And the best OS for the Eee PC is …

I haven’t used the Eee in quite a while now, since I put XP onto it in fact. I think the time has come to restore Linux back onto the machine and see if that encourages me to use it more. As XP removes the built-in restore partition, I had to use the restore DVD that comes with the Eee. In about 10 minutes the default OS was re-installed and ready to use, I was very pleased with how quick and easy this process was, installing XP feels like half a days work. As I store all my user data onto a 4GB SD card or somewhere online, I didn’t have to worry about backing up any data.

Evidence of design
When moving to a new OS or upgrading to a new version of your current OS, it is sometime difficult to assess the usefulness that the new features offer. It’s only when those new features are absent do you realize how they have become embedded in your workflow, and how an OS is a lot less productive without them. If I use a computer which does not have OS X features such as Exposé or Quick Look, they just feel, well, broken. So how would going back to Linux feel once I’d been using XP on the Eee?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder
As it turns out, going back to Linux did make me feel an absence of something. There was an absence of virus checking, notification windows, balloon popping and all-too-frequent software updates. Absence has never felt better. The Eee felt fast, but what hit me more was that out of the box, the Linux OS comes with everything you need. Windows XP comes with nothing, I had to go get a PDF reader, something half-decent to write text in, Firefox (you can’t seriously expect me to use IE), there’s no software to make use of the built in webcam, no multi-client IM software and the list goes on.

A few small repairs
I did make a few changes however. I still prefer using the Eee in full desktop mode (see my previous post). If you do want to use the Eee in full desktop mode, make sure you do two things; (1) change the boot mode so that the Eee goes straight into desktop mode (you change this under settings while in Easy mode), and (2) change your wireless network connection to start on boot up.

VLC
The only app that I added was VLC, the versatile media player. In particular, I wanted to play mp4 video files which the default media player can’t handle. Installing VLC is quite fiddly, but as long as you follow the instructions carefully, you should have no problems. Follow these instructions for installing VLC, and if it doesn’t install, then it’s likely that the address in the sources.list file in incorrect. I used ftp://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian and it installed fine.
The only other software that I installed were the Firefox extensions Scribefire (blogging) and del.icio.us (social bookmarking).

I think the Linux OS offers everything that I need (for the Eee). The full desktop mode is powerful, fast and stress free, and if I want to lend the Eee to someone else, I can jump back to Easy mode at any time. So the best OS for the Eee is … the one it comes with.