TuxRunner

This company rocks!  That’s all there is to it.  I can’t believe the netbook they’re selling right now.  It’s everything you could want on a small, low-cost computer….including a factory-installed copy of Linux.  It seems like most manufacturers are now pushing their netbooks with copies of Windows XP (bleh!!!), but companies like ZaReason and System76 aim to please the Linux community with cool hardware sporting the latest editions of one of the most popular Linux distros available..Ubuntu.

I’ve bought computers from ZaReason before.  They offered one of the earliest netbooks on the market back in late 2007, and since I couldn’t get my hands on an Asus Eee PC (supplies were VERY limited for the 8g model) I quickly put an order in for an Everex Cloudbook.  ZaReason was one of the only retailers other than Walmart to sell the Cloudbook early on.  It ran gOS 2.0, a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu.  While the hardware was pretty good, the operating system left a lot to be desired.  It wasn’t optimized or properly configured for the Cloudbook.  Pair that with poor support from Everex and newer netbooks that came out sporting Intel’s new Atom processor…the Cloudbook was doomed from the start. (continue reading…)

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…)