Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Nerd Alert: Tech Upgrades At The Cycle

I should have listened to frequent commenter and former neighbor Steve.

Back in January, I added an Asus eeePC netbook to my nerd arsenal in the hopes of taking this blog on the road more often. And, if I didn't ask much of it, the little guy did just fine -- it's been to Minnesota and Illinois a couple times, not to mention some local coffeehouse excursions. It grabbed wifi when asked, and satisfied my raging Internet addiction when I was away from the home Mac.


Still, the tiny chicklet keyboard was a little clumsy under my chubby digits, and as much as I wanted to love Linux in theory, I just couldn't get my brain around it. 20 years on a Mac and 40 hours a week working on Windows for The Man will do that to you -- old dog, new tricks, whatever. So, as much as I wanted to keep Microsoft operating systems out of my house,
The Cycle is now coming to you from an Acer Aspire One: XP (you've won this round, Gates, but at least I wasn't dumb enough to go Vista -- or is that abomination off the market already?), 10" screen, a real hard drive, and a keyboard I can't blame for my typos. There's my economic stimulus for you, Mr. President -- two new computers in a year. You're welcome.

It's still too early for a detailed geek-review, but my nutshell first impression: The eeePC felt like a kid's toy (in fact, it just found a new home via Craigslist with someone who wanted one for his kids) while the Acer feels like a little computer.


Anyway, computer nerd mode off. Back to bike nerd mode.

4 comments:

Amy said...

The 10" screen was a great choice. I hovered over those 8" models so long, thinking they were the perfect size. My 10" Dell NetBook is perfect for both the large- and small-pawed creatures who use it.

the other adam said...

I wish I could say "me too" but I'm waiting for Windows 7 before I get any new computers (I'm a long time Linux user but not a fan of the flavour the Eee shipped with, or how Ubuntu works on it). I think the Acer is just enough bigger than my Eee that the typing would be a lot better - and the HD would fit all my music. I'd say more but I'm typing this on my Eee and, well, you know.

Jason T. Nunemaker said...

Yeah, the more I use the Acer, the more I like it. It's tough to say that about something with a Microsoft OS after two decades as a Mac guy, though. Every time I hear that Windows startup sound, I throw up in my mouth a little. :-)

Steve Fuller said...

Congats on the upgrade. I love my Aspire One, though no where near as much as my recently insurance cheque replaced Mac Book Pro. If I were to do it all over again: MSI Wind w 10" display and hacked to run Mac OS X.