Dell mini 10v… Is it worth it??
August 21st, 2009 — roaksoaxWell… as I’m starting my studies for a M.Sc. in Telecom & Networking, I was thinking on buying a new computer. I’m deciding between a netbook and a laptop. Actually, between a Dell Mini 10v and any laptop.
I, of course, want something that will allow me to carry it everywhere… though I do not know what I will use it for since I’ve not started class yet… anyways… do you think that buying a dell Mini is worthy enough?? I mean, is it really useful besides browsing the internet and editing documents?? Has anyone used it to work with Debian packages on it, and have tried to build them there?? How’s its performance…?? Please let me know your experiences to make a better decision.
Thank you.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:04 PM
Well, a netbook is a netbook, it’s made for the web, not the lecture room. Trust me, as soon as you have to work on just a little but more complex diagram or something like that, you’ll curse that 10″ screen to hell
Personally, I’d get me a nice 13″ or 14″ Latitude with at least WXGA or WXGA+ screen.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:17 PM
Hi,
Yesterday I was testing a notebook at work, with the purpose of analyze if would be suitable to do my day to day working. What do I do? Mainly:
- Programming (advanced vim user)
- Browsing, a lot
- Team managment (some web tracking tools, but also a bunch of spreadsheets at the same time, some times)
- Google docs, Google calendar, etc
- Apache + Mysql
- a lot of terminals (sshs, editing, running processes, etc)
From this, you can see that the more demanding apps I use are openoffice and mysql and/or apache. Since I don’t have thousands of users connected, the last two are not an issue. Openoffice worked quite well alse.
I was testing all this in an Asus 1005 ha. Ok, it’s not the same model you are looking at, but most netbooks have the same specs. The only special feature this netbook has is 2 gigs of RAM, and a great battery time (10 hours, they say)
All this using Ubuntu 9.04, of course
Conclusion, I’ve ordered one for myself. One of my coworkers ordered one too…. it’s a winner. I use a Macbook everyday, and this netbook is almost the same.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:21 PM
The Mini 10v has been a great machine for my wife (a kindergarten teacher). And it’s been a great little, light-weight server for me (serving http, ssh), and even mythtv frontend (hooked up to a tv monitor).
But for my computer-programmer daily uses, it doesn’t have enough screen real-estate, cpu-power, or virtualization for me to do my daily work. For that, I prefer a 12″ Thinkpad x200.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:35 PM
I love my netbook, but it cannot replace a laptop.
You’ll need more power to create packages compile times…
And you need a bigger resolution to edit code comfortably.
August 21st, 2009 at 11:49 PM
Acer Aspire One D150.
Yes it is slower than a laptop. Occasionally video play haltingly, though a reboot fixes it. I’ve completely replaced my laptops and desktops with it. Yes, if I had to edit a huge image, it would be a pain. But for most other things it is just fine.
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 AM
I just received my 10V last month for work on KDE/Kubuntu Netbook Edition. It is great for small things, but build with either pbuilder or cowbuilder and tweaking the hell out of them, sucks. It is not a fast system when it comes to compiling anything.
Example (though it isn’t much):
main.cpp
#include
int main()
{
std::cout << "Hello World!" << std::endl;
return 0;
}
Compile time on celeron 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM:
g++ -o foo main.cpp 0.20s user 0.04s system 20% cpu 1.234 total
Compile time on mini 10v w/ 1GB of RAM:
g++ -o foo main.cpp 0.68s user 0.06s system 97% cpu 0.757 total
Just an idea of the shear lack of power for compiling stuff or doing anything I/O intensive with it.
Go with a smallish laptop (ie. 13" screen) if possible for school work, unless it is just text editing and what not.
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:42 AM
just bought the 10v (there was an outlet fire sale a few weeks ago) and its a royal pain in the ass. the touchpad has buttons built in (similar to the macs but the buttons are only on the bottom corners) — annoying as hell, the resolution sucks causing you not to be able to reach a lot of settings, camera works much better on windows than linux (noticeable lag), keyboard is OK.
get a lappy
August 22nd, 2009 at 11:29 AM
With Windows, a netbook is unusable.
With Ubuntu, it’s a pretty nice option
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:03 PM
One little more professional looking model is the HP Mini 5101, which is also available with SUSE Linux (SLED 11) preload and either 1024×600 or 1366×768 screen (both 10″ *matte*). You’d probably want the Intel Wifi rather than the proprietary Broadcom one.
It is little pricier than the average plasticky netbook but with some interesting features.
Then there are also the new category-breaking 11.6″ thin-and-lights (with 1366×768 resolution) like the Dell 11z, but unless they ship with Linux there’s bound to be some level of initial manual fiddling until distros get the settings built in.
August 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 PM
My wife got a mini 10v for her birthday in July. It’s a nice little machine for toting around and doing most things. We ordered it with Ubuntu straight from Dell. It is running in regular desktop mode. It is a GREAT couch-computing/bed-computing machine.
If I was in your particular scenario, I would NOT want to use it exclusively. The small keyboard (not too small) and small screen (even with the high resolution LCD) would drive me batty. Then again, it is my wife’s machine and I haven’t really had a whole lot of time on it.
In your scenario where you want something portable that you are going to use a lot, I would get a 12″-14″ laptop. At least with those you have fullsize keyboard keys and a larger screen.
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:27 PM
There’s another important “dimension” to your decision: the social implications of choice.
http://www.system76.com has some pretty nice options, are friendly to and active in the Ubuntu community, and worth supporting. They are 100% ubuntu.
Dell on the other hand is fond of Microsoft, offshoring jobs, lock-in…
Easy choice, no?
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:45 AM
I’ve picked up a Samsung n110 for university recently – works really well! The screen is particularly readable. I wouldn’t try compiling packages on it though. I also would suggest not trying to attach a large external monitor to it.
If you’re looking for a desktop replacement, you’ll probably want a powerful laptop. If not, netbooks seem to work really well for students.
And having 8 hour battery life with wireless on is great!
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:06 AM
Randall is of course right in bringing up the Linux-centric options, which AFAIK operate mainly or exclusively in the US market. Besides system76, there’s also http://zareason.com
Wrt. the Dell depiction, I feel that’s a little harsh considering that at least they’re trying to accommodate some Linux options and they’ve also been known to refund the microsoft tax.
Anyway, one potentially useful and again US-centric link for keeping an eye on current special offers is:
http://dealnews.com/categories/Computer/PC-Computers/PC-Laptop/49.html
They often mention those silly (Dell etc.) “coupon codes” which inevitably discount MS-Windows machines lower than their identical Linux-preloaded counterparts (in which case consider requesting for the MS tax refund…).
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:17 PM
Have a look at the Dell Latitude 2100, here in Belgium you can get it with ubuntu 8.10 and it has more options than the 10v
October 1st, 2009 at 8:29 AM
I use it for 3d development, as well as graphics editing, some web-design, as well as a few more intensive applications. You should be able to run the majority of modern creative products without any big drag. Of course, the higher end, you should probably buy a laptop.
But I do all of my 3d work on it, so depends on your needs, really. Mine certainly aren’t the lowest.