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News HP launches Mini Mi Linux

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Tim S, 5 Feb 2009.

  1. Tim S

    Tim S OG

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  2. Xtrafresh

    Xtrafresh It never hurts to help

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    this could be nice as a multiboot option for my HP tablet. At 12.1" it's not THAT far away from a netbook, and for media use it'd be great :)

    I'm sure i'll go through hell befor i get all the peripherals working though, so it'll never be a complete vista-replacement.
     
  3. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Hmmm...shiny! I might like it, have to see it in action though.

    @ Xtra: Why not run 7 on the tablet? Or is it work-related?
     
  4. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Does it have DVD and mp3 playback, file and print sharing, automatic mounting of USB devices, sane and reliable display configuration, wifi settings that aren't constantly forgotten, dependable support for filesystems supported on any other platform, and any of the wide variety of other things that linux doesn't generally do very well? Hm, didn't think so.

    Here is some advice for linux developers:

    1) Stop writing pretty interfaces
    2) Start writing fixes for any one of the vast number of bugs with which your OS is ravaged
     
  5. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Let's see:
    DVD and MP3 playback - yes, with the one-click installation of codecs.
    File and print sharing - yes, with Mac, Windows, and Linux/Unix clients and servers.
    Automatic mounting of USB devices - yes.
    Sane and reliable display configuration - yes.
    WiFi settings that aren't constantly forgotten - yes.
    Dependable support for filesystems supported on any other platform - yes. More so than Windows, in fact.
    "Other things" - yes.

    Funnily enough, everything you've just mentioned is handled out-the-box with Ubuntu, with the sole exception of DVD and MP3 playback. DVD and MP3 playback is only not enabled by default because the rights holders want Canonical to pay a licensing fee - which isn't a very good business plan when you're giving your product away for free. When you charge large quantities of money like Microsoft does, then you can pay the fee - although note that Windows doesn't come with DVD playback functionality by default either.
    Are you sure you've actually tried a desktop Linux distribution any time in the last five or so years?

    Also, I'd be very interested to see a cite for the "vast number of bugs" in the OS - especially one which compares and contrasts the bugs found in Linux to those found in Windows or MacOS.
     
  6. Xtrafresh

    Xtrafresh It never hurts to help

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    I'm gunna switch to 7, yes. It's a personal/work thingy, but i do all my work on a stick, so that's fine :)

    I have 7 installed on my main rig atm, and I just haven't gotten around to puttig it on my lappy too. However, i'd really like to explore the Linux realm, if only to know what's out there. This Mini-Mi might be just the thing :)
     
  7. War-Rasta

    War-Rasta What's a Dremel?

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    Looks pretty good. I'd definitely like to have this if I had a netbook.
     
  8. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    One click? The version of mplayer that comes with ubuntu doesn't even support h.264 playback, for crying out loud, and if you try and install a new one, you'll end up with exactly the same thing again unless you hack complex code strings into random text files. It's dismal, it's almost as if they're going out of their way to make it needlessly complicated and techy just to make a point.

    Doesn't seem to work over wifi at all, and is strictly windows-to-linux otherwise; I have never known sharing a windows-hosted printer to a linux client to work, ever. The Samba people on Freenode tell me all these things are due to known bugs, most of which have been extant for years. Nobody seems worried about it.

    Doesn't work for me. Won't automount USB hard disks, won't mount USB compactflash dongles under any circumstances. Doesn't even seem to appreciate that PCMCIA-to-compactflash adaptors exist.

    Perhaps for one display. For more than one display, or for any circumstance where you want to do something even vaguely hardware-related like cloning or spanning over multiple displays, fugheddaboudit. It's not even that clever under Ubuntu Eee, which is supposed to have been specifically engineered for the hardware!

    All I can say is try it. Fire up a wifi connection and then reboot. It'll have forgotten all the settings. Again, well known bug. Again, no apparent intention to fix it.

    Deliberately refuses to mount FAT32 volumes that are marked in-use, which may be strictly correct, but is completely boneheaded behaviour - the only way to mark a FAT32 volume out of use on windows is to stop the device manually and shut down. Doesn't even pop up a requester telling you what's going on. Hopeless. I had to go in via a terminal to even find out what the fault was. And it shows the "recycled" folder on both NTFS and FAT32 volumes, a hopeless beginner's mistake since the folder is intended to be hidden in both cases.

    It winds me up because I am frontline tech support to about four of my mates, who have gone out and bought fashionable lovely little netbooks with linux operating systems, and only then found out what a comprehensively unusable train wreck linux actually is. I honestly don't care what Canonical's business model is. If they choose to give it away, that's not my problem. I'd gladly pay for the proper licensing. Anything but the grim slog linux currently is.
     
  9. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    We're getting dangerously off-topic here, but:

    My version does. Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10 - when I first tried to play a H.264 video it asked if I wanted it to install the "restricted" codecs, when I said yes it played the video. No "hacking" required.
    I run Windows XP on my desktop, which happily shares a HP Deskjet 970 printer to an Ubuntu 7.04 laptop and an Ubuntu 8.10 netbook. No issues encountered. I've also shared directories on the laptops to the Windows machines with no issues at all.
    I can't honestly say I've tried a PCMCIA-to-CompactFlash adaptor, but all my USB memory sticks and my Belkin USB card reader work fine in Ubuntu 7.04, 7.10, 8.04, and 8.10. I've never had to manually mount any USB mass storage device in any of these versions.
    Again, works for me - I've used my TV as an extended display from my Eee PC (Ubuntu 8.04 at the time, I think) with no issues at all - all configured via the GUI.
    Mate, no offence, but you try it. I've got two laptops that have been running Ubuntu for quite a while now and have never had it forget the wireless settings. In fact, I just fired up my Eee PC to check - while at work - and it's remembered both my home and work WiFI settings, and connected automatically to the appropriate connection. I use these devices daily via wireless.
    Actually, the correct - Microsoft approved - way to unmount a FAT32 device cleanly is via the Safely Remove Hardware option in the system tray. If you do that, Ubuntu will mount it with no problems. Even if it is marked unclean, you can force a mount - it just avoids doing so by default in order to protect your file systems. Also, it's not Ubuntu's responsibility to hide Windows' system files. Finally, at least Ubuntu can mount other file systems - ever tried to mount EXT2/3 in Windows? HFS? Anything, in fact, that isn't FAT or NTFS?
    A bad workman blames his tools, that's all I'm saying.
     
  10. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    I think you're an idiot too, if you really want to get personal.

    I've had this conversation time after time, and in each case, the linux user typically goes "yeah but, no but, but, but, no..." and simply denies any of the problems exist. I have a machine not two feet away from me which demonstrates all of these issues and more.

    I think I understand the psychological need to evangelise this stuff, even if I don't necessarily agree with it, but by simply point-blank denying problems that really do exist all you're actually doing is promulgating the issue. Believe me, I'd like nothing more than to be able to use linux, but until the problems are fixed, I can't, and while people live in a safe little fantasy world where everything's lovely and perfect and there are no problems, those fixes are never going to go in.

    But to get back to the point: the last problem ubuntu has is its interface. This eee has compiz going nineteen to the dozen and leaves Aero users slack-jawed in the eye candy stakes. This state of affairs persists until they try to plug in, say, an mp3 player, and have to go through a forty-five minute charade of hacking text files, being talked down to by arrogant developers on IRC, attempting to google for massively abbreviated non-words, and, this being ubuntu, typing the word "sudo" eight dozen times. It's dire, and until we stop pretending it isn't, it will remain so.
     
  11. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    You know if some one is telling you they don't have a problem over and over again odds are good they don't.

    For the record, i have no problem with many of the things listed. Wifi was a problem a few years back but i've not had bother recently. Typing sudo can get irritating but then its easy to set up su, on that note UAC can get annoying also... Horses for courses.

    Although since you've been told that the problems you harp on about haven't been an issue for years and you continue to harp i guess you'll never actually get the message.
     
  12. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Never get the message? I could say the same to you. I mean, honestly, words fail me.

    I am sitting here right this very moment actually watching these problems unfold on a computer not two feet from me. Right now, at this very moment, as I type, on a system installed from a freshly downloaded file not six weeks ago. Reboot? Oh yes, wifi settings gone and USB devices not mounted.

    I'm not sure how I can make it any clearer. Under any other circumstances, your dedication would be impressive; as it is, I just don't know what to say.
     
  13. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    So what were saying is that many users don't have the problems your describing and you do.... hmmm
     
  14. B3CK

    B3CK Minimodder

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    I hate to post off-topic as well, but I am using ubuntu, and pc-bsd on my dell 1720 laptop,, installed clean and easy, not a single problem, I use it multi booted with vista, xp and server 2008. I have never had any problems as listed above.

    As to the mini 1000 mi hp ,,, i would like to get an install of that just to see what it's like, and check out the power consumption on my laptop.
     
  15. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    I see Phil Rodes is trolling once again... I love Ignore lists...

    Anyway, Nice to see that Linux is being recognised as a true alternative more and more, even if it's through Ubuntu ;)
     
  16. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Well, yes, that's the usual linux response to bugs.
     
  17. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    Why Oh why did I click "View post"?

    Well, there is a difference between a bug and a message posted by a troll... Bugs are submitted by people who know what they are talking about... You don't, and your 'I have the proof sitting 2m away from me' sentence is getting old. I'm 99% sure the problem with your system is situated between the keyboard and the chair...

    EDIT: That, or Linux just hates your guts (which I understand)...
     
  18. 13eightyfour

    13eightyfour Formerly Titanium Angel

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    This thread has got waaaay of topic! but it makes amusing reading. on topic it looks good to me, it would be nice if there was an easy way to get it to work on other brands though.
     
  19. War-Rasta

    War-Rasta What's a Dremel?

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    My thoughts exactly.

    I don't have any of these problems and I made the switch to Ubuntu from Vista over a year ago. At first I had no clue what it was going to be like since I hadn't ever had any kind of contact with anything Linux, but I booted up the live CD just to get a feeling of how things were and decided to install it the very next day and dual boot. I ended up not going to Windows ever again (i thought I would need to go to it occasionally).

    Out of the things described by Phil here the only ones I haven't tried are the PCMCIA-to-compactflash, setting up a second display and sharing a printer (I don't even have a printer at home) so I can't comment on those, but everything else I have done and has worked fine for me. I think I could even say I've had less problems with Ubuntu that I had with Windows. USB sticks and portable HDDs mount automatically, I use wireless on a daily basis and I have a FAT32 partition mounted (not done manually) so I seriously don't know where all this is coming from.
     
  20. zelachang

    zelachang What's a Dremel?

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    Off-topic post but I had to chip in. Installed 8.10 about a month ago on my vista desktop and I was surprised by how easy it is. USB drives were just plug and play and it seemed to do most things alright. Was a little more difficult to install things, but maybe that was because I'm not accustomed to linux. Anyways, I think linux is getting closer to the point of idiot proof and maximum ease of use but it still has a little ways to go. I think the custom linux made by hp is a good step in getting people to becoming more comfortable with the idea of using linux and showing that it isn't just a command line.

    Ah yes, I uninstalled ubuntu just a week ago. I feel like Vista is honestly better for what I want to do, but my linux experience was overall pretty positive.
     
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