Mizi is now on eeeBuntu

It’s funny how the rain didn’t stop normal surfing, but the moment there was thunder my Internet connection dropped and I switched off both PC and modem to prevent any mishaps. Getting your modem fried due to thunder is sort of a initiation ritual here in Malaysia. Most heavy users I know have had at LEAST one modem fried no thanks to lightning. Since lightning and thunder are great friends, we know it’s time to switch the comp off when we hear the thunder reall badly; aka once it sounds like it’s abut to go over our heads.

Alright, back to the main topic at hand. Thanks to [Edrei], and [Dustyhawk], I was introduced to eeeBuntu shortly after I got my eeePC 4G Linux (henceforth known as “Mizi”) back in August or October (just in time for Nanowrimo too!). Although I downloaded and seeded the distribution, I never installed the OS, mainly because despite its quirks, Xandros did do its job for me.

In case you haven’t really guessed, I live online. Most of my personal works are done online, either in Google Documents or in WordPress’ web interface. I never really needed a reason to have a full office suite when a quick GDoc format is just a click away (I do however, have to use MS Word for work, which is why Kuro, Mizi’s bigger brother, has Open Office 3 installed, and boy is it better than OO2).

My main reason for getting Mizi was that she was a quick way for me to write when I was away from my computer, especially during Nanowrimo sessions. She’s a lightweight thing (at least compared to the bulk that are my colleagues’ full-specs lappies) and wonderfully, she fit into my office handbag. If I choose to take the Nike bag my godmother gave me for my birthday, it’ll even take her charger, which ironically I feel is heavier than Mizi herself (or it could just be the bulk).

Now, the thing I’ve been looking at for my darling Mizi is to reduce the bloat. Ordinarily, Mizi’s Xandros OS came with a lot of things I didn’t need, and with some that I wanted. However, updating is a pain, mainly because Asus took the Xandros distro and modified it to suit THEIR needs, which meant that one would basically get a distro that was quite heavily modified and didn’t get regular updates.

I’m a fan of updating, and I do update when I can. The update process in Ubuntu makes it even easier than MS’, especially if you’re like me and you like to see what components are being added to your computer. Xandros’ lack of updates didn’t just worry me, but they also made it hard for me to get a few programs I wanted, namely Pyroom. Then when one switched to full desktop mode, Xandros destroys documents on the desktop upon restart.

That pissed me off to no end, because at work, I depend on having my work on the desktop for easy reference (nowhere was Mizi more important shortly after I got her because my office comp died due to the processor I think, so I used Mizi to do my work with Open Office and got my colleague to double check the formatting when I sent docs to him to be checked).

Thank goodness my colleague [Grayfox] kept a copy of all the stuff I sent to him to be checked.

So, coming back from that little side trip…

I became interested in eeeBuntu again after what [Edrei] told me about them updating the distro to Intrepid Ibex, which is the latest flavour of Ubuntu. When I logged onto the eeeBuntu site , I discovered that they had THREE versions, Standard- which comes with the full range of Ubuntu apps, Netbook Remix – modifying the netbook version of Ubuntu to work instead with the eeePC range, and then there was Base, which came with one app, and one app alone – Firefox.

The three flavours shared a common feature of coming with all the drives I need, or the default drivers for Ubuntu anyway, so guessed what I chose? 😀

What’s left for me to do after this is install Pyroom and start surfing. I so badly need to configure my Flashblock add-on AND perhaps install AdBlock Plus. Then I need to change the name of Mizi from Sachiko to Mizi, and then and then…

This post was written on gedit on the Asus eeePC 4G Linux.