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Laptop Lust Part 3

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As Oscar Wilde put it, the best way to rid oneself of temptation is to yield to it immediately. I bought the Acer Aspire One today from MicroCenter. It's cool.

The instructions were simplicity itself. It found my home wireless. It loads programs fast. I used the quick little hack to make it easier to add programs:

Launch My Document
File>Terminal
xfce-settings-show
Select Desktop Preferences>Behavior>Show desktop menu on right click
Close

Then a right click brings up the Xfce menu, which allows (among other things), the ability to add new programs.

Then I went to the Notecase Pro page and downloaded the Fedora 8 version.

Then I stuck a USB flash drive into my home PC and copied over the files I care about: my newspaper columns, my journals, my bookmarks, my contacts, my calendar. (And my Notecase.key file.) Then popped the into the Aspire One and dragged over the files.

Now I have a tiny little computer that's fast, full-featured, and portable. I can surf the net, do IM, write, check and send email (a fast program for that, too -- Claws?). It also has enough ports for connecting to a bigger monitor or projector, and a printer. It's about as good as my desktop!

So I'm going to try to do my talk for ILA on this. I'm amazed that this is actually cheaper than my Nokia.

Many thanks to Greenwood Press, my publisher, for a little disposable income.

Comments

SL said…
Hi! I found your blog through Publib. Or maybe Fiction-L. I forget. Anyway, I really enjoy it.

I'm thinking about getting one of these ultraportables. If you don't mind me asking, why did you choose the Aspire One over the Dell?
Thanks!
September 15, 2008 at 6:31 AM
Jamie said…
First, because the Aspire One was at a local store and I could test it. Second, I touch type, and the Aspire let me do that very comfortably. I did only a little searching about the Dell, but ran across one comment that the keyboard was small -- smaller, I think than the 85% of the Aspire. Third, I use Ubuntu on my work computer, PCLinuxOS on my home desktop, and having a third Linux distro might, I thought, make me smarter.

Thanks for the kind words.
September 15, 2008 at 7:04 PM
SL said…
Thanks! I'll keep your comments in mind!
September 16, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Hamish said…
Hi Cousin, What a coincidence - I bought one on 6th Sept here in UK! I've managed the Term trick and added Skype, but the download of Thunderbird wasn't a self-install, so I've got to move to the next level of understanding of Linux. Yes, it's cool, in both senses. I'm in my sitting room typing this via the wireless network, and watching tv news. It's great.
September 24, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Jamie said…
Hi Hamish! Actually, if you follow the instructions in my posting about activating the right-click menu, you'll find Thunderbird in the repositories -- an automatic install. I'm using Thunderbird, and it is MUCH faster than the built-in mail client.
October 6, 2008 at 2:51 PM
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