As easy as Ubuntu

Ok, I'll have to admit.., I refused for quite some time to take Ubuntu Linux for a serious test-drive due to bad experiences with the distro while it was in it's alfa and beta-stages. But since then, Ubuntu has come a looooooong way. So, I decided I'd take Ubuntu 9.04 for a spin.

It's still kind of bleeding edge with regards to compositing and visual effects, but they do work out-of-the-box. And hey, if things work...why fix them? On compositing and the like, I consider compiz as an extraordinary piece of rendering-code, but I also think it's too unstable for everyday production-use.

Ubuntu's UI has undergone major modifications to better suit it's userbase requirements, and I like it :)

Ubuntu's updating and upgrading facilities have also been much improved, with the addition of a scanning-tool to determine if you have hardware-components that has alternative proprietary drivers available, and lets you activate them with simple mouseclicks.

Easy Peasy v1.5 (formerly Ubuntu Netbook Remix) is a distribution developed with netbooks and net-tops in mind.

Focused on low-power consumption and simple apps for simple tasks, it's actually a rather comprehensive collection of software compared to many other netbook-flavours.

Lightning fast and with an intuitive and stylish interface, it does what it sets out to do, and more!

My Asus Eee 900 netbook had Xandros installed by default, but this distro did not let me do the things I usually do on a Linux-workstation, like: programming, compiling, scripting, etc.

In addition to be very restrictive, it was also heavily modified from it's Debian codebase, and was thus very hard to customize and proved a challenge in adding new and unusual software to.

I thought it was dead...

For the past year, I've been rummaging through my computer-equipment boxes, throwing out and putting aside components. Which was a good idea, I've saved MASSIVE amounts of space by binning a lot of my legacy boards, obsolete hardware/software and determining which of my computers are still worthy as computing-tools.

And last week, I just finished the whole ordeal.

Then.., my netbook failed to boot up. My ONLY surviving workstation, craps out on me...

SH*T!

Next up: forum-surfing in text-mode on my Slackware Linux server, because I haven't really bothered to configure X for my Samsung LCD-TV.

To my surprise, I found a possible solution and explanation why my Eee900PC just would not boot, in a mere couple of minutes.

Turns out, the Eee netbooks from Asus (the early 7-900 versions) have troubles utilizing JUST the power-cord when the battery is totally drained... WTF!? I've used quite the ensemble of different vendor-notebooks and laptops over the years, but I've NEVER run into this problem before.

"O-K" I thought, let's try to plug the power-cord in after I've removed and inserted the battery-case, and see what happens.

B-I-N-G-O! The netbook started flashing a red led-light (which means it's charging the battery), and it booted without any problems after charging the battery for a good half hour. But this was definately one of the most bizarre WTF-moments I've had in a long time. I had no idea super-compressed netbooks had to have battery-juice in order for the mainboard to draw power from it's PSU...

weird, for the sake of weird... huh?