[Experience] Small machine for being on the road

[wobo]

That was my task: a Mageia system to be able to
- surf in the net (browser including flash-player-plugin)
- handle my mails (done in the browser / webmail)
- watch videos and listen to music
- do system maintenance

Small in this case means a small harddisk (4Gb SSD) and the machine itself (netbook with 10" screen).

1. Booted with the dvd (i586) and in the beginning of the installation I added an additional ftp source.
2. At DE selection I selected "Custom", unmarked all package groups
3. Selected "minimal installation with X"
During installation the system let me do network configuration (just punching on Enter key all the time) and grabbed most of the packages from the net. At the end I had an up-to-date system.
After reboot (seeing slim as DM instead of KDM) I landed in an icewm-light GUI.

4. In the media manager I removed the 1st source (cdrom) and activated the tainted repo.
5. Installed dkms-broadcom-wl for wifi and after a reboot I setup wifi (worked as in the books) and detached the network cable.
6. Installed vlc (for music & video), chromium-browser, flash-player-plugin, mc (for file management & ftp).
7. I added a 8Gb SD card for Data, to be mounted at boot time
Done.

I ended up with 758 packages installed, 1.1Gb used on the harddisc. Maybe I will add some more apps but I don't need more to pass my time on the train (or on a bench on a warm summer day).

[rolltide101x]

Ive considered grabbing this to put Linux on
http://store.archos.com/archos-tablet-p-96.html

I already have a t101mt that I mess around with Linux on at times. Its great for portability but still a tad heavy for a tablet.

[wobo]

To each his own. I've thought about a tablet. Tablets have their niche, no doubt, they are great in the entertainment section or filling forms doing inspections. But when you do much writing and working on the command line they are not the best solution. That's why I will not buy one (but don't hesitate to send one over as a present!).

[rolltide101x]

Lol. I use my laptop for any real work. Tablets are fun for media purposes and web browsing and not to much more IMO.

[doktor5000]

To each his own. I've thought about a tablet. Tablets have their niche, no doubt, they are great in the entertainment section or filling forms doing inspections. But when you do much writing and working on the command line they are not the best solution. That's why I will not buy one (but don't hesitate to send one over as a present!).

To be honest, after having worked with an HP Touchpad for some time (only casual use, browsing and typing) i'd not say that, even more when looking at the price at which HP sold those, like 99€ (for some, for others they're still at like 250€). But i wouldn't exchange against a laptop with a real keyboard and mouse for real work