I've been recently asked by a friend to upgrade his EEEPC 701 (4G) to a more up to date operating system (it still had original Xandros running). I decided to install Ubuntu 10.04 (netbook edition) since I use it, and I'm quite satisfied of it, while the latest Ubuntu version performed poorly on my EEEPC 900 so I supposed it could only be worse in the EEEPC 701.
Installation and first impressions
As usual I backed up the EEEPC home folders (I almost forgot how limiting original Xandros “easy mode” was), I prepared a bootable SD card, booted the EEEPC from it and proceeded with the usual install steps. When prompted for disk partitioning I, of course, chose to use the whole disk.
After install I briefly tested the new system and everything seems to work fine, the boot time was about one minute and half and all the hardware has been properly recognised. All but the battery which shows the same annoying message I have on the EEEPC900. Ubuntu Netbook edition appears being still fully usable also with the smaller EEEPC 700 screen resolution. Only negative point the newly installed operating system takes up to 80% of the small EEEPC internal SSD drive.
Conclusions
Not the latest computer with not the latest operating system so … but it has been, in my opinion, an experience worth to be shared. One of the good points in Ubuntu is being able to “reviving” old machines and making limited hardware a little less limited. I hope they don't forget this while looking for new solutions like the new Unity desktop.
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