[gentoo-user] Gentoo on an Asus netbook

[Philip Webb]

I'm planning to buy a netbook sometime in the next few weeks.
The most likely choice is an Asus 1005HA :

  http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=025389&cid=NBK.862.656

It has a  1600 MHz  processor,  1 GB  memory & a  160 GB  hard drive.
Asus is a very reliable manufacturer in my experience
& this version is the cheapest & looks as if it would meet my needs.
Hopefully, the price will drop a bit more in the near future.

My intended use is simply to be able to read, edit & make notes on texts,
esp books I have downloaded (eg Jane Austen, Gibbon),
while lying back in my chair or on my bed, not sitting up at my desk;
It may also be useful to take to my office at the UoT
to work on my transit archives there occasionally
& might help at public meetings, making notes or checking documents.
My desktop manager wb Fluxbox, my typical app Gvim,
other regulars Terminal (Xfce), Xpdf, Feh: no KDE or Gnome;
I might install the binary OO for a spreadsheet;
I don't see myself using it for wireless Internet, video or sound.
Most of the time, I sb able to run it plugged in, not from the battery.

It comes with M$ XP installed in the factory (with Firefox),
which I may keep in case there's a hardware failure under warranty
(I can demonstrate it's not Linux which is causing the problem),
but of course I shall use Linux for all my activities above.
I thought re other distros to avoid a lot of slow compiling,
but the advantage is a mirage: Slackware & Arch users have to compile kernels
& I would have to learn how to do things their way to get anywhere;
Mandriva has a version for EEE, but it's likely to default to KDE 4 (ugh!).

I see myself using System Rescue to get started, reducing the XP partition,
installing the Gentoo system + Kernel 2.6.31 + X , then a sparse set of apps;
I might try compiling on my desktop machine, then copying the binary across.
There are howto's on the Gentoo Wiki & elsewhere, eg

  http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:installgentoo
  http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Asus_Eee_PC_901
  http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Asus_Eee_PC_1000HA

Does anyone have warnings, suggestions or advice ?

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