4 ms·

You got me thinking...I still run my MSI Wind netbook (RIP Zareason!), and it's worked great with both Haiku and Q4OS recently. The keyboard is a near-disaster

You got me thinking...I still run my MSI Wind netbook (RIP Zareason!), and it's worked great with both Haiku and Q4OS recently. The keyboard is a near-disaster in some ways but after configuring a bunch of workarounds it's reasonably comfortable. I took it on a trip to Sicily soon after purchasing and have fond memories of using it and my n810 "media center" for that trip. I didn't have WiFi at the guest house where I stayed so I ended up getting my work done from the front of a tiny cafe in Noto, stooped over the tiny screen, but very much geeking out. The form factor is still really kind of cool when I'm in the mood to play with it, but once anything with cords needs to attach to it, it starts to look kind of overwhelmed IMO. Still, to this day I'd rather build stuff on it than on my phone. But that probably has a lot to do with things like muscle memory, maybe in addition to the fact that a properly-configured desktop OS (esp. with keyboard workarounds) is just something else when you're ready to work.

marttt 4y ago
"... I still run my MSI Wind netbook ..." Were the MSI Winds fanless, or did they have a fan? And the hard disk, I assume, wasn't a SSD? I ask because I just noticed kids of our relatives using an abandoned Wind as a toy (to play "work"). They claim it is "broken", but who knows. I sneaked behind their back and tested the keyboard for typing -- it felt really good! A pity to see a potentially useful machine simply lying around like this, especially when my country needs to help out close to 50,000 war refugees from Ukraine. Our CS students refurbish laptops for the refugees -- this one could make an excellent machine for an Ukrainian hacker, or any other user with modest needs. Another excellent netbook was the Samsung NC10 [1]. Really good keyboard (93% of full size), sturdy build in general, screen hinges reach about 180 degrees, and a "fanless mode", that is, you can adjust the fan speed with a hotkey. Unfortunately, the one I tested suffered from its symptomatic "white screen problem" (described in the Wikipedia article). 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_NC10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_NC10
- themodelplumber 4y ago
  That's interesting, yeah mine has a fan but it is normally impossible to notice if the noise level in the room is even just a little bit above "quiet". Same with the original HDD, which on mine was spinny. I don't recall ever hearing it in operation. I replaced that with an SSD (be sure to clean the fan venting area while you're in there if you do that) but the before/after change didn't exactly blow my mind. For a hacker it could be great. You could do a LOT with it. Most development and scripting tasks are easy. However I would strongly recommend a separate pointing device, as it's a pretty substantial upgrade to the user experience. For web browsing, Falkon and 3-4 tabs max can work pretty well but modern JS SPAs probably wouldn't be very fun (if they'd even work in Falkon). I use Dillo a lot myself. I remember hearing about the Samsung, that's too bad about the white screen problem. I think the biggest problem I've had with the Wind was that the power button's blue LED failed, but all the other LEDs work and the button itself is fine.

marttt 4y ago

"... I still run my MSI Wind netbook ..." Were the MSI Winds fanless, or did they have a fan? And the hard disk, I assume, wasn't a SSD? I ask because I just noticed kids of our relatives using an abandoned Wind as a toy (to play "work"). They claim it is "broken", but who knows. I sneaked behind their back and tested the keyboard for typing -- it felt really good! A pity to see a potentially useful machine simply lying around like this, especially when my country needs to help out close to 50,000 war refugees from Ukraine. Our CS students refurbish laptops for the refugees -- this one could make an excellent machine for an Ukrainian hacker, or any other user with modest needs. Another excellent netbook was the Samsung NC10 [1]. Really good keyboard (93% of full size), sturdy build in general, screen hinges reach about 180 degrees, and a "fanless mode", that is, you can adjust the fan speed with a hotkey. Unfortunately, the one I tested suffered from its symptomatic "white screen problem" (described in the Wikipedia article). 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_NC10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_NC10

themodelplumber 4y ago
That's interesting, yeah mine has a fan but it is normally impossible to notice if the noise level in the room is even just a little bit above "quiet". Same with the original HDD, which on mine was spinny. I don't recall ever hearing it in operation. I replaced that with an SSD (be sure to clean the fan venting area while you're in there if you do that) but the before/after change didn't exactly blow my mind. For a hacker it could be great. You could do a LOT with it. Most development and scripting tasks are easy. However I would strongly recommend a separate pointing device, as it's a pretty substantial upgrade to the user experience. For web browsing, Falkon and 3-4 tabs max can work pretty well but modern JS SPAs probably wouldn't be very fun (if they'd even work in Falkon). I use Dillo a lot myself. I remember hearing about the Samsung, that's too bad about the white screen problem. I think the biggest problem I've had with the Wind was that the power button's blue LED failed, but all the other LEDs work and the button itself is fine.