Latest Eee News

Well, I’m in a bit of a quandry.  Not, mind you, with the Eee itself…but rather with which Linux distro I would like to have as my main operating system.  I have to admit, I am very partial to Debian itself, though not as much to the Debian variants like Xandros, or the -buntu family.  I do have Debian Lenny installed right now, and it works pretty well.  My only trouble is that I am not having much success with getting Compiz/Compiz-Fusion/Beryl running on it.  This is the same problem that I have with my desktop running Lenny.  I’ve been through several of the different online tutorials, but so far no luck.  The built in wireless adapter works great with ndiswrapper and the drivers from the cd.  So, really, the only thing I can’t get running is the “eyecandy.”  I know, the eyecandy isn’t all THAT important, but still, I’d like to be able to have it if I want it.

The other thing I can’t decide is whether or not I want a full-featured desktop (ie KDE 4) or something a little lighter.  I did boot up openSUSE 11 alpha on the Eee in live CD mode, and took a short look around, but other than that I have stayed with Debian on my Eee.

So there you have it, the latest and greatest from my experiences with my Eee.  As I finally decide on my distro of choice and get settled in, I’ll be posting tips and tricks that I learn along the way.

The Advanced Desktop

Changing over to the Advanced desktop on the Eee is not really a big deal.  I’m still a linux newbie, but can get around with the CLI (command line interface) okay.  I’ve found the following steps to be an easy way to launch the Advanced desktop:

1) Make sure that you are connected to the internet

2) Open a terminal window by typing Ctrl + Alt + t (this should bring up a new window)

3) Type sudo apt-get update and hit Enter

4) Type sudo apt-get install kmserver kicker and hit Enter

5) Hit the power button or click on the shutdown icon in the lower left corner of the screen

6) On the restart menu select Advanced (I think it says “Advanced”…I’m doing this from memory as I now have a new distro installed on my Eee…more on that later)

Here’s the Eee’s Advanced desktop

 

 The default Advanced desktop

The Advanced desktop menu system

The Advanced desktop with the taskbar hidden (to save screen real estate)

The Easy Desktop

Here are screenshots from the six main tabs on the default Xandros desktop for the Eee. They are Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings, and Favorites. This is known as the Easy desktop for the Eee and I have to admit is pretty good for what it is. If the majority of an Eee user’s time was to be spent in word processing or on the internet, this interface will allow them to do those things very easily.