I'm asking this because I recently bought an Asus Eee PC 1215T. I bought the cheaper version without an OS. I thought I would install Linux on it. This is the fourth time I've tried Linux, but it is also the time that it left the least favorable impression on me. I never had any issues with Linux before, but I just favored Windows because of the gaming aspect. The first two times, I ran it on my desktop. The first was Red Hat, then Ubuntu 5, then I bought a laptop from Dell with Ubuntu 8.04 on it, and now I put Ubuntu 1.04 on my new Asus. I don't really play games any more, so I thought I would be in heaven. Unfortunately I'm not.
I found an article recently that showed that Linux is using more and more power, both at idle and doing tasks: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_mobile_uffda&num=1 That makes sense. My 1215T, if tweak it to consume as little power as possible, lasts well over an extra hour under Windows 7. I can't compare directly though, because I repasted the heatsink between changing the OS, and the fan spins a whole lot less after repasting. Asus Express Gate showed much worse battery life than Ubuntu though. On top of that, there are tools available within Windows that allow setting the frequency and voltage of both the processor and video card, so you could downclock and undervolt them for even greater battery life, or overclock them for greater performance.
Also there is performance, which is the major fault I find. The 1215T I got shipped with only Asus Express Gate as its OS. Web browsing performance using the preinstalled Firefox was close but slightly better than with Firefox under Ubuntu, but the main difference was that in Express Gate, flash videos on Youtube could be played much, much better than under Ubuntu. 720p could be viewed with very minor barely detectable stutter. In Ubuntu, with everything up to date, including the proprietary AMD video drivers, anything over 240p shows stutter and lagging, even when everything else on the computer is shut down. It isn't very noticeable on 360p and I bet some people would miss it, but at 720p anything becomes pretty much a 1fps or slower slide show. But if you have other web pages open or anything, you can start getting some bad lag even in 240p videos. In Windows 7, this problem does not exist. 720p is fairly smooth to watch, with sometimes some hiccuping or lower framerate noticeable, but still very watchable.
Another problem I have is with the audio. When I put in headphones, sound still comes out of the laptop speakers as well as the headphones. It sucks, and the way around it is to install some extra sound software that give you control over that stuff. Really dumb how that happens to so many people.
These problems were not just encountered by me, but by the few other people who have tried installing Ubuntu on their own 1215T's and other similar netbooks. I really wish Linux could give at least equal performance to Windows 7, but it just doesn't even come close, which is really sad. That with the much decreased battery life means I will mournfully have to keep Windows 7 on my 1215T.
Maybe I am totally wrong and I can install another Linux version and be happy with that, but I doubt it. There seem to be no workarounds for this sort of stuff. I imagine that on any modern desktop or any moderately powerful laptop, these sorts of things are trivial, but on a laptop with only a 1.7Ghz single core Athlon II processor, it makes Linux only an idiot's choice.
I found an article recently that showed that Linux is using more and more power, both at idle and doing tasks: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux_mobile_uffda&num=1 That makes sense. My 1215T, if tweak it to consume as little power as possible, lasts well over an extra hour under Windows 7. I can't compare directly though, because I repasted the heatsink between changing the OS, and the fan spins a whole lot less after repasting. Asus Express Gate showed much worse battery life than Ubuntu though. On top of that, there are tools available within Windows that allow setting the frequency and voltage of both the processor and video card, so you could downclock and undervolt them for even greater battery life, or overclock them for greater performance.
Also there is performance, which is the major fault I find. The 1215T I got shipped with only Asus Express Gate as its OS. Web browsing performance using the preinstalled Firefox was close but slightly better than with Firefox under Ubuntu, but the main difference was that in Express Gate, flash videos on Youtube could be played much, much better than under Ubuntu. 720p could be viewed with very minor barely detectable stutter. In Ubuntu, with everything up to date, including the proprietary AMD video drivers, anything over 240p shows stutter and lagging, even when everything else on the computer is shut down. It isn't very noticeable on 360p and I bet some people would miss it, but at 720p anything becomes pretty much a 1fps or slower slide show. But if you have other web pages open or anything, you can start getting some bad lag even in 240p videos. In Windows 7, this problem does not exist. 720p is fairly smooth to watch, with sometimes some hiccuping or lower framerate noticeable, but still very watchable.
Another problem I have is with the audio. When I put in headphones, sound still comes out of the laptop speakers as well as the headphones. It sucks, and the way around it is to install some extra sound software that give you control over that stuff. Really dumb how that happens to so many people.
These problems were not just encountered by me, but by the few other people who have tried installing Ubuntu on their own 1215T's and other similar netbooks. I really wish Linux could give at least equal performance to Windows 7, but it just doesn't even come close, which is really sad. That with the much decreased battery life means I will mournfully have to keep Windows 7 on my 1215T.
Maybe I am totally wrong and I can install another Linux version and be happy with that, but I doubt it. There seem to be no workarounds for this sort of stuff. I imagine that on any modern desktop or any moderately powerful laptop, these sorts of things are trivial, but on a laptop with only a 1.7Ghz single core Athlon II processor, it makes Linux only an idiot's choice.
