Comments for DavePress

Comment on Ideapad S205 by Dave

Dave — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:54:41 +0000

Hi John! Yeah, virus stuff is a pain. The machine came pre-installed with some nasty Norton thing, which I replaced with McAfee I think – we had a family pack type licence having bought McAfee for another Windows machine previously. It seems to work well enough, though I’m no expert!

The other annoying thing about it though, now I come to think about it, is the need to create a backup disc because the machine is delivered with no software at all on CD. A real bind – especially on a machine with no CD drive – and must drive non-technically minded users up the wall.

Comment on Ideapad S205 by John Naughton

John Naughton — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:07:34 +0000

Thanks for useful review, Dave. One thing you haven’t mentioned is the hassles associated with anti-virus stuff. What did you do about that?

Comment on Ideapad S205 by Dave

Dave — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:11:12 +0000

Hey Russell – I usually get a bit more than 4 hours from the battery.

Comment on Ideapad S205 by John Heaven

John Heaven — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:01:06 +0000

Sounds good, although I’ll probably be looking for something with a bigger screen (in a couple of pay days’ time, that is) because I’m doing quite a bit of stuff with Kultwerk West that will involve sitting together at a computer and we may even be starting social media surgeries in Hamburg. So 11″ might be a bit small for that.

Comment on Ideapad S205 by Esko Reinikainen

Esko Reinikainen — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:45:32 +0000

If you are hesitant about making the complete jump to Linux you can start by using the Ubuntu wubi installer which will basically install the OS into a folder in windows. I wager that after a while you’ll just trash windows and go full Linux. Once you’ve tasted true freedom, there’s no going back…

Comment on Ideapad S205 by Russell Webster

Russell Webster — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:19:37 +0000

Thanks Dave, what’s the battery life, please? I’ve been very happy with my Samsung Netbook but crave a little more screen estate. Also trying to outsmart myself, otherwise I will be spending more on an Asus Transformer Prime…

Comment on Ideapad S205 by Dave

Dave — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:54:03 +0000

Hi John – the memory thing is why the S205 is such a winner. 4GB! Others have mentioned on Twitter about running a Linux distro on one of these, and it ought to run beautifully.

Comment on Ideapad S205 by John Heaven

John Heaven — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:48:00 +0000

Interesting review. I’m considering getting a cheapish PC laptop but would want to stick Ubuntu on it. I bought a netbook just over a year ago (Asus Aspire One D255) and it was extremely sluggish with Windows, even after removing all the crapware that came pre-installed, but with Ubuntu it’s very fast. Of course you don’t have MS Office on it and there are one or two rough edges (meaning Skype doesn’t always work properly, and using a projector is sometimes a bit dodgy) but considering it’s a 1.8 Mhz single-core processor and I think only 1GB of RAM, it’s amazing almost all the time.

Comment on Some recent dead tree reading by James Gardner

James Gardner — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:58:28 +0000

Dave, thank you so much for mentioning my new book! Am v. grateful you’re finding some time to read it, and hope you’ll let us know what you think when you’re done.

Comment on An online conference for online stuff by James Coltham

James Coltham — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:44:16 +0000

Sounds great – I’d definitely tune in. The topics sound right on the mark, too. I guess the trick will be pulling it all together in a meaningful way at the end.