Survey: degraded notebook performance under Linux (NC10, 1000HE, Wind U100)
 

I'm currently looking for a notebook, and the contenders so far are the Samsung NC10, Asus Eee PC 1000HE and perhaps the msi Wind U100.

[rant] Looks like for the first time since 2000, I'll have no choice but to pay the WinTax. I'm sad that I could not complete the decade without paying it again, specially to buy in a segment which started with a strong Linux presence [/rant]

My question to the users of these notebooks is the following: since I plan to only use Linux on the notebook, I would like to know what kind of degradation in performance can I expect. For instance, the 1000HE strong suit is an extra long battery life, but I have read in forums that using Linux will shave 2 hours of battery life. If so, the long battery argument does not fly for me anymore, as I WILL be using Linux on my notebook.

Just to be clear about this, I'm aware that there is plenty of info on how to run Linux on these machines (1,2). But what I want is to know what kind of performance are you achieving right now with your model, and how did you managed it (distributions, patches, etc). Also, I would like to know what kind of functions could not be made to work so far, or have a degraded performance. Specially important to me are battery life, the ability to do voip, and the possibility to do presentations through the VGA port. But of course any problems and sources of irritation are of interest to me (suspend mode, hibernation, etc).

Hopefully, this thread will also be useful to others to exchange information on how to improve their notebook performance.

I'm using an Acer Aspire One AOA 150-1029 with Linux and I love it. I have used Kubuntu 8.04 with great performance but I was unable to get the wireless nic to work. I am now using PCLinuxOS 2009.1 and the wireless nic works great!!!

As far as battery life is concerned you can set Linux to use less power when operating off of the battery. I have set Linux to run the CPU at 85% speed and to dim the display a bit. I don't know how long it will run strictly off of the battery. Sorry. I still think of the battery as an interruptible power supply rather than a power source for normal computer use.

Thanks for the feedback

Well, my aim is to really do "on the road" computing. Previously that was impossible, but with the current 6-7h of autonomy, it's a reality. Just remains to be seen if it's a reality under Linux.