Hello, Thank you for all your input. If anybody else wants to add his two cents, feel welcome. I feel that these testimonies can help the casual readers, since Scid is a great incentive to install Linux. (At least until there is a Scid for iPad!)
So here are my first observations and experiences: 1. I finally bought an EEE PC 1001 PXD: http://commercial.asus.com/product/detail/102. I just like Eee PCs. My kid has an old 701 (which came with a Xandros version for netbooks) and it still works great. Note that this is a real notebook: the double-cores are still quite expensive. The keyboard feels like a real keyboard. Et cetera. Tough to find around here, but worth it, imho. 2. Being a notebook, I wanted to have a Linux flavor that is both easy to install and not to big. So I started by looking at this resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_netbook-oriented_Linux_distributions Taking into account Steven's advice to check out for ACPI compatibility helped, but I can't find again where there I found the appropriate compatibility chart. So that excluded big versions, like Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. In any case, to promote Scid for projects like One-Laptop-Per-Child sounds like a good idea. 3. My first install was MeeGo. It's built for Eee PC, after all: https://meego.com/ Believe it or not, it seems quite possible to use this version to do some programming. It runs quite smoothly and is responsive. (I have not tried to install Scid, but I see no reason why not, it's Ubuntu-based.) For a netbook that lives in a cloud, this is an interesting choice. It can't be worse than Windoze 7, that's for sure. But since my netbook is not for surfing (I know, I know), this is not for me. 4. I am tempted to try Crunchbang Linux: http://crunchbanglinux.org/ It's not very stable, but I don't care yet. My programming won't be life-critical. There is a flavor for EEE PC called Cruncheee. I think that choosing the proper interface is key. It would be my second criteria, after the compatibility hardware. Like Steven, I do not like KDE, which I find clunky. Gnome seems a bit ambitious for the power of the machine and I am impatient. I find OpenBox quite sexy. The other choices for me are LXDE XFCE. 5. Zenwalk was my first candidate, before asking the list. The name is very cool, and I liked what I read there: http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2009/03/16/zenwalk-6-review/ I don't mind Slackware, this is the first thing I installed 15 years ago, to switch to SuSE, which I regretted. I will try the Edu version for my Kid's Eee PC. 6. I am tempted to delve into Scientific Linux, Arch Linux and perhaps even Alpine Linux. But I get the feeling I should by more humble first. I get the feeling that we should have more reports of successes for Scid installations on more exotic machines. 7. One can see the progress of my research here: http://www.delicious.com/benoitstpierre/linux http://www.delicious.com/benoitstpierre/linux-on-a-stick I'll try to remember to report my experiences, if people find it appropriate. 8. I admit that there are too much informations, so I might be overlooking stupid mistakes. Feel free to flame me! Thanks again for your input, Best regards, Ben ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Simplify data backup and recovery for your virtual environment with vRanger. Installation's a snap, and flexible recovery options mean your data is safe, secure and there when you need it. Data protection magic? Nope - It's vRanger. Get your free trial download today. http://p.sf.net/sfu/quest-sfdev2dev _______________________________________________ Scid-users mailing list Scid-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scid-users
