Impression of Acer Aspire One netbook

I mentioned in an earlier post about my thought process on purchasing a netbook, that I'd follow up with my impressions and experiences. Now that I've got some legitimate use of my Acer Aspire One netbook, here it is. I wanted to write this before Christmas for those that were thinking about giving one as a gift, or buying one on sale, but I guess it's "better late than never." For the record, I'm writing most of this post on my netbook while watching college football on the couch.

Portability

Obviously, this is one of the big features of the netbooks. Even with the 6 cell battery, it's still very light and compact. I carried it around quite a bit during the holidays. It took up about the same room as a smaller O'Reilly book, and probably weighed the same or less. The battery life was up to its billing. With web surfing and email, I was getting about 5 hours per charge. The wireless card range seems a little weaker than ones built into laptops, since it would connect with "Very Good" instead of "Excellent", but overall, I didn't have problems with network speed.

Performance

The boot up time isn't much slower (if even noticeable) than my other laptop. The only web performance issue I've noticed so far is when using the standard view of Gmail. It seems to hang or is sluggish when trying to load. However, I have no problems using the basic HTML version. The built in speakers aren't very loud, but that's not that big of a deal to me. If I'm going to listen to music or need audio, I can just plug in some headphones or powered computer speakers.

Usability

The keyboard is slightly smaller than a laptop keyboard, but I don't have too much difficulty touch typing. It is definitely easier than typing on a smart phone or my iPhone. The screen real estate is noticeably smaller, but doesn't impede too much considering this is a mobile device. Again, it's much larger than a smart phone or an iPhone. I didn't get any complaints from "guest" users either; including my wife, brother-in-law, or father-in-law. My only complaint, which is very minor, is the touchpad and the positioning of the left and right click buttons. However, it's mostly because I'm used to the buttons being positioned differently. I like the "zoom" feature with the touchpad that is similar to the Macbooks or iPhone. The three USB ports seem to work fine. I've only used them one at a time to connect my iPod or iPhone.

Other Features

The built in microphone and video camera work surprisingly well. Using the video chat feature on AOL Instant Messenger v.6, the video and audio received by the recipient was decent quality. Because it works so well, I was disappointed my netbook did not come with a Mac-like "Photo Booth" program pre-installed (more on that later). I haven't used the SD card slots yet. I'm not sure why there are two of them. I haven't used the VGA-out port either.

My Modifications

The netbook does come with pre-installed software, which I'm not generally a fan of. I removed the trial versions of Microsoft Office and McAfee Anti-virus. It also came with Microsoft Works. I haven't decided if I want to uninstall that and install Open Office instead.

As for software I've added (all are freeware for personal use), here's the list and why I chose them.

AOL Instant Messenger - I'm normally a Pidgin fan, but Pidgin doesn't support video chat right now.

AVG Anti-Virus (free for personal use) - I picked this one over Avast because it was supposed to be lighter weight. It seems to work pretty well, but I don't like the browser plugin that scans all links on a web page. It really hampered my web browsing. I've disabled the plugin, but now there is an exclamation point "splat" on the icon in the system tray.

Debut Video Capture - This program is a lot like the Mac's "Photo Booth". I was happy when I found it, and best of all, it's free.

Firefox Web Browser - I personally like it better than IE7.

iTunes - I don't plan to use my netbook to manage my music on my iPhone or iPod, but since I have over 100GB of storage, I figure I can copy my library over.

Picasa - Just in case I want to do some light photo management while travelling. My permanent photo storage will be on my desktop.

Skype - Another video chat client, just in case someone uses that instead for video chat.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the "Comments."

My netbook purchase thought process

I try to keep this blog relative to System Administration, but once in a while, I should be allowed to stray. It's the holidays after all, right?

My Acer Aspire One arrived on Friday. I've used it a little bit, and I wanted to give anyone interested my initial thoughts and opinions. There's quite a bit of hype about these "low cost" netbooks. For those considering a netbook, this was my criteria and rationale for buying one. Just a side note about about my link to this netbook. When I bought it, it was available directly through Amazon.com. It appears they are now selling them through other online merchants. If you buy through that link, your mileage may vary.

First of all, I wanted something small and mobile to use for casual to light web access. I used to use my Compaq laptop to surf the Internet, check email, and do other lightweight computing tasks from the living room couch or on trips. Unfortunately, it's having power problems and I was looking for a replacement for this device. We also have a desktop computer that we use for storage or to do heftier computer tasks.

Second, the replacement gadget had to be intuitive and useful enough for general users. I would not be the only user, and I try to avoid being a system admin or operating a "helpdesk" when I'm not at work. Don't get me wrong; I like helping people, but I don't want to create unnecessary issues for myself. I was sure that my wife, or other guests, would want to use this device; and potentially when I was not around to help them use it.

My third "want" was a device that had good battery life. I didn't want to be dependent on the accessibility of an electrical outlet within an hour or two of usage. I can depend on an outlet when I'm at home, but if I'm traveling or visiting, this becomes more cumbersome and intrusive.

After thinking about what I really wanted and needed for a replacement portable device, I thought about what I already owned, and if I really needed to replace my laptop. I already own an iPhone. It's small, portable, decent battery life, supports Wi-Fi for Internet access, and all-around I really like it. However, it's also my cell phone, which means I take it everywhere with me. It's also a very "personal" device for me, and I'm hesitant to allow other people to use it (maybe I'm just strange). These two reasons make it difficult for being a shared device for around the house. Someone suggested buying an iPod Touch for my wife, but she has an iPod Nano that she got last Christmas. Plus, if we had guest users of our Wi-Fi device, not everyone is going to know how to use a Touch, and I'd have to spend a few minutes here and there helping them operate it. I do think the Touch is nifty device, but in my opinion, not practical enough in this case.

"So you think you want to buy a netbook..." As mentioned in my PXE live distro post, I looked at Acer, ASUS, Dell, and HP's offerings. For the prices and features, I concentrated on Acer and ASUS.

• Which Operating System should I use? - The geek inside me wanted Linux. My wife could probably learn how to use Linux also, but there would be a slight learning curve. I had intended to use our desktop, which runs Windows XP, for permanent storage of important files, such as photos or other documents. Having the device run Windows XP would make network drive setup and usage much easier. Plus, she's already familiar with Windows. I chose Windows XP.
  
• What kind of local storage should I get? - Another tough decision. Solid stage drives (SDD) seem geekier. Without much investigation, I thought they could be potentially faster, use less electricity, and be more durable if the netbook was accidentally dropped. However, knowing how bloated XP can be and the other programs I wanted to run, I wanted more storage than what could be offered on a USB stick. I could only find netbooks in my price point with about 8GB of SDD. If I could have purchased a 32GB SDD model, I would've bought that. It was overkill, but I ended up with the 100+ GB standard hard drive.
• What size battery do I want? - I read people complaining that the 6 cell batteries made the netbook "too heavy and bulky." However, I liked the fact that they could last about 5 hours, as opposed to the standard 3 cell that gave about 2.5 hours. It would be rare for me to have to have 5 hours of battery life, but I didn't think it was that bad of a trade off. In the end, it only added about an inch to the back of the netbook, and it wasn't that much heavier. Yes, the 6 cell battery, please.

As for the other available options, such as the integrated webcam and SD slots, they are nice but not totally necessary. Of course, Wi-Fi is a must, but all of them have that integrated. I don't have a need for Bluetooth at this time, so that didn't need to be integrated. If I do need Bluetooth, I can get a USB adapter that should be compatible with Windows XP.

I've only played with my netbook a couple of days, and I like it so far. I already had the expectations that the screen and keyboard would be small. For those that touch-type, I find the reviews of the smallness of the keyboard slightly exaggerated. I do sometimes strike wrong keys, but it is still faster than typing on a smartphone. The layout of the left and right click buttons for the touchpad makes dragging/dropping and windows resizing more difficult than a full sized laptop, but I knew I was going to be sacrificing some functionality when I bought something this small. Overall, the smallness is noticeable, but does not take away from its functionality. Once I get some more hours in, I'll post other opinions and findings.

Administering Windows from the command line

I sometimes forget that you can do a lot via the command line with Windows. When Unix Admins complain about having to Windows administration, my usual response is "Come on, it's clicky-clicky. Just click around and you'll figure it out." In the past two days, I came across two blog posts that reminded me that you're not necessarily stuck with having to use GUI programs to administer Windows.

The first blog post I came across was posted today about an alternative to running programs remotely on Windows hosts.

http://standalone-sysadmin.blogspot.com/2008/10/issue-remote-commands-to-windows.html

Apparently SysInternals distributed a group of tools called PsTools, which included a utility called PsExec. PsExec allows a user to remotely execute commands on a Windows host. I'm not sure what the security implications are using these utilities. Any time someone uses "telnet" in their description of remote administration, it makes me a bit nervous.

Less than an hour later, I came across this blog post that was written yesterday that makes for a nice supplement to the Standalone Sysadmin post.

http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-to-do-on-windows.html

It points to another blog discussing useful Windows commands that can be running from the DOS command prompt. I knew all about "net start", "net stop", and some other useful commands to use, but it definitely covers some I didn't know (ex. netsh).

Who would think adding a monitor would be so hard?

I was asked today if I'd like an LCD Monitor. I was thinking, "Why not? I could extend my laptop's desktop in Windows XP to it." It's not a bad monitor either; a NEC MultiSync LCD 1970NX. Granted, it doesn't have a flashy widescreen or anything spectacular about it.

I plugged it in to my power strip and VGA port on my Lenovo T61p, and turned it on. Screen black. Oh yeah, need to change my display output settings with a couple toggles of Fn-F7. Still screen black. Huh. Looked at the Display Properties, and XP sees the other monitor and the monitor appears to get a signal. What gives?

I go to NEC's website and see there are drivers for Windows XP. Maybe Plug-and-Play doesn't work? Strange, but okay. Installed the drivers, the LCD 1970NX is detected, etc. Screen black. OK, reboot? Screen black. Went into the menu for the monitor and set it back to factory defaults. Screen still black.

OK, so I go back into Display Properties. Try to make it my default monitor. No dice. Cycle through the display out settings (Fn-F7) so that it only uses the video out. Denied. Change the resolution to something lower, like 800x600 and 16bit color. Still no video. Muck with the screen refresh rate, and change from 60 to 75 Hertz. Starting to lose my patience.

Quick search in Google doesn't yield any known issues, so I cave and ask our local desktop guy. He starts to go through the same steps I've outlined above, without any more success than I do. Then he notices something. My monitor is plugged into the VGA port on my laptop, instead of the VGA port on my port replicator/dock. Apparently, the VGA port on my laptop won't work when it's plugged into my dock, and I have to use the VGA port on it. Makes sense, but I wish XP didn't "detect" the monitor plugged in directly to the laptop, else I would have probably determined that I have to plug the monitor into the dock a lot quicker.

VMware startup problems (511 error)

I've been struggling over a day trying to get VMware Server to successfully install on my Windows XP Pro SP3 laptop. Every time I tried to open the console and connect to local host, I would get the error

"511 Error connecting to "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmserverdWin32.exe" process"

I also would see errors in the Event Log (Application and Security) as well. The Application log would complain about vmauthd, and "Failed to impersonate vmware user".

Searching through Google, I'd see some issues that didn't exactly pertain to mine. One post said "if this doesn't work, you're going to have to reinstall Windows." I noticed some posts mentioned having to start the Net Logon service, and noticed I didn't have that in my Services. Searching about "Net Logon" missing, it says that the Client for Microsoft Networks needs to be installed with your network interface. I look at my network interface properties, and there was no Client for Microsoft Networks!

After adding the client to my network interface, my VMware console now starts up. I'm not sure if it's worth replying my solution to the VMware Community thread, since the last update was March 2007. However, I'll post this to the blog and hopefully Google will index it for the next poor admin that is banging his head over this.