Ubuntu Netbook Remix: First Impressions

[scotthva5]

I'm impressed. Very, very impressed. While I applaud HP in their efforts to bring Linux to the great unwashed masses via MIE, Remix is what should have been installed by default. It is no more difficult to use than MIE (in fact it's easier) and is *far* more customizable.

What I Like

1. It's fast. Amazingly fast considering the low-end specs of the average netbook. Boot times average well under 30 seconds and the default UI is snappy and responsive. Wake from sleep is almost instantaneous. This with a slowish 16 Gb SSD and 2 Gb memory. Nice.

2. Installation is a breeze via a USB stick. I used my XP workstation to create the bootable thumb drive (total time: about 3 minutes) and booted the Mini via the F9 key. That's it. Everything else is handled automatically by the install scripts, including partition tables and wlan setup.

3. Choices, choices and more choices. Don't care for the look of the default UI? You can switch to the standard Ubuntu desktop and back again on the fly. The Synaptics Package Manager is installed by default so adding/removing goodies is one mouse click away. Same goes for changing themes, system sounds and backgrounds. With MIE you're stuck with default panel UI and apps.

4. It's tiny. A full install plus some added ear/eye candy (Banshee) is just over 2 gigs, compared to the over 8 gigs for MIE as installed by HP.

What I Don't Like

1. You still have to muck about with Synaptics and sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to install the trackpad control panel (to be fair you have to do the same thing in MIE as well). Rather a silly oversight considering this is a netbook distro and all netbooks have trackpads.

2. Setting up wireless encryption can be troublesome. My Mini refused to connect to my Linksys router via WPA2 Personal (which MIE had no problems with) so I had to use WPA instead. YMMV.

[freddylun]

I'm also testing it out right now and really like it.  As you said, small and fast.  They have an interesting take on the main screen with tabs for the various categories of apps. I actually find my way navigating through them much faster than the Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 10 or XP.

I'm booting from a 16GB SDHC and haven't installed it on the 1030's SSD as I haven't been able to find a way around the microphone problem mentioned in Remix's Release Notes.  Camera works fine and the sound works once you tweak Skype's setttings.  Since I do a lot of traveling, I cannot to a regular install until I get the mic working.  Do you have the same problem with the microphone or were you able to resolve it?

[Rakhmad]

Thank you (with Kudos ) for bring this up here.

I'm looking forword to test the netbook by my own, unfortunelty, no were found in my place. The available model only came with XP.

Ubuntu has been my favorite OS lately, I installed it in both of my pavilion notebooks and one of them installed with HP theme.

[dariopalminio]

Hi, I have a HP Mini 210-1028la with Linux "ubuntu remix 9.10". 

I've a problem with my touchpad. The TouchPad buttons don't work on my HP Mini 210-1028la with ubuntu remix 9.10 distro. I need to be able to work with touchpad buttons.

How can I change touchpad drivers and resolve this problem? Why TouchPad buttons don't work in my HP Mini 210?

Thanks!

[anyloginid]

Post #6 in this thread solved my touchpad issues:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1388164

[georgeacrump]

Hi, I just installed remix on my HP Mini 110. Everything is working great and I agree with the speed. The only think I am having trouble with is the internal 3G modem built into my Mini. I got it from AT&T the model is the 110-1144NR. Has anyone been able to get this to work?

[ALSto]

I have a Mini 2102 running UNR 10.04 and love it. Only issues encountered were the wireless/WPA2 problem. Followed the Broadcomm B43/STA installation on the Ubuntu site and all has been working great since.

I replaced the internal HD with a Seagate Momentus 320Gb and it is super fast. Were talking <25 seconds to boot the OS! Beats the 3-5 minutes on my work laptop running Windoze.