Review: Eeebuntu 3.0.1 NBR - 12/08/2009 by Andrew Distro Review The EeePC has changed the portable PC landscape for good. Linux zealots (myself included) were over the moon that there was not only a super cheap and portable laptop on the way but one that's also preloaded with Linux. Promises of super cheap prices were not met, but that didn't stop the popularity and now every major manufacturer (notable exception being Apple) has their own version of sub-notebook. One of the downsides with the 70x and 90x EeePCs was that a modified version of Xandros Linux (loaded as the default) was a little too restrictive. The problem being that many Windows users didn't appreciate the change (nothing new there I know) of the custom Xandros and many Linux users wanted a distro that they had more control over. A number of people installed modified versions of Xubuntu or Ubuntu to reach this aim, though these always seemed to require far too much tinkering to get everything working. I had previously tried out eeeXubuntu 7.10 and then Ubuntu 8.04 + scripts and was happy enough. EeeXubuntu was quite fast and was actually quicker than my overclocked Ubuntu 8.04 when playing OpenArena. By the time Ubuntu 9.04 was released it was time for a refresh. Enter Eeebuntu. Eeebuntu aims to provide a total 'out of the box' experience, and previous to the Version 3 release, Version 2 was highly regarded for this very fact. As soon as Version 3 was released (well, actually 3.0.1) I upgraded and was more than happy with it. The performance with OpenGL (especially OpenArena) still didn't match the standard modified Xandros or eeeXubuntu though it was great to have the latest Ubuntu on the little bugger with everything working. The .iso is slightly larger than a CD, which is annoying in that you have to waste a blank DVD. In my view if you have to use a DVD then include more packages (not installed, though installable off the DVD). Once burnt, I used my external slim Samsung USB DVD burner (phew!) and was presented with the usual options, including the ability to run it as a live DVD. With the standard 512MB of DDR2 the Live DVD is incredibly slow but if you're wanting to double check that wireless et al works. Installing to the solid state drive is a lengthy process that starts off with the usual language, keyboard, time zone and user questions. Partitioning defaults to using the entire drive (understandable when it's only 4GB) though there isn't an option for encryption, which in this day and age is really a must. On the flip side, if you're storing information regarding national security on a EeePC then you might have other issues going on. Once the automated installation kicks off it'll take about 45 minutes. Once installed you're greeted with (on the 7” screen mind you) a super small text at the login screen. Thankfully once logged in the text size is adequate. Eeebuntu 3.0.1 NBR uses the Ubuntu netbook interface and I believe it really suits the 7” and 8.9” models. Also, having the Celeron 630Mhz CPU means you won't be using this as a desktop replacement any time soon so having a nifty launcher can be handy to access your favourite EeePC friendly applications. One problem that you'll run into is the incredibly slow speed that Eeebuntu 3 runs out of the box, especially on the Celeron inflicted netbooks. This is due to the Intel graphics drivers not playing nice and unfortunately, the only way to fix this is to following the following guide: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReinhardTartler/X/RevertingIntelDriverTo2.4. It's not a great first impression to make and if you happen to be away from a wifi hot spot then you'll be suffering for a while. The big question is: Is this better than the standard modified Xandros? That's an easy yes. Apart from the fact that this is a much newer distribution, it has the huge Ubuntu base of applications and support. Yes, you could install plain old Ubuntu yourself and hack away till it's usable but when you can have a great out of the box experience you'd have to wonder what's the point. The downsides are the fact that the gnome manager is heavy, though this will only affect the Celeron EeePCs as the Atom CPUs have enough grunt to cope (my MSI Wind U100+ runs the standard Ubuntu 9.04 and it flies!). It's not too bad, but definitely noticeable. With this in mind I still believe that Eeebuntu is still the best option for 7” and 8.9” EeePCs. Questions? Comments? Leave a message!
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