the 10v is back on XP.. maybe linux mint

Jan 3, 2010

I wrote a work article on this which will post on Monday or Tuesday, but I wanted to write a personal blog on the subject here.

In July 2009 Microsoft offered Windows 7 for 50 bucks on a special 1-week promotion. So I bought a license of Home Premium and use it regularly on my tower PC.

In August 2009 I bought a Dell mini 10v, well after the $50 Win 7 promotion.

A few weeks after I bought the mini I put Windows 7 RC on it, proudly claiming for sure that yes, I would purchase another Win 7 license when the RC expired.

That’s no longer the case. I “degraded” the laptop back to Windows XP and it’s going to stay that way. Maybe.

The reason? Cost. I simply can’t see putting a full 1/3rd of the price of the netbook into the OS just for 7.

Yes, I tried Linux before going back to XP. And of course, certain things didn’t work. The biggest one was the wi-fi. I truly wanted to put Linux Mint 8 on the 10v, but the crap involved to make that work simply isn’t worth the bother. For those that wondered if i tried Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10, I did. It sucked. Makes your OS look like a child’s plaything. No thanks. The wi-fi on that distro didn’t work out-of-the-box on the 10v either, so I wasn’t about the use it anyway.

BUT.. butbutbutbutbut.. Linux Mint 7 will supposedly work with the 10v’s wi-fi with no problem. As I write this I’m downloading Mint 7, will use Unetbootin to put that on a 2GB stick and give it a go. And if that works, I may swap out the OS from XP to Mint 7. I’m going to have to run some tests in LiveCD mode to see if everything works and moreover if I can get along with it or not.

Mint 7 just finished downloading and I’m “burning” it to a USB right now, so I’ll post this, test Mint it and see how it works.

[edit]

Mint 7 detected the wi-fi instantly. No b.s. involved whatsoever. Connected first try. Awesome. Everything else seemed to work as well. Oh, and the cool part is that I’m able to define a “long” click as a double-click on the touchpad, so cool beans there as well.

Decided to dual-boot it between XP and Mint. I’m keeping XP around because I simply can’t give up Windows Live Writer because for a blogger that app is an absolute necessity to have because it is that good.

It is beyond me why Ubuntu Jaunty (which is what Mint 7 is based on) detects the 10v’s wi-fi instantly but the support for it is gone in Koala. That’s just.. stupid. But whatever. Mint 7 will do the job.

[edit]

Nope, Linux was a bad idea. Formatting drive and staying with XP on the 10v. See next page to find out why.

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