TuxRunner

You know, at one time I had really wanted to get behind this company’s products.  I bought this Cloudbook netbook and thought this would be one wicked cool little laptop.  It would be too, if it would RUN LINUX well.  This is probably my 4th attempt at getting a distro on it that worked without locking up and giving me troubles.  I go in waves…I try finding a distro for like a week, and then I end up giving up and putting Windows XP on it.

I hate that!  Windows XP shouldn’t work better.  This is a netbook!  These things were destined for Linux!  Seriously, there’s apparently quite a nasty bug in the design of the hardware on this device, and the latest Linux kernels just not cooperating.  This usually results in a lockup of the USB-based keyboard and trackpad (and power button for that matter).  The computer doesn’t really lockup.  Some people have said you can plugin an external mouse or keyboard and still use it, but it does make it so you can’t use the power button or wifi button.  Plus, it’s rather annoying if you’re out and about with your netbook. (continue reading…)

I’ve been running Puppy Linux 4.2.1 for a while on my netbook, and wanted to post about it before I wipe it to try out another distro.  Puppy went on there out of a frustration I had with my netbook only being able to run Windows XP and be useable.  I own an Everex Cloudbook (the original one) with a VIA C7-M processor in it.  Not exactly a mainstream CPU, so I always have had troubles with Linux on it.  Everex seems to have no problem supporting Windows, as they supply drivers that work nicely with the hardware.  But Linux has always been buggy on this device

The main problem I had with Linux on the Cloudbook was with a bug which causes the built-in USB keyboard/trackpad to lock up.  When this happens, the only way you can get around it is to pull the battery.  I’m not sure why it doesn’t happen in Windows, but seems with any stock kernel from distros I’ve installed this is always a problem.  I know there’s work being done on some of the Cloudbook community sites to custom compile a kernel and modules that work flawless on the Cloudbook, but I’ve honestly had decent luck with just tweaking some settings on the kernel module for dynamic CPU clock scaling on the Cloudbook. (continue reading…)

I’ve been itching to post on this for quite a while, but my problem with it is that I could make one monster posting on this topic. I’ll try to keep this short though. What’s this about? Cloud Computing!

Running right along side hot technologies like virtualization, online music/video subscriptions, and multi-core processors, cloud computing is an interesting concept that is starting to gain some serious momentum. It’s not really a new concept, but it’s something that’s becoming more visible because of the wide reach of the Internet. (continue reading…)