I was the build engineer that assembled the OS for these things between 2008-2010. It was a Debian based Linux distro with a custom built desktop and other custom built software, and it my memory serves my right, it was using the IceWM window manager.
That was my first real experience with Linux!
My little brother bought one open box from Best Buy. Somehow it didn’t have keyboard or trackpad drivers? Not even external usb would work.
Ended up putting Ubuntu on it for him I believe. Fun learning experience.
LoL yeah, I had a couple. A 10" and a 7". I ended up putting Ubuntu on there as well with xfce. It was perfect for streaming and doing a few web tasks. The hardware was crap though.
You could buy one with Windows XP back then but boy was it terrible.
Very cool. Any other related stories?
Yeah! When I joined the team, the build system was basically a bunch of Bash scripts duct taped together so to speak. It would fail all the time and everyone was unhappy. Devs couldn’t get a solid image, nor could the QA team have a product that they were sure they could reproduce. The build team all quit out of frustration because everyone was blaming them all the time for delays and it wasn’t even their fault because they didn’t write the scripts.
Some intern started another script but left early in his project. He didn’t transfer anything to anyone and we basically had to take out his hard drive to connect it to my system to extract his scripts because he didn’t bother to give anyone the password to his machine.
I still had to redo everything from scratch because his scripts somehow only worked on his system and were not portable.
Over the course of one year, I rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up. And in the end, it was a mix of Python, Bash, Perl and it was using chroot jails and Qemu as a containerization system before Docker even existed. In the end, I could build a Linux distribution with any suite of software for multiple architecture using a simple config file. I had a master system that acted as a monitor and a load balancer that would delegate the builds to whatever machine or container was available and give me real time information on the progress of each build.
Then the company went bankrupt.
I was going to say that sounds like quite the elegant setup you ended up with, and in a pre docker world? Straight up crazy in my eyes. Really puts into perspective how I take all the tolling around containerization for granted nowadays.
And then when I have a job interview, they ask my how long I’ve been working with Docker. I tell them only a couple of years. They always say it’s not enough. Then I ask them if they know about chroot jails and debootstrap and how to assign resources using cgroups and they don’t even know that I’m taking about… SMH
In college, I had an Eee netbook and loved the thing. It was all I could afford for a computer at the time. I still love small computers.
Wish the 11" was more prevelant. 11" with a decent camera, battery, fanless, and light weight would be amazing device
Suspect ARM based too
Tablets took the place of these in the market place. They just don’t have (or need) the attached keyboards anymore.
If you want an 11” ARM netbook, just get a Galaxy Tab and a Bluetooth keyboard stand.
In the marketplace, but not my heart. Being x86 I could install Arch and openbox and it rocked. I’ve owned an ARM laptop, and it isn’t the same.
I also absolutely abhor touch screen interfaces. Bluetooth means it won’t be easy to debug boot issues either
Did you check out the HP Stream 11"?
Fanless, descent battery, camera, light and small. Best feature: Full size keyboard with a mostly standard layout and sd card slot. The display is a little weak but good enough for one person usage. I would not use it with Windows 11 (tried and it was painfully slow), but running Fedora Linux I can use it mostly like my desktop machine.
(Typing on this machine right now. ;-))
I wish these would come back. I loooove tiny PCs, and use the smallest everything I can get almost everywhere. Small phones, Small cars, Small computers.
The GPD Win has everything I want, but I can’t afford the $1400 they want for the 10". I miss these being available for the $100-$200 mark.
The GPD Win isn’t really the same as these though. It’s trying to provide the most gaming performance possible in a tiny package. It’s a premium device, rather than a tiny, budget oriented laptop.
My 701 with 2gb ram and extended battery still works. I used to go wardriving with that thing!
I still have my Eee 901 sitting around with my collection of old tech. It actually booted up a couple years ago when I last checked it! Used the crap out of it back in college for computer science classes, since all I really needed was a terminal.
These would be great once arm chips become more of a thing on PC. Love the form factor.
I wish Apple would bring the 11” MacBook Air back again. I still occasionally look to pick an old one up for fun but never pulled the trigger.
I still have one from ~10yrs ago and it still works! Its been through the wars, upgraded RAM and SSD, but it dual boots windows 7 (no judge plz) and ubuntu (i said no judge!).
I use it mostly to watch youtube video guides in the workshop when Im working on stuff and dont want dust and sparks inside my regular laptop.
Edit:
I hear Ubuntu is the best version of Linux is that correct?.
“Best” is very subjective, particularly about Linux.
Are you just wanting to experiment with Linux, and don’t have much in the way of a “tech” background? Do you want a distro that more or less works right away after installation? Then Ubuntu (or one of its many derivatives) is probably the better choice for you. (I personally like Mint).
Are you a power user who compiles drivers for fun? Do you think that starting your PC after uninstalling your bootloader sounds like a cool puzzle to solve? Then you’ll probably find Ubuntu too restrictive.
Gottem
It’s a very popular and user friendly distro, often recommended for beginners.
But it’s not just a beginner distro, it is also very versatile/powerful and well supported. So it can be used just as well by experienced power users.The reasons to use other distros is not so much about what you can do, but more about how it is done.
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That’s what I used mine for as well, basically full linux support out of the box with Backtrack. Perfect timing since I was taking a computer security program at the time, and it was right at the tail end of people still using WEP.
I had used computers back since I was a kid in the 90s with my families 95 then 98 machine, and finally XP. But MY first computer and introduction to tinkering with software was an EEE pc 1005HAB. Atom processor, 2gb ram, and WiFi. I loved the thing. Best of all, I discovered it had compatibility (but not power) to run TF2 on it, which was so much better on PC than console. I spent hours finding ways to overclock it, mod the game to be as lightweight as possible, and eventually was able to play a game at a solid 30 fps so long as I played on the smallest map and used models that were only 50 polygons each. I installed Linux for the first time too, and so of course the next logical step was building my own pc. The rest is history I suppose…
I still have my HP Mini311, 11.6", 1366x768 screen, I put 3GB of DDR3 ram, 120GB SSD, overclocked it to 2GHz, put a 2.4/5GHz wifi card, installed MX (Xfce) linux on it, still works fine. Best thing is that this netbook has a discrete nvidia GPU that can decode 1080P in hardware, and a HDMI plug so you can even plug it on a TV. In 2009 it was incredible to do this with a small form factor like this!
It came with Windows XP, For fun I installed Win10Pro 32bits on it, oh god… it’s so slow it’s incredible.
I liked mine. I ran the barest of barebones Linux on it and LXDE. The thing that ruined it for me was the small low resolution display. Just too few pixels to have a useable experience.
But as a portable and limited semi-dumb terminal, it wasn’t half bad.
My 12’’ was the great computer that was with me most of the time I was in university. Great little machine and portable as fuck.
A close family member had an ASUS netbook… it was real great til it caught fire at the display power hinge…
I really want them to bring the actual cases they used for these back. They felt good (except the mouse clicks)
