netbook compatibility

[Gilboa Davara]

On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 6:27 AM, Chris Kottaridis <chriskot at quietwind.net> wrote:
> I've never used a netbook before but am looking at the
> Eee PC 1215N-PU27
>
> I want as much portability as possible, but I also want it to have full
> Linux capabilities, so tablets are out for now. Specifcally, I want to run
> Linux as the base OS and use vmware to run Windows as a virtual machine when
> needed. When I checked out netbooks a couple of years ago I didn't see
> anything I thought could handle that. This looks like it might be able to do
> that.
>
> It has:
> Atom D525 dual-core 1.8 GHz (with hyperthreading can have 4 threads)
> 2 GB RAM, expandable to 4 GB (I'd do this upgrade)
> Bluetooth
> Wireless N
> HDMI port
> 3 USB ports
> 12.1" screen HD resolution
> 500 GB Hard Disk
>
> It gets shipped with 64 bit Windows 7, but I'd prefer to run Fedora 16 and
> then run Windows as a Virtual Machine when needed.
>
> Anyone have any experience running Fedora 16 on this machine ?
>
> Also, I suppose I can connect an external DVD player via USB to do an
> install that way. I prefer to install from DVD's rather then the network and
> I assume a netbook can boot from a USB device.
>
> Thanks
> Chris Kottaridis

Hi,

I've got an F16 running on a number of Asus 1201N more-or-less issues
free (with or w/o the nVidia binary driver).
The only major issue is broken suspend on some machine since the
release of v3.2 (The irony that 3.2 finally got hibernate working so
we're OK for now... :))
I'll report it once I'll free some time to confirm this issue isn't
nVidia driver related.

As for virtualization, as far as I remember, much like the Atom 330 on
our machines, the D525 doesn't support VT-x, meaning:
A. qemu-KVM is out of the question (You plan to use vmware; we use
VirtualBox from time to time).
B. Guest performance can be iffy (at least under VirtualBox).

Again, I never tested vmware on this netbook (which version do you
plan to use?), but in general, if you plan to use Windows VM as an
actual desktop OS on this netbook, I'd consider buying a Windows XP
license and stripping it to the core instead of using Windows 7.
Alternatively, I'd search for a stronger notebook that has VT-x/AMD-v
capable CPU. (In my experience, finding an AMD-v capable
notebook/netbook is usually easier)

- Gilboa