Vista or Linux

WGA Member Joined: 2007-09-11 Posts: 453

We have looked for a laptop for taking with us caching for a little while and due to a tight budget we know we are still about 6 months away from making the jump to a laptop. We have a home computer that works just fine so the laptop would be for updating finds, pulling queries, and other very basic caching related functions.
So today we see something called a Netbook, which are much smaller than the usual laptop and cost about 1/2 of a bottom end laptop. But they Linux (if we get a conventional laptop they run Vista which we would have to learn anyhow)
So does anybody know if the following applications run on Linux?
Plucker
GSAK
Garmin POI Loader

Any other suggestions would also be appreciated-Thanks

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:53 pm

Hey Roxie!

You can get the Netbook with Windows XP Home, which would be much better for you the Linux. Linux is nice, and very stable, but you would have to learn a bit to get the most out of it.

You can get the MSI Wind, HP 2133, Acer Aspire One, and Several others with either Linux or Windows XP.

I actually purchased a Acer Aspire. Bought it Brand new online for 299.00 and some for shipping..

Does not have an Optical drive though (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM) But if you have a wireless network at home, you can pipe that off of your home PeeCee..

Hope this helps.. I love my Netbook.

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:18 pm

We recently purchased an Eee PC net book with XP on it. We have all our geocaching stuff on it. Have had a very pleasant experience with it so far. Can use it for putting caches on both our hand held GPSr as well as our Garmin Nuvi 200 we use for driving to the caches. We purchased it from Best Buy for $349 or so I believe. Very very happy with it.

I have GSAK, POI Loader, and Easy GPS loaded it on.

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:46 pm

I've been playing with the Windows 7 beta and it seems to run really good on lower end hardware. I had it on my Fujitsu S6210 and it ran really good. You might want to check it out or wait til it comes out later this year.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-09-11 Posts: 453

Thanks for the feedback, they appear to be a great lower cost solution.

One more quick question on this topic, we are not wireless so we cant "pipe" off of that. I assume the programs I mention can be transferred via a memory stick, would this be correct?

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:58 pm

yep, you bet. A USB memory stick is another way to go. And they are pretty cheap now... Saw one this weekend, not sure where, 19.99 for a 8GB one.

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:50 am

Best Buy has an HP netbook for $399.99, but has been on sale for 349.99. It comes with xp home and a 16gb solid state drive. You can always add storage space with additional memory cards.

I also recommend the 10.2" over the 8.9" screen.

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:14 pm

I too have been playing around with the Windows 7 beta, and I love it. Runs very well on my laptop.