :D
ReplyDelete(Blame it on the small keyboard on the eee. ;)) As for loaning it to you, have to ask the missus as she uses it more than I do. Heh.
oh well, it was worth a try since i don't think i have the guts to break the heart of another would-be techie user. :)
ReplyDeleteciao!