Dell Mini 9 - my new netbook /main machine

I've put a couple of posts (1, 2) about this over on my tech blog. And I've tossed some pics up on this Flickr stream. My Dell Mini 9 arrived last week, and I am digging it!

Before ordering the machine, I was chatting online with Dell Support. At work and at home I use an HP L2045w 20-inch monitor running a 1680x1050 resolution. The Dell Mini 9 displays 1024x600 on its little screen. I wanted to know if the Mini could display 1680x1050 on the external monitor. The person with whom I was chatting went off to ask someone else and came back with the answer: no. Well, guess what? I'm blogging this using a wireless keyboard / mouse patched in to one of the 3 USB ports on the Mini, and viewing the blog post in 1680x1050 resolution on the HP monitor. The Mini is doing the computing and communications, but it is sitting closed on the desk.

So that was one discovery: the Dell Mini 9 does handle higher-resolution when hooked up to an external monitor. At least in my particular setup.

My Mini is running Ubuntu 8.04. I paid extra upfront for 2GB of RAM and a 60GB solid state hard drive (you can do this cheaper after the fact, but I just wanted it to be done and working). I added a 16GB SD card to hold my tunes. I use Amarok to download podcasts and manage the tunes (now on the SD card) that used to be my iTunes library on a hard disk. And I use Amarok to update my iPod.

For word processing, spreadsheet, I use OpenOffice, which I've been using on Windows and Ubuntu systems for at least a couple of years now. Graphics is via GIMP. Twitter is TweetDeck (runs on top of Adobe Air). Skype recognized the built-in webcam and mic right away. Pidgin is what I use for IM, just as with other Ubuntu and Windows systems at home and work.

Web browsing is done with Firefox (with a number of extensions). Because I make my living developing in the IBM Lotus Notes/Domino arena, I've loaded Notes 8.5 on (running natively on my Ubuntu linux).

I cabled my old HP Scanjet 3970 to the Mini, and XSane recognized it and did my test scan with no issues. Likewise, I popped the USB cable from the Canon PIXMA iP4000r printer into the Mini, and printed a perfect test page.

Our home network is wireless, and the Mini was configured for our WPA2 setup in about 2 minutes (just provided the SSID and password if I recall correctly).

So the point is that (with the exception of Notes), I'm using free open source software for all my computing needs, the Dell Mini 9 running Ubuntu has connected with no worries to our network and peripherals, and I now have a very small and lightweight machine to replace my aging laptop ...with a 4.5 hour battery life and a 20-second boot up :)

Cool.

Comments

[Denis Baldwin]

I've been seriously considering a netbook myself. I have a big server-class machine for work, a small home theatre machine and my wife has a custom built desktop. All work well for what they do, but I find that lounging on the couch or taking a netbook on the go would be a great solution.

I've been debating the Dell, as well as the Acer book. Both look decent, so thank you for reinforcing my decision on the Dell.

[steve]

What sets the Dell Mini 9 apart is how quiet it is. This is the only netbook to offer both no fan on the cpu (thermally engineered this way) and a solid state drive. Truly no moving parts. I have had countless laptops and they all are no noisy such as the fan kicking on when watching a youtube video, or the incessant drive clicking going on in the background. Those days are over!

[Barry]

Thanks for the update - I was wondering how it was working for you. Sounds like it does a lot, and the amount of storage you have available is amazing.

Still, if I'm lounging around and want to check my email quickly, I just fire up my WM6 smartphone (HTC 8525), connect to my home WiFi, fire up the browser, and, in 2 minutes, I'm caught up and back to "America's Top Model."

I am considering a netbook, though, for our upcoming trip to Spain. Took my WiFi-enabled iPaq Pocket PC to Turkey last year and did Skype on that to talk to folks at home, but having a 'real' computer with a webcam would be quite cool.

[Hank]

I bought my Mini-9 to handle 20% of my computing needs--the part where I sit in endless meetings and need some way to write and read notes and to give presentations. Within a week it is handling more than 80% of my computing needs. I have an external CD/DVD drive, but rarely use it. SD cards and USB drives have more capacity and are easier to use. Backups are done automatically to the SD card--there is always one in place. The cards are swapped regularly with the ones not in use kept in secure storage. Found out that the 8 GB drive is too small for a Windows system even if the apps are installed on the SD card. Go with the 16 GB. The Webcam and Skype give me connectivity to my office while working remotely. No good new case, but I had an old Case Logic model around which was perfectly sized and has three pockets--PC, charger plus serial adapter, CD/DVD drive plus spare SD and USB cards. And in its case with all the attachments, it still fits into my pack easily. Needs a better keyboard--more bevel on the keys would help. And it takes longer to get through security at airports and buildings--all the guards want to look at it because they want one.

[Joe Litton]

"it takes longer to get through security at airports and buildings--all the guards want to look at it because they want one"

That's awesome (except, of course, if you're in a hurry) :-DRe drive size, since mine's an Ubuntu system, it doesn't need as much drive space. I'm finding the 60GB solid state drive and 16GM SD card give me *plenty* of room ...and I've got a 500GB drive hooked to a networked desktop Ubuntu system for file sharing at home. I'm thinking this is about the perfect little system.

Glad to hear from yet another very happy Mini owner.Cheers,- Joe

[Nanda]

Hi,I need to install lotus notes on my dell mini 9, can you let me know which install package you downloaded. I tried both the linux versions on the 8.5 trial site on LOTUS and it doesnt work.

Thanks

[Joe Litton]

Nanda,

I believe you'd want the download that is labeled "IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 for Linux (Debian Install)". I believe it downloaded as a .bin file. I don't recall the filename, but for now, let's say the filename was notesinstall.bin

To make the downloaded file executable and run it, first open a terminal window (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal). I typically download to my desktop, so I'll use that in this example. Change directory to your Desktop folder (or wherever you saved the download file) with this command:cd /home/$USERNAME/Desktop

You can double-check that the downloaded file is in that folder using the list command: ls ...that's like a DOS dir command if I recall correctly. All files in the folder will be listed.

Ensure that the file is executable with this command:chmod +x notesinstall.bin

Then execute the install file using the sudo (System User DO) command:sudo ./notesinstall.bin

I think that will do it to fire up the Notes installer. Remember, of course, to substitute the REAL name of the download file instead of notesinstall.bin. If this does not work, please let me know the name of the download file. Maybe I'll try uninstalling Notes and then taking screen shots while I install.

Cheers :)

[Nanda]

Hi Joe,I got it working after googling around. I had downloaded the trial version of Lotus Notes 8.5 which are .deb packages for each component - Notes, Sametime, Symphony etc.

It would not install with the normal dpkg command as the package is for i386 architecture but also works on LPIA architecture when you use "force-architecture" option in dpkg. Alternately the lotus notes .deb file worked as soon as i double clicked it but the synaptics package manager didn't show up on the list.

I also had to add the Shared Directory option in notes.ini and the permission of the "/opt/ibm/lotus/notes" folder to be writable by the user (not root).

Other than that it works fine now. I installed sametime as well and it looks awesome. Its same speed or faster than my dell core 2 duo office laptop, i used it today in a 2 hr meeting and it works so well. Everyone wants a netbook in my group now.

Thanks