Top Games to Play On Netbook

Have a netbook? Notice that the gaming capabilities aren’t really the best? Well, that doesn’t matter for some of the older classics out there! Read my article here: Top Games to Play On Netbook to see what games will run fantastically on your netbook! If you have any suggestions, please do submit them too!

Top Games to Play On Netbook

Author: DarkKnightH20

So people obviously do not buy netbooks for its gaming capabilities, of which there happen to be next-to-none. That isn’t to say that netbooks aren’t capable of running games or anything. In fact, I’ve been able to run a good bit of them. This list will comprise of games that run well for many netbooks. Note that these games are games that run great on the following netbook specifications–

Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK
Windows XP Home Edition
1.66ghz n280 Atom
2GB DDR2 800
160gb 5400rpm Hard Drive

If you stats are similar to this, then this list is perfect for you (1GB of ram is fine too!). If your stats are far below that, then do not worry either, as a lot of these games can be handled by the less powerful netbooks. To run these games, I am not overclocking at all. Doing so will be entirely up to you. Depending on your netbook, you can use a program like GMABooster to overclock your video card and increase your FPS.

Also, just to get it out of the way, this list will not be composed of games such as–

1. Solitaire
2. Minesweeper
3. etc

Pre-installed games do not count! Roms and emulators do not make it to this list either, though they’re applicable. Anyway, hope you enjoy the list. Feel free to suggest more games! Be sure to adjust your game’s graphical settings as necessary to help increase your frame rate!

Top 15 Games to Play on Your Netbook

1. Snood – This game is great. Even computers with next-to-no processing power can run this. It’s incredibly addicting too so have fun!

2. World of Warcraft – Now, not all netbooks can run this game. Mine, however, runs it well. With the stats listed above, I get an average of around 22fps (frames per second), which looks perfectly fine. I turned the grapic settings to NEAR the lowest, which doesn’t make anything look ugly, to help achieve this. Note that in highly populated areas you will lose FPS so try to stay away from biggg towns and so forth. Avoid raids!

3. Diablo II – One of the most highly rated games of all time runs perfectly on netbooks. Just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it’s not good. Diablo I (One) is another good choice too if you want to go the even older route!

4. PokerStars – This recommendation isn’t just for Poker Stars specifically, but any online poker in general. Gamble your chips and feel productive while you make others lose money. Note that Poker Stars is a good one and you can play with real money and also fake money. There are also tournaments and so forth.

5. Ultima Online – Get your MMORPG on with one of the older, better MMORPG’s out there, Ultimate Online (UO). Because it is old, it runs well on netbooks.

5. Starcraft – War! Lots and lots of war! War that requires very little computer processing from your netbook! That’s good war!

6. Super Text Twist – This game is another great one for netbooks. It’s available in flash and downloadable form, and is very addicting + fun. Try it out! After all, you don’t even have to download it if you play the flash version.

7. Plants VS Zombies – Very cool game! You have to protect your house from being invaded by zombies using plants. It may sound weird, but the combination works out VERY well. Runs great even on lesser netbooks.

8. Virtual Villagers Series – This series is very fun. In fact, I’ve beaten all of them! You can read the following review for more info on the Virtual Villager games: Review: Virtual Villagers Series.

9. Command & Conquer Classics – Take your Soviet soldiers and take down the Allies from the comfort of your netbook! What’s great about this recommendation is that all of the classics are 100% free now! You can get them from here: Free Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, Firestorm, Tiberian Dawn, and Red Alert. I personaly enjoy Red Alert

10. Warcraft 3 – Mass carnage helps the time go by. Install the expansion pack for additional fun or play online. You can also install the expansions Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne. The older Warcrafts (Warcraft I, II) will run well too!

11. Grand Theft Auto 3 / Vice City – Both of these run okay apparently (or so I’ve read). I haven’t tried them out personally, but they’re fun games and many confirm that they work. The older ones run even better (Grand Theft Auto I and II)!

12. Final Fantasy VII – This game will last you for ages if you let it. It’s so long and with extras constantly available, that you can let your netbook absorb your time for hours upon hours. Cloud vs Sephiroth, woot! Note that Final Fantasy VIII runs well too! You will have to find the Final Fantasy 7 Windows port to play this.

13. Civilization 1 – 4 – Slowly you can become dictator of the world! Take over all other countries and make your enemies bow down to me!…And then afterward, to you (when I’m done with them!). I haven’t tried 1 – 3 yet on my netbook, but I HAVE played Civilization 4 with Beyond the Sword and Warlords expansions installed. The minimum resolution doesn’t completely fit my resolution, but if you put it in window mode and then maximize it, then it fits to your screen. Very addicting and runs well!

14. Age of Empires – Old and fun Low requirements too! I haven’t tried them all, but you can likely play the newer ones as well. Check them out!

15. Sid Meier’s Pirates! – Travel the seas, plunder ships, and find treasure! Arrrrrrr! This game is a gem lost in time.

This list can and will likely expand. Expect more updates and if you have any suggested games, feel free to comment / submit them! Thanks!

World of Warcraft On Asus EeePC Netbook

I just updated the Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK Review with some interesting news. My netbook plays World of Warcraft with ease. I get an average of about 22fps (frames per second) when battling monsters. There is no lag. The settings are all set to NEAR low — so they’re a bit above that. Also, I have 3 WoW Addons enabled, which is worth mentioning because it isn’t bogging things down at all. More on this can be read in the Review: Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK. Hurray for netbooks!

Daily Digest January 6, 2010

• MSI’s new Wind U160 netbook looks familiar

Seen the Wind U160 netbook yet? Look familiar?
Brad over at Liliputing was kind enough to post some images of the new netbook, which runs Intel’s new Pineview hardware. At first glance, it’s a good looking netbook. Upon further inspection it looks like the design was clearly inspired by Sony’s Vaio laptops. Check out this Vaio [...]

• Analyst: Apple’s tablet runs custom P.A. Semi chips, not Intel’s Atom

Apple’s rumored tablet must be nearing manufacturing, but Intel won’t be among dozens of component suppliers providing parts for the device, says an analyst. According to Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar who spoke to Apple’s manufacturing partners, Apple’s rumored tablet won’t come with a silicon from Intel. Echoing previous reports, Kumar told TheStreet.com that Apple [...]

This was an automated post by me, Mr.Bot-a-cus the 3rd. Greetings!

Review On ASUS Eee PC 1005HA-P Series

I finally wrote a review on my glorious netbook — the ASUS Eee PC 1005ha-pu1x-bk. you can read it Here. It’s a bit lengthy but hopefully it’ll be of some use to those who read it. Expect additional Eee PC articles in the near future!

Review: Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK

My ASUS Eee PC is over a month old. This means it’s ready to be reviewed by yours truly. As usual, let’s first look at the stats…And, for those interested in getting this netbook, Amazon prices are listed below (they have great deals on netbooks generally).

Check the Latest Sales on the Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X-BK, memory upgrades & the newest version, the Asus Eee PC 1005PE-PU17-BK at Amazon

Specifications

Display Type: LED backlight, WSVGA

Screen Size: 10.1″

Maximum Resolution: 1024 x 600

Memory Type: DDR2

Memory Size: 1GB

Capacity: 160GB

Speed: 5400 RPM

HDD/SSD Drives Included: 1x 160GB HDD

Drive Types: Hard Drive

Operating Systems: Windows XP Home

Platform: Netbook

Processor Brand: Intel

Processor Class: Atom

Processor Type: Single-Core

Processor Speed: 1.66GHz

Processor Number: N280

Processor FSB: 667MHz

Processor Cache: 512KB L2 Cache

Graphics Description: GMA950 – Integrated Graphics

Video Interface: VGA

Optical Drive Type: N/A

Supplemental Drive Type: Media Reader

Media Types: SecureDigital High Capacity Multi Media Card

Audio Description: Integrated Audio

Audio Chipset: Hi-Definition (HD) Audio Support

Audio Input: 1- Microphone input port

Audio Output: 1 – Headphone output port

Integrated Microphone: Yes

PS/2 Mouse Connectors: N/A

PS/2 Keyboard Connectors: N/A

Serial Communication Ports: N/A

Parallel Ports: N/A

USB Ports: 3

FireWire Ports: N/A

Fast Infrared Ports (FIR): N/A

LAN Ports: 1

Modem Ports: N/A

Audio Out Jacks: 1

Line In Jacks: N/A

Microphone Jacks: 1

VGA Ports: 1

S-Video Connectors: N/A

DVI Video: N/A

HDMI Ports: N/A

Port Replicator/Connector: N/A

eSATA Ports: N/A

Integrated Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR

Integrated Wired: RJ-45 Ethernet Connector

Integrated Wireless: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n

Width: 10.3″

Height: 1.01″ – 1.44″

Depth: 7″

Weight: 2.81 lbs

Mouse Type: Multi-touch

Keyboard Type: 92% full sized keyboard

Battery Type: 6-Cell Lithium-ion

Battery Life: Up to 10.5 hours

Color: Black

Integrated Webcam: Yes

Webcam Resolution: 1.3MP

What this does not tell you, is that the RAM included is actually DDR2 800, which steps down to 667 and so forth (more on that in another article). I’ll be writing a series of netbook articles so watch out for those. Expect some guides.

So…let’s get started!
Physically, this netbook looks beautiful. It’s like a laptop had a big baby and this was the result. Fortunately, it isn’t THAT small (do not think that this netbook is big though, it’s very portable!). I say fortunately because this means the keyboard is pretty big (92% of a full sized keyboard and it’s ergonomic). Something to note about the keyboard…There are no “home”, “end”, “Page Up”, and “Page Down” keys. I used these keys all the time so this is very disheartening. Instead, you must use FN+arrow keys to perform these key’s functions. It lowers my productivity a bit. The keyboard also has enlargened “Left” and “Right” arrow keys. This sounds cool, but is annoying because the “Up” and “Down” keys are small. Majority of the world uses the “Up” and “Down” keys much more often than “Left” and “Right” (like when scrolling through pages, PDFs, etc)…But oh well. At least it’s easier to go left and right when you’re writing stuff. The netbook not being too small also means that the screen isn’t too small. It is 10.1″ diagonally — and looks greats. The tradeoff for a good-looking screen: it does not do well in the sun. Expect glare (unless you purchase an anti-glare covering). Some netbooks have larger screens than this, and I do believe that this specific EeePC could have reached 11″ as there happens to be more than enough left over space, but 10.1″ is more than adequate.

More on the Keyboard and Mouse
The keys on the keyboard feel nice. They make a happy click when tapped, opposed to an overly loud “CLICK!!!!” that some keyboards make. How about the mouse pad? It’s easy to use and is covered with dimples. It is a perfect size too for me, but my hands aren’t overly huge. The mouse keys, however, don’t click too easily and when you do you hit them, they can be a tad bit loud depending on what part of the mouse keys you click. Not a problem really. I find myself just double-tapping the mousepad instead for 100% silent clicking (good for Russian spies!).

Fingerprints
One thing that you’ll notice immediately is that this EeePC is a fingerprint magnet (this part is NOT good for Russian spies). Your local authorities will probably stop using ink to get a copy of your fingerprint. They’ll start using these badboys instead! So…you can either keep trying to clean this little netbook or you can take care of the problem by buying a skin. These can make the netbook look awesome, as well as cover majority of the surface area where fingerprints collect. Just be careful to eliminate all air bubbles when applying the skin. You could just ignore the fingerprint issue altogether, but you will never make your dream of becoming a spy come true then. Okay, enough spy talk.

Webcam
I haven’t used the webcam yet, but this particular model has a 1.3 megapixel webcam/camera. I’ll likely not use it often, but it’s good to know that it’s there in case I want to show my cleavage on the internet (completely joking here!…I think). I’ll be sure to update this review with an example picture or video using the webcam when time allows me. I’ve heard that people have had issues with the mic on this netbook, but we’ll see how it fairs for me soon enough during a test video. Regardless, I’m sure it’s good for spies. Yeah, yeah, I said I wouldn’t continue spy talk. I lied!

WiFi
One of the selling points of this netbook is the compatibility that it has with access points. It supports not only the usual 802.11b and 802.11g, but also 802.11n. This is great news to many and will allow you to utilize more modern wireless technology. Good job ASUS! I find that the wireless detection is generally pretty good. It detects a lot of signals, but of course doesn’t have the same type of power that my cantenna or parabolic antenna have (they’re external, this is internal).

Bluetooth Greentooth
I have not used the bluetooth feature on this netbook. In fact, I doubt I ever will. I’m not going to test this feature unless I want to play with bluetooth security against cellular devices. If I do this, I’ll be sure to mention how well it works…Otherwise, sorry, no review on that aspect

Battery Life
The battery life is amazing. It’s rated for 10.5 hours, but you’ll average less of course. This netbook comes with Asus’s Super Hybrid Engine — which conserves battery life by controlling the performance of the computer. In auto mode, it will lower and increase the netbooks performance as needed in order to conserve battery life. I haven’t actually timed it or anything, but with WiFi enabled, bluetooth disabled, power saving mode enabled (via Super Hybrid Engine), and a high brightness, you can expect at least 7 hours of life.

There is one problem though. The transformer portion of the charging cable can get hot. There is an easy way to keep it relatively cool though — and it requires no tools. Do NOT place the brick flat down on anything. Try to have it sit diagonally so that only 20% or so of the surface area is actually touching the ground and 80% or so is in the air. Doing so, for me at least, keeps the power block/transformer piece completely cool. Awesome!

Hard Drive
I was VERY happy that this came with a standard hard drive instead. This provides more space than I’ll ever need — a whopping 160GB of space. A solid state drive would have made this bad boy even faster, but you would lose out on all the extra space, not to mention the computer would cost more (depending on the solid state drive). If you DO wish to install a solid state drive, it isn’t difficult. A SSD will actually increase your battery life too, as well as the speed of the computer. If you choose to install a small SSD, this EEEPC comes with a SD card reader built-in so you can always store data on a couple of SD cards. One problem with that, however, is that the SD card reader will increase battery consumption when in-use. This EEEPC also comes with 10GB of online storage space that I’ll never, ever use. I’d say something like “but it’s good to know it’s there” — but even then I just really don’t care about its existence.

RAM
As mentioned earlier, this uses DDR2 800. It comes with 1GB of ram with only one ram slot available, but supports 2GB’s total. What does this mean to you? If you upgrade, you will have an extra 1GB of ram on your

hands. Obviously it would have been nice for 4GB support with 2 module slots, but that’s just me being greedy. This is a netbook after all. The next generation will have 4GB support as well as the aforementioned 2 RAM module slots. So…how does 1 GB of RAM run on this? Perfectly! I actually found little reason to upgrade this, except for the fact that I use some high end software that makes use of it. With 2GB of RAM, Everything, including Adobe Photoshop/Flash CS4, ran with ease. Neato! If you choose to stick with 1GB of RAM though, you should increase your virtual memory. Installing new RAM, if you end up doing so, is VERY easy. It takes almost no time whatsoever because of the crafy design used by Asus. You simply remove the plate covering on the bottom of the netbook and then remove the clips from the RAM module, making sure to make note of how the RAM module was positioned so that you can easily replace it with the new RAM. After putting the RAM in simply screw on the plate covering and you’re done!

Processor
This uses an Atom n280 processor, which is rated at 1.66ghz. Its predecessor, the n270, is rated at 1.6ghz. This processor, though not a monster of a processor, actually supports computing pretty well. It is great for battery life. Expect processor changes in the next wave of netbooks though.

Build Quality
Other than the terrible power supply issues, the build quality is great. The hinges connecting the screen are very strong. I’ve seen many notebooks develop hinge problems too so having good hinges is comforting. The overall shell of this netbook is strong. They keyboard feels like it could take a bit of abuse too. Also, unfortunately…this netbook has fallen while open off of my bed. The fall was only 3 feet or so, but it was perfectly fine. The computer was also on at that time and it didn’t freeze. It has taken a couple of falls from a height of 2 feet as well and remained fine. Coolio to that! I have yet to punch this netbook in a fit of frustration, but if I do, I’ll tell you guys how it holds up. I imagine it’ll be fine.

Miscellaneous
This netbook has 3 USB ports — 2 on one side and 1 on the other. Very nice! It also has FN keys (as indirectly mentioned earlier) — the usual ones found on notebooks (such as brightness increase/decrease, increase/decrease audio, etc). Audio on this netbook is also pretty good. It not only sounds good, but it gets more than loud enough when set to. ASUS has released many BIOS updates and includes an easy-to-use BIOS updating utility that allows you to flash your BIOS while on Windows (requiring a restart at least). These help increase battery life (or so says ASUS), as well as help out with miscellaneous things (refer to ASUS’s website for a changelog).

Also, this comes with a partitioned hard drive. It has the main partition with the OS, as well as a secondary partition to store files on. The reason it’s setup this way is because there is an automated recovery service that will clear the first hard drive if necessary. This Eee PC has a built-in install for Windows XP. There are also several other partitions, but they’re not visible to the user — and you won’t need to touch them unless you plan on making additional partitions for Linux or other operating systems.

What You May Want to Buy

You may want to buy a USB DVD drive if you wish to watch/listen/burn movies/music or install applications from CD’s/DVD’s. You can grab the install files from CD’s and force them to run from a USB too, but not everyone knows how to do that.

You may want a flash drive/thumb drive for quick transfering of files between computers. This can be done through the 10GB online storage or through network transfers as well, but I find a flash drive to be much less annoying to use.

This comes with bluetooth so you might want a bluetooth mouse. Alternatively, you could also use a portable USB mouse too. Bluetooth also gives you the option of using a bluetooth keyboard (if you really need to) and a bluetooth headset/headphones. You WILL have lower battery life if you use the bluetooth though. I don’t recommend it since many alternatives exist.

An anti-glare screen covering to prevent glare from sunlight.

A netbook skin to help deal with the hideous fingerprints and scratches.

Update (October 26th)

I forgot to mention that this netbook came with software that allows users to use specific motions when using their mousepad to cause certain events to trigger — such as back and forward. While this does sound cool, I found it to be a pain and had to disable it almost instantly. It has a shelf life of 5 minutes or so with me until I turned it off, which is why I forgot to mention it in this article Of course, it may be easier for some of you to use, but for me…no. I kept accidentally triggering the mousepad motion events. Another mention is that ASUS has been pumping out BIOS releases again. This is, of course, a good thing since each release brings an improvement or bug fix of some sort.

And so…My review comes to an end. If you have any questions at all, then comment and I will respond the same day most likely. I will also edit this review with any problems that I encounter and so forth.

Update: December 01, 2009 – Gaming Capabilities

I thought it would be interesting to mention some of the gaming capabilities of this netbook, as well as the lack thereof. It will play a lot of older games, but you may encounter issues with resolution. For example, it plays Rise of Nations Gold Edition almost runs perfectly. This is where that resolution problem kicks in. It’s hard to explain, but you have to scroll through your screen because the entire screen doesn’t fit at once. This is done automatically with the cursor of course, as if there were imaginary auto scroll bars. The game is still playable, but it’s definitely harder to do so…At least there’s no lag, right?

Some other games that work well: Peggle, Diablo II, and Starcraft. Though old, these games are still indeed fun. Some of them are very capable of being tweaked to solve resolution issues so if you encounter them, then I suggest doing some quick Googling before dismissing the game. If there’s any interest, I’ll write an article on overclocking this computer as well, though it really isn’t necessary. The n280 doesn’t overclock as well as the n270, but it can budge a bit. So can other aspects of this netbook.

Update: January 08, 2010 – Gaming Capabilities Updated Again

So I decided to take the plunge to see whether or not the Asus Eee PC 1005HA-P Netbook was capable of playing World of Warcraft (WoW) at all. To my surprise — YES! It plays perfectly in fact. I get an average of around 22fps (frames per second) while battling monsters. It lowers in high population areas of course (raids would take their toll), but has played perfectly! Some things to take note of, as well as to remind users, is that my netbook was upgraded to 2gb’s of RAM. I also made sure to close most things and I have removed a good bit of bloatware that the netbook came with. Also, the operating system is Windows XP. I am not overclocking whatsoever, though doing so will naturally increase the FPS, but not by too much. I may in the near future try overclocking the graphics card and processor to see how much of an increase will occur though, but only if anyone is interested (comment if you are!). The World of Warcraft settings that were used were a bit higher than the lowest settings, which means that the FPS could raise even further if I decreased some of the graphical effects further. WoW’s resolution was set to 800×600 to help speed things up. Also, I have 3 addons enabled. They’re map addons, but disabling them may also help increase the FPS by a frame…if lucky. Regardless, World of Warcraft runs well.

Know of any other games that play well or don’t play well? Comment!

Update: August 18, 2010 – Durability/Longevity
Just thought I’d go ahead and update this article with information on how my personal netbook fairs. It works PERFECTLY still, as if I had just bought it. Proper upkeep is important, hardware and software-wise. On the hardware end I’d recommend cleaning your netbook every once in awhile using canned air (good for keyboard cleaning and so forth) and a microfiber cloth for the screen. To keep the hardware living longer, also make sure to keep the netbook as cool as possible by using a cooling pad. A passive cooling one would work perfectly fine and would require no USB ports to lower battery life.

I’ll make sure to post yet more updates as time goes on. I have a feeling this netbook is going to run flawlessly for a very long time. Keep in mind that I HAVE dropped it on several occasions and it has lived with ease. It was the best purchase I’ve made in a very long time.

Review: Ubuntu Netbook Remix

Author: DarkKnightH20
Ubuntu Uninstall Guide Also Appended to End of Post

When I first heard about the Ubuntu Netbook Remix distro, I was excited. I thought to myself “Hey, Ubuntu is an awesome operating system so I’m sure the netbook-rendition will be just as good”. Well, I have mixed feelings about this operating system right now, but overall it’s still good.

The installation was a breeze. You simply write Ubuntu to a USB drive using the suggested program, then during reboot you hit F2 to load BIOS. In the BIOS, you must change the boot order so that the USB boots up before the harddrive, then save the settings & quit. The USB will now be read by the computer during bootup, causing the installation to be triggered. You have the option to load the OS without installing it, as well as some other features — and you can also just install the OS right away too. This is fast AND easy. A++ to Ubuntu for the initial installation…Or is it really that easy? MORE on why I wrote that, later!

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The interface starts out in the Ubuntu Netbook Desktop-mode. This, to me, is not the most attractive of interfaces (but not ugly)…Usability-wise, it works. Icons are large and navigation is simplified. Categories that represent the standard Gnome menus are on the side and loads of software comes pre-installed. This would make anyone happy who just wants pure convenience. I’m picky, however, and wanted a normal Ubuntu Desktop too, which can be selected very easily via System -> Preferences -> Switch Desktop Mode…So that’s good. I plan on switching back-and-forth between the two. In the netbook interface, heavy alteration took place to help save on pixels being used. You truly get the most out of your small screen in this sense. They want those pixels to not go to waste! Check out this picture for an example–

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Notice how there are small icons in the top left corner? These each represent windows that have open. This version of Ubuntu will also alter the size of windows that are opened using “Maximus”. This is to assist those with small resolutions so that they don’t have too much difficulty using large interfaced-apps or dealing with big dialog windows/message boxes.

Hardware Used

If you’re curious about my hardware, I’m running an Atom n280 (1.66ghz), 160GB HDD, 1GB of DDR2 800 ram, and Atheros (AR9285) for Wireless and Wired internet. I have a 2GB RAM module coming in the mail, but to be honest, this isn’t even necessary. Everything runs without a hiccup. I have yet to need the additional ram. Ubuntu Netbook Remix has been fast and stable — except for one random crash when using Firefox. It happened for on particular reason. I just surfed for a bit and then my machine locked up. It hasn’t happened since, however…and no, it was not my hardware’s fault

I mentioned earlier that Ubuntu Netbook Remix almost had an A++ for easy installation. Well, everything did NOT work out of the box. Most things did, but not everything. WIFI and ethernet, for example, did not work without having to install 5 or so files in a specific order, then restart. This requires an additional computer and USB port because of this…Or, if you are dual booting, then a switch over to the other operating system, download the files, then restart and find+install them using Ubuntu (assuming you allow Ubuntu access). For a list of computers that have been tested, as well as possible solutions to problems your computer’s specific model may have, Here.

If you’re not going to be using the netbook interface and still want Ubuntu, then this really isn’t for you…if you have space for all the extras that a normal Ubuntu distro has. You’ll miss some of the missing tools and so forth, I guarantee it. Besides, you can make normal Ubuntu display the same type of interface as the Netbook Remix. It isn’t as easy as changing to desktop mode and back through a simple click or two like in Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but if you really want the interface, it can be done…I personally prefer the standard Ubuntu desktop, but maybe that’s just me

Miscellaneous Recommendations

A good task to perform that I would like to mention is installing GParted. Simply run sudo apt-get install gparted via terminal. It’s great for modifying partitions.

I also recommend grabbing KGrubEditor if you’re dual booting. It is KDE, and therefore will need additional packages installed for support (all of which is grabbed easily through a repository) but will work on the Gnome interface.

Depending on your computer, there is likely custom software to help it run. For my eeePC, for example, software is available to help use the shortcuts, manage battery life, etc. Check out what’s available through some nice Googling or repository searching.

Enjoy using Netbook Ubuntu Remix! Expect it to change significantly throughout its life. Also expect others to follow soon with similar solutions that deal with lack of screen space.

Update (February 3rd, 2010): Recently, I decided that I needed to remove Ubuntu Netbook Remix and GRUB from my Netbook. As you can imagine, you cannot use the commonly suggested routes that involve floppy disks and CDs (unless you have an external USB CD drive). However, I found out that it was much easier than anticipated. For those of you who have this issue follow my directions here for help! We will be deleting the Ubuntu partition and restoring your Windows MBR (master boot record). I also give suggestions on how to go about resizing your primary partition after the Ubuntu partition is deleted. Fixing the MBR is the only part that can be a bit confusing

Firstly, bootup into Windows. I use Windows XP myself. Go to Start -> Run — and type in “compmgmt.msc”. Select “Disk Management” (located in the list on the left side) and locate the partition that has Ubuntu on it. Right click on the partition and delete it! After it’s gone you’ll notice that you have a lot of free space that has not been partitioned. You will want to resize your current partition to take this space, but unfortunately Windows did not include this in their partition tool. You will need to download another program to do so. There are a lot of free programs to do this out there, of which some require you to boot up to a CD, but my favorite happens to be Partition Magic. It handles the entire procedure within Windows so no booting up to a CD is needed. As a last resort (or first resort if you don’t mind it), you can actually boot up to Ubuntu using your USB drive and resize through Ubuntu. This seems a bit weird since we just deleted Ubuntu and are not booting up to it again, but no matter…If you decide to do this method, then wait until you have removed GRUB first otherwise it will popup an error about the missing Ubuntu partition.

So…After resizing your primary partition to absorb the new free space from the deletion of the Ubuntu partition, you will want to remove GRUB. This is usually done through a Windows CD, but an even faster (and better) way to do this is via TestDisk. Download the program and extract it. Locate the WIN folder within and then open “testdisk_win.exe”. A command prompt will open. Choose “No Log”. A list of drives will be display in the next screen…Pick your drive! Next you must choose your partition type. Choose “Intel”. Now let the program do its thing. It’ll be done fast. When it completes, restart your computer. If it boots up with no issues, then congratulations, you have restored your MBR and deleted Ubuntu!