Goodbye Nellie, Hello Big Nell!

I've got all of Nellie's files backed up onto my WD MyBook (hard to believe I paid $259 five years ago, for 250GB of space). Ubuntu is gone, she's unplugged and ready for her new adventure with my husband. I'm a little sad, Nellie & I have been through a lot together these last 2 years, but life always marches on...

Big Nell's 11.6" screen still seems huge to me, but I'll get used to it now that I'm not working on both computers. I love that I can see more of a page without making it so tiny that it's useless, yet with very little extra weight. (I keep my computer on a small table next to my chair. During the season that I work, I'm continually picking it up and putting it down with my left hand/arm. Last year my left elbow was so painful by late summer that I didn't get relief until well after the first of this year! So a light little machine is very important to me.) I am getting used to the keyboard, which is flat and very little touch-differentiation between keys. Nellie's keys all had a dip, and larger spaces between them. Big Nell's keys all run together to my fingertips. But within a few days I will adjust, as long as I keep my fingernails very short.

So I like the display, I'm getting used to the quiet keyboard, and BN stays much cooler than Nellie ever did. I didn't dare run Nellie, even for a few minutes, without a cooling fan under her. No such thing with this machine, and stays cool to the touch, top and bottom. SO QUIET without the outside fan!

What I don't like: There are no indicator lights! No light telling me when the hard drive is working or the caps lock key is on...the only lights tell me when I'm connected to wifi, when she's plugged in, and when she's charging. Also, Big Nell has the same major problem that Nellie had: the cursor jumps across the keyboard as I'm typing. If I'm not watching the screen, I will find that I've typed the last few sentences somewhere in the middle of another paragraph elsewhere in the document, that I then I have to find and correct. It is a frustration to be sure, but one I lived with on Nellie so I guess I will have to live with on Big Nell.

Re: sound, Big Nell's speakers are better but the headphone jack isn't Nellie's Dolby 5.1 surround sound - and I do miss that! The sound is more than adequate in headphones of course, very nice even, but definitely not anywhere near Nellie's. As a musician and music lover, sound is something I would have paid more for, had I been able to.

Lastly, Big Nell didn't come with a manual, nor can I find one on the Acer website. I'd like to double the 2GB RAM that came with it, but not sure if I can. I'd hate to spend the $ on a 4GB chip only to find it doesn't work. I have had other questions as well that a manual would have answered. Never have I bought a computer without a manual, or at least been able to find one online. I will contact Acer about this though.

So this machine isn't as fun to use as Nellie was before she started breaking down, but it is adequate - about what I'd expect at this price. I am, however, enjoying Linux Mint 12 which isn't all that different from Ubuntu but it does have enough different features that I'm enjoying it.

All in all, I got what I paid for, no more and no less, and it is satisfactory to do what I need to do.

New Computer, The Final Chapter

I'm on the new computer, and running Mint - YAY! I was going to give up and install Ubuntu after my 2nd try, then I ran across this article by the How To Geek (love it, get the newsletters, have for a long time). And that's how I ended up doing it. SO easy!

I was concerned about getting my emails and Firefox profile moved from Nellie to Big Nell (as I've decided to name this new bigger netbook) but I needn't have been.

Ubuntu 11.04 ran Evolution as the email client, and I exported all of my emails, accounts, settings, etc. per the instructions. Thunderbird here on Mint claimed to import everything from other email clients, but just looked blankly at me when I pointed it toward my Evolution files. So I installed Evolution on Big Nell, imported my "backup", and within a couple of minutes my new Evolution looks just like my old one! Couldn't be easier!

For Firefox I used the FEBE add-on. Same thing...used the backup facility, installed it on the new machine, created my new profile and restored the backup right into it.

I also needed to move my documents, music, photos, etc. here but of course that was no problem. I copied them all to my external hard drive, then plugged it into Big Nell and copied them here.

For my job I use an .xls file, which the linux LibreOffice suite handles with ease, and I use Skype, Just installed that and tried it out by calling my sister, all is well there.

So I think I'm ready to go! My husband will be messing around with Nellie now, as soon as I delete all of my stuff off her hard drive (or I might just delete the Ubuntu partition and save myself some time). Hopefully he'll have fun with that.

alllllllllllrighty then - ready, set, go!