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, Pt.II

Well, that didn't work! I was all set to install Ubuntu again, but am giving Mint one more try, following these instructions. If THIS doesn't work, I'll have to just install Ubuntu 10.04 instead. (I had 11.04 on Nellie but hated it and was sorry I'd upgraded.) Seriously do NOT want to be running windows....

New Computer, Pt.I

I had to do it. Didn't want to, couldn't really afford to, but had to. Usually a new computer is cause for celebration and excitement, this is the first time it isn't, although I'm not hating it or anything, just not ideal circumstances. It's a very basic machine, cheap from Walmart - far from my ideal situation when acquiring a new computer!

I have been using Nellie (my 10.1" Acer netbook) continually for 2 years, especially for my seasonal job, and she has performed admirably. But she's getting old - I guess one of our years is about 40 netbook years - and losing functions. First she lost the use of her lower left corner keys (Ctrl, Fn, Alt); the the W started acting up like rheumatism in a rainstorm. Then the display started blanking out on occasion...then on more occasions...then many times a day. Then the mic and speaker jacks - which were a thing of beauty, aurally speaking, with their lovely Dolby 5.1 sound - got as crackly as a 90-year-old with laryngitis.

To do my job I need to have a computer that is reliable and stable, that has a screen that stays on, and especially one with which I can use my headset! And Nellie couldn't do it any more. It was time to put her out to pasture.

So yesterday I picked up an Acer 11.6" netbook. I call her MintyFresh, since I will be using Linux Mint on her. (I haven't used Windows in a few years, have been running Ubuntu on Nellie and on the computer before that.) In fact, I'm downloading the ISO right now. Thing is, netbooks don't have visual drives. So I'm following some instructions that I found online. Right now I'm just waiting for the ISO (chose KDE 64-bit) to download, then I'll install the Universal USB Installer, then get on with things. I'll check back when that much is accomplished. Hopefully all will go smoothly and the next time I boot up MintyFresh she'll be running linux!

A Tale of Two Operating Systems

I remember back in the 80's when I was working in an engineering firm, and the powers-that-be decided they were going to change the entire computer system over to Windows. I saw nothing wrong with DOS and it worked fine for me, but I was dragged kicking and screaming into Microsoft's clutches.

Over the years I have adapted, and have learned to like having a GUI (although I still like to brush up on my DOS commands now and again), and begrudgingly have admitted to liking quite a few Windows features (the real ones, not the bugs-they-call-features!). I've dabbled just a bit in Unix in the 90's, but not enough to be of any real use to me, and looked at Linux a couple of times.

Then a couple of years ago I got my much-coveted Internet Tablet, and it was run on a Linux version called maemo. Thankfully it came with a nice user-friendly GUI which was of great help until I learned just enough coding to get by. I loved it. Still do as a matter of fact, and use my husband's N810 since mine met with an unfortunate accident a couple of weeks ago, daily.

Now it is 2010. My main machine is a netbook running on Windows 7 Starter Edition. My husband is messing around with another Linux version, this one called Ubuntu. After hearing him rave about it and its ease of use, and seeing all of the games that were available simply for the downloading, I installed it and gave it a shot.

Now mind you, there were things about Win7 that I really loved, such as its intuitiveness and its zip compared to earlier versions. There were also things I hated such as the disappearance of Outlook Express and the pastel colors which made things harder to decipher with my poor vision. It crashed, yes, but it also recovered itself which to me was a huge improvement! But after a couple of months it slowed way down, as Windows does. I doubled the RAM Kingston KHX4200S2LL/2G HyperX 2 GB 533 MHz DDR2 Notebook or Netbook Memory and got a bit of an improvement in performance, but really suspected in my heart of hearts that Windows was to blame.

So I started using Ubuntu more and more. I still used Windows during work hours but switched over to Ubuntu in the evenings and weekends. I got used to it more and more, added more apps, spent lots of time on the web, and still it never slowed down...

For my job - a phone answerer/scheduler for a pest control company - I use a Google Voice number that I then send to Skype and/or my cell phone. Skype is great, GV is great...but about a week ago I started getting dropped calls and error messages. Not happy that I had to start using my cell phone full-time (I love the headset and call quality using Skype with the netbook) I tried making all sorts of adjustments to both Windows and Skype settings. Nothing worked.

Jump to today. I put all of my files on a memory stick Kingston DataTraveler I - 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DTI/8GB and shut down Windows for good. Well, I'd like to say for good...in reality I will have to use it when traveling, since my USB internet access stick will only work with Windows.

But, since switching over, I haven't had a single dropped call, or even distortion in a call. My YouTube videos aren't choppy anymore. I have a half-dozen apps running and nothing is slowed down. My favorite game isn't jerky. Same machine, same memory - different o/s.

Buh-bye windows...you'll go on trips with me, but the honeymoon-that-never-really-happened is now over.