EEE PC: The Great Experiment

I've decided to try something more...interesting...with my technology lifestyle.

I used to keep my primary workstation online 24/7. It's a big monster for a desktop...dual core 2.13 Ghz processor, 2 gig of memory, 3Ware raid card mirroring 2 250 gig hard drives, CD/DVD burner and separate DVD drive (so I could easily copy disks to another blank without hogging the data bus), a slot card reader for reading SD cards and other media cards, nice fast video card driving a 22 inch samsung monitor...overkill for the vast vast majority of home users, but I did occasionally use the system for other things that average home users didn't (virtualization, for one, took a toll on the processor and memory...). It has Ubuntu installed on it, so it was virtually crash proof and was wonderful for most tasks I threw at it. Even three years old it's still above and beyond what most people use in their home, so it's aged quite nicely. I can't recommend the staff at Puget Systems enough for their help and guidance in assembling an affordable Linux machine.

I would connect to the system using secure shell, so I could easily access things like my journal application or files remotely. I could use the remote camera on the system to check on the house when I was away (did the daughter remember to let the dog in? Let's see...).

The thing is that keeping that thing running 24/7 sucks electricity. It also went largely unused most of the time. Sure, handy when I needed it, but otherwise, was it worth having it sit there, sucking up dust and pennies in power?

I've been experimenting with Ubuntu Netbook Remix on a very old EEE PC (the 701/4G unit). It's tiny. It's lightweight. And for specs, just about the only thing it has going for it is that it's really portable and probably takes weather changes and rough handling a lot better than most notebooks (how my daughter managed to still break it...twice...is !@#$ beyond me...).

I sat and thought about this for awhile. Here's what I've been doing lately...
1) edit my novel.
2) email
3) web browsing
4) diving into learning a programming language
5) blogging/filling in my nearly daily journal
6) transfer images from my camera to my hard disk and backing up my digital memories I have hundreds and hundreds of pictures of my 4 year old.

That kind of sums up what I've done with the computer lately.

So I've decided to go for a "grand experiment." I wanted to simplify my life and see if I could turn my computing life into a more mobile life. It wasn't easy. I had a lot of conversations with myself.

What if I needed to use virtualization to use Windows or a clean Ubuntu install? Guess I'll have to use the work-issued Mac.

What if I needed to burn an ISO disc, or create a CD??
Again...use the work-issued Mac. Dude, how often have you been doing that lately anyway?

No much, I guess. But what about editing pictures and movies?
You forgot that you've been doing that with iMovie? That was on the Mac too. And picture editing can be done on the netbook. It's just slower.

What about the keyboard? I can use it, but for everyday work? It'll get frustrating!
That's what you'll use the USB hub for, dummy.

Oh, yeah. I guess so.
Look, most of your utilities...OpenOffice, Adobe Reader, Firefox, Almanah Diary...the stuff on your desktop are also on the netbook. Don't worry.

What about...well, the display?
Plug in your monitor when the netbook is on the desk. We'll see how it works.

And remotely accessing files? If I need something while at Barnes and Noble, or at work?
Um...put the files you normally need on your netbook's SD card. You have a spare 2 gig card sitting in your drawer. You won't need to copy the data if it's with you.

It won't fit all the data, though. My files on the external drives are nearly 100 gig. The netbook has 4 gig of storage, plus 2 from an SD card? That won't be enough.
Calm down. You don't need that stuff. You keep it for reference or access later. The stuff you regularly use is tiny. It'll fit. And when you "dock" it with the USB hub, you have access to that data. I think we can do it.

I sighed, synced my data from the desktop machine to the 2 external hard disks I use for backups, then disconnected my computer completely, moving the mouse and keyboard to the USB hub on the desk. Then I took the CPU to another room where it'll sit undisturbed for awhile, and I'll not have the temptation of taking the easy way out of my experiment.

And now I am using my netbook as my primary machine.

It's not easy...I'm nervous to see how it works. The machine is really tight on space, around 300 meg free on the primary storage drive (and 2 gig on the SD card). The problem is that the system drive is filled from basic applications installed, so it's not easy to try trimming things out.

For my personal data, though, things should work out. I think.

I have a script I run that copies data from my computer to the backup drives; should anything fail, I can take my Western Digital "books" to another Linux computer and access my data (or restore to another machine if I need to replace a computer). I modified that script for its new home on my netbook, adding a metric ton of actual checks so that if a drive isn't mounted it won't run that backup routine (like the media computer; I mount it over the network and copy my podcasts and iTunes purchases to the drives in case the media computer dies (again)). Since my netbook may be out and about or not have the drives plugged in...hey, I forget things a lot, after all...I needed to add checks to the script so it won't delete an entire tree of data just because I forgot to mount something. It was long overdue anyway.

And now I am using the netbook. I'm taking my primary computer with me. I took it to Barnes and Noble last night. I brought it downstairs with me now for exercising while blogging. I dusted most of my desk for the first time in years, which I'm sure the desk appreciated.

So that's my great experiment. I'm approaching it with great trepidation, but I'm taking the plunge...can I, a computer geek, survive using a sub-par computer, placing emphasis on portability over power?

More later...stay tuned!