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On 21/05/11 13:54, Roland Tarver wrote:
On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 1:31 PM, Gordon Henderson <gordon+dcglug@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:On Sat, 21 May 2011, Roland Tarver wrote:http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/pcs-home-office.asp?idcategory=95 Hi Folks, I am not sure if the systems above are good value or not? But they are cheap. (<£150 for a new desktop system). They give you back £69 if you choose to install your own OS (click "customise and buy"). Some units come with Ubuntu installed too. Might be of interest to some...?The cheap ones are Atom based... And I have to say, putting a full-on Linux distro on an Atom board, while it's usable, it is a bit clunky and slow at times.The only comparison I can make is with my atom net book, with stock ubuntu (sorry lol) 9.04. Firefox does not perform too badly. Video works ok, but with a just acceptable delay whilst it is initially loading. If FF is really on a go-slow, I flip to epiphany which always seems zippy. Incidently this is FF3.6. I have not tried 4 yet. It remains heaps faster than my girlfriends identical netbook with a windows on it. I guess that's a given though.My own desktop is Atom based - and it's as optimised as I can be boterhed to make it - I don't run anything that's not strictly needed - I have a very simple window manager (not a desktop manager!) no hot-plug, udev, etc. and while for the most part it's fine, something just drag. Mostly complex web sites.Gordon, I'm shocked and appauled that you even have a window manager :-p ;-) hahaIt's possible that if you get all the hardware accelleration going in X (orUnity) that it might be better though, but pop-out BBC iPlayer is rubbish onmy own Atom desktop under Firefox. Angry Birds in Chrome is not playable on some of the more complex levels too.iPlayer is satisfactory on mine. Slow to start, as mentioned.So while the Atom has it's place for low-power stuff, it's probably OK for most home office stuff, but anything else really is a bit slow. GordonBest wishes roly :-)
I just purchased this little nettop from Ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/product/236579 The reviews are quite helpful and informative too.Immediately got rid of the pre-installed Linpus OS and installed Ubuntu 11.04 which works a treat.
Flash and BBC iPlayer also work great, mainly due to the onboard nVidia ION graphics hardware.
It's so quiet that it is almost silent.In fact, I am so happy with the performance that I have adopted it is my main desktop at home.
Can thoroughly recommend as a cheap yet still-powerful alternative. regards, Steve -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq