Netbook recommendations?

[tajasel]

I'm specifically asking here because I intend to use Deb, so I want recs of netbooks (which suit my aforementioned preferences) which Deb plays nice with.

I'm looking to replace my slowly dying MacBook with a netbook. I think, from what I've read, I'm after:

• Intel N280 processor, at least 1.6Ghz.
• At least 5hrs battery, but the more the better, obviously.
• Non-bulky AC lead preferred but not essential.
• Screen size isn't a big deal, though I want at least 1024x600px resolution.
• I'd prefer to have the button(s) beneath the touchpad, not on either side.
• Multi-touch is damn near essential.
• At least a gig of RAM, with potential to upgrade later.
• Winblows installed is okay, as I can just return the license and get some cashback... would prefer a machine without the crappy "Made for Windows" stickers, though, or at least ones I can remove easily

I think I want an HDD, as I've been told that SSDs have a fundamental flaw right now in that they get incredibly slow after a few months with my kind of usage, but I'm willing to have my mind changed.

I'm mostly considering the eee 1005HA at the moment... can anybody testify for/against it?

[penpen]

I recently purchased a 1005HA and I gotta say I've been pretty pleased with it. It's going to be a christmas gift for someone not quite so tech-savvy, and I chose to install Windows XP on it. I can't attest for how well it will run Debian, but it handles XP pretty well.

The only thing I don't like about the 1005HA is that the hard disk is ridiculously hard to upgrade and requires that you void the warranty on the system. You have to pretty much completely dismantle the thing to get to the hard drive (remove the keyboard and top panels of the chassis, one of the screws under the keyboard has a "warranty void if seal is broken" sticker over it)

RAM on the other hand, is easily upgradeable, as the ram slot has a bay on the back side of the system you can open to replace it.

It pretty much qualifies for the rest of the features you want - like I said, I haven't tried to run Debian on it, but I'd find it hard to believe it couldn't :p

[Dargor]

My ssd rocks, ive got an intel x25m. the write speed may slow down a bit without TRIM, but it'll be a damn sight faster than a shitty laptop hard drive. and the IO performance pwns.


I have an asus eee, it worked fine. I dont use it anymore though, smart phone does enough on the go.

[tajasel]

Thanks for the replies.

Does anybody reading have other suggestions?

[craigevil]

Take your pick Asus Eee, aspire acer one, the netbooks from Hp or dell aren't bad.

My Eee 701 4Gb SSD 2Gb ram is almost 2 yrs old and I haven't noticed it running any slower than when I first installed Debian on it.

[Tixy]

I'm running Squeeze on an EEEPC 1000HE. Everything works out-of-the-box, except it needs the the Linux 2.6.31 kernel to work with my 'draft N' wireless router. (Works OK with my old 'G' router.)

If you install Debian on a EEEPC, remember to install the eeepc-acpi-scripts.

[Peppe]

I had a Toshiba NB100 for a while .
Terrible keyboard and I got very annoyed with the 1024x600 resolution .
I would look for any 10" netbook with the 1366x768 resolution instead .


On the bright was that I got everything to work with Debian Lenny , sound , graphics , webcamera , bluetooth , wireless lan , memory/SD reader .
How needs anything more then Debian ?

Regards , Peter

[rweaver]

I can't say enough good things about my asus eeepc 900, I've had arch, debian, gentoo, and ubuntu netbook remix on it so far and they've all run pretty well with a bit of tweaking here and there (and I managed to get all the hardware working on each.)