The Dark Side

For the first time in 10 years, I have a Windows machine again. Don't worry, I still own (and love) 5 mac machines.

I needed something small and light that would enable me to perform development tasks wherever I am, but also be comfortable as something to just pull out in a cafe and check email. So I bought a netbook.

Apple doesn't do a netbook model. They have held back from stepping into the market - it would cannibalise their revenue and they know it.

I bought an Asus 1008HA which slips into my bag comfortably, gets good battery life and has a keyboard with sensibly-sized keys, for a netbook. It also comes with Windows. I bought it with the full intention of hacking OS X onto it, but you know what? Windows isn't so bad. I installed Windows 7 and it runs surprisingly smoothly.

The OS doesn't have the grace of OS X of course. There are some quirks of user experience that make me smile and say "ah, Windows", but as far as meeting the needs of a web developer on the go, within a few hours I had:

- Installed XAMPP for running a local apache server

- Installed IE Collection for doing IE testing across various versions

- Installed Firefox as the browser I'll actually use :)

- Installed E Text Editor to do code editing

- Installed Cygwin to take care of my terminal needs such as SVN / SSH etc

I am actually quite enjoying using it. It's a profoundly strange experience buying a whole computer for about $400, when I'm so used to paying $2000+ for Apple hardware.

That said, I will never stop being an Apple fanboy :) But Steve, do me a favour and don't bring out an Apple netbook just yet.

Click here to download:

The_Dark_Side.zip (8168 KB)

Oct 25, 2009

euniqueflair said...

I like your parquet floor.

Leeroy said...

You do not understand the full power of the dark-side....

Seriously though, windows isn't that bad. PC's have come a long way in both hardware and software design. Especially since Apple have been setting the standard in such fields. That said, there's still a long way for them to go.

Interestingly, you appear to have the same model my gf has. Though hers runs as slow as an inebriated sloth. I would put this down to PC+Womanly ways= well, you know..!

Is this the model that several stores were selling cheap if you signed up for E-Mobile?

yongfook said...

I think Yodobashi does deals on any netbook if you buy an emobile card - sadly I bought my emobile card about a month ago already :/

Troy said...

yeah at this point MS has basically caught up with the 10.4 era.

It's amazing how such a simple change from C:\Documents and Settings to c:\Users\ increased the usability of the OS.

Vista and Win7 have a million little improvements, where they went "why are we being such retards about XYZ" and fixed it.

Max said...

You might want to give Sublime Text a try: http://www.sublimetext.com/ . I find it better than e-Texteditor on Windows.

Cheers,
Max

jonkoay said...

I love my Vostro A90!

It's sleeker and has bigger buttons. With 2GB ram and 64GB SSD, everything is very zippy. Just curious why choose Asus?

Give Karmic Koala a try, I'm sure it's more cuddlier than Windows 7. Of course, Mac is still the best when it comes to user experience.

Sam Lu said...

I made the switch to mac about 5 years ago but I too have found that Windows 7 is pretty decent.

It's good to hear that it runs smoothly on that netbook, I'm feeling more tempted to pick one up soon now.

Max > thanks for the recommendation, will check it out.

jonkoay > I preferred the design of the 1008HA, that's all. I think I can upgrade mine to 2GB RAM if I want to pick the insides apart (it's not user-serviceable like the other eeePCs...)

pengxwang said...

for your e files, there's a bug with the undo history where files with long undo history start lagging and hanging your system when you try to highlight or grep something. the only method I know of for flushing the undo history is to copy the contents of the file and paste it into a new file, and delete the old one, all in the project pane in e.

Oct 26, 2009

tykho_ said...

I have to say I'd rather go with notepad++ or sublimetext (if you think it's worth buying) over e texteditor. Seems to be lots of problems with e still, been a while since I tried it out though.

You could check out switcher on http://insentient.net/ if you want something exposé like. Also works on vista.

And check out Lifehackers complete guide to windows 7 if you haven't already :D http://lifehacker.com/5386953/lifehackers-complete-guide-to-windows-7

Just fired up Sublimetext - seems pretty slow :/ E Text Editor was nice and nippy - what are the issues with it?

@yongfook Surprising, it's quite the opposite on my netbook, Sublimetext being faster than e-texteditor. E is a good Textmate replacement nonetheless (and you can call it via the cygwin terminal, handy).
Intype (http://intype.info/) might be worth checking too (free). (I just can't stand notepad++)

Wendy said...

try google Chrome, run faster than Firefox I think.

VoxCaster said...

SublimeText is excellent, and if I only developed on Windows would be a strong contender. But as primarily a TextMate user, there's really no contest. E means I only have to learn one way of working, wherever I am, and I work faster as a result.

I do hope the TextMate and E developers have been taking notes though.

What's that blue critter next to Peashoot?

Peashoot's brother :) my next app.

No fair. Where's Sweetcron? I thought he is one of the siblings too. Looks like daddy favour the two more than the other.

beatrice said...

hey! did you really used to play the violin in a symphony orchestra?? which one??

JM said...

I would second Notepad++.

Might take a look at this version of the eeePC if the keys are a bit bigger. Last time I looked, the HP was the only one suitable for fast typing but they have that ridiculous mouse. Ended up getting a full-fledged Toshiba with better specs for only $50 more.

For bare net and development capabilities, nothing wrong with Windows. Why shell out $2k when all you need is wi-fi and a text editor?

Rob McBryde said...

I was just talking to my wife this morning about getting her a netbook and possibly hacking the OS X onto it. Maybe we'll check out the Asus.

Well the intype development seems to go really really slow. Lots of things to fix in it still. Notepad++ might be fugly, but it works gooood.

Ken Tse said...

Don't you own an air, and isn't this a good enough substitute? ok, it might be wider and taller, but surely the depth more than makes up for it?

Ken > I used to have the Air, but size-wise it is far bigger than any netbook. It's also far too precious at $1500 to just throw in a bag. Also, I sold it because I found it a bit sluggish; something I'm not finding with this little Asus!

Nov 02, 2009

Willster said...

Jon, if you can, and it's not already got one installed, upgrade you Netbook's HDD to an SSD. I've just upgraded to Win7 on my desktop and bought an SSD especially for the new OS. If you want a surreal experience it's starting up an OS in seconds without the usual clatter of the HD. You really will be able to throw that Netbook around then, and a 128GB 2.5" SSD is pretty affordable now.

Feb 28, 2010

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The Dark Side

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