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My thoughts on my Mini Mi
I’ve had my HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition for a couple weeks now, and overall I’ve been very happy with it. The keyboard is the perfect compromise in size at 90%, and even the strange side buttons on the trackpad haven’t given me too much reason to complain. I have the 10.1″ version, but it’s small and light enough for me to carry comfortably all day (a huge different from my 15″ MacBook Pro, which I’m sure is the cause for all my back and shoulder pain!).
The big problem is the OS. Since I went with the Mi Edition, the netbook runs on MIE (Mobile Internet Experience), which is HP’s Ubuntu-based operating system. Admittedly, this was my first foray into Linux, and I’m not letting MIE taint my opinion of Linux whatsoever. Basically, there’s a lot that just doesn’t work right. The home screen, seen below, is supposed to have live bookmarks (and thumbnails) for my favorite websites. Even after adding them, the thumbnails just never loaded.
I wanted to add Boxee for Linux onto it, but adding third-party applications is very difficult. There is an application manager, but it’s locked-down to HP approved apps. There have been some stability issues as well, which I find interesting considering I’m rarely using multiple programs at once or doing anything “crash-worthy.”
At this point, I’m looking at a few different options for the OS: Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows 7 beta. I’ve heard great things about both, and I tried to install Windows 7 already and had some issues because I was trying to make a bootable USB on XP instead of Vista, which most of the directions seem geared to. Anyhow, I digress. Suggestions for what OS I should run are very welcome, or if you have tips on making the most out of MIE.
The kiwi above doesn’t come standard, by the way! It’s a GelaSkin called Jealousy, by artist Jen Lobo. GelaSkins are coming out with netbook skins very soon, so stay tuned!
UPDATE: GelaSkins for netbooks now available!
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#102 written by Kate 2 years ago
Hi Veronica! how it is going with your mini?
A recomendation for the OS: instead of Ubuntu netbook remix try Linux Mint.
Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu (same core components), but is faster smaller installed (3GB vs 6GB) and already has codecs for multimedia and flash installed. Also on my personal opinion it is easier to use.
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#103 written by MildlyAmused 2 years ago
Hey,
Found you through twitter…don’t ask. It was like “Seven Degrees of Separation” only by clicking avatars.Anyhoo, I really like the look and feel of these new mini-notebooks. I blog and write and browse the internet and have been giving my husband “buy me laptop” thought transmissions. Is there anyway to convince him that these are worth it?
Working in the computer industry, he’s being ridiculously snobbish about its lack of CD/DVD drive. I want something I can toss in my purse though. Any small-ish notebooks you’d recommend?
Thanks if you got this far in reading. That was a tad long-winded.
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#104 written by Ruddster 2 years ago
I got my Mini last week. I used MIE for about 10 minutes and couldn’t take it anymore. I installed Linux Mint after reading the above comments. Mint was great (all the codecs installed, nice looking, easy to use). But as a long time Ubuntu fan, I had to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix to give it a try. I’m diggin’ the netbook interface. With such a small trackpad and limited desktop space on the Mini, the netbook interface makes everything very easy to access. Also, my UNR install was 2GB and the Linux Mint install was 3GB. So, UNR saved me a little harddrive space as well.
Ubuntu Rocks!!
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Well apart from almost passing out from the unparsed, unfiltered requests sql has in the source, (doesn’t matter windows, linux, or macintosh), I’ve just been working out. Undocumented overwrites are part of the web cache and the more there are faster sql’s web cache goes. I’ve been working out the maximum number of verified web basis functions this can be written and read to and from on the cache (part of some linear algebra work I did years back in academia) to verify get, post, and cookie requests. I’d better limit the dimensionality of this 1 on 1 web space to 30 hops right? Well talk to you later.
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Don’t give up on Linux. I’ve been playing with different flavors for over a year via Fusion and think it has come along way to being more consumer friendly.
However, I would love someone to attempt to develop an easy install Hackintosh version. As you probably know, there are already ones for the MSI Wind netbook and some Dell netbooks.