I recently bought my very first non-Apple computer. It’s a netbook — the HP Mini 1120 NR. It comes in two flavors: Windows XP and Linux. The Linux is a heavily customized version of Ubuntu 8.04, which HP calls MIE (Mobile Internet Experience).
As a years-long Mac user (since 1991), the decision to purchase a non-Apple computer was not one I settled upon lightly.
Discovering Joy in Software
I have been emphatically happy with the user experience my Macs have provided for me, from day one. I loved that everything just worked. I also loved that Macs started off in a very simple state, but that it allowed you—by leveraging third-party software—to get some advanced level of use from it, with software such as DragThing, QuickKeys, and others.
Sure, there were a number of frustrations involved.
Stability — looking back from the world of OS X — was a big issue, as you’d add more and more software (particularly those lovely extensions)) to your Mac. Everyone that had been working with Macs in the 90s will remember the “delights” of having a single app crash and take down the whole bloody system along with it… as if it weren’t painful enough to lose all your unsaved work in Director (anyone remember the days before Flash even existed?), there go all your changes in those Photoshop and BBEdit files. The “upside” of Classic Mac OS’s instability, however, if there can be said to be one, is that I’d developed a habit of typing the cmd-S key combination as if I’d had a nervous twitch, that has remained with me to this day… talk about Pavlovian.
There was also a lack of games, but I didn’t care a bit — I played those on my Playstation, sprawled out on my dorm room floor, in front of my TV.
Clouds Gather
In the late 90s, with my entrance into the world of Web development, I started dealing with UNIX-like operating systems (Linux and Solaris). And I liked what I saw: preemptive multitasking, protected memory, user-specific security policies, and the rest. The more I had opportunity to learn about UNIX, the more it seemed that it was largely just how operating systems should be designed. I tried to muck about with PowerPC Linux on my Mac, but quickly discovered that it took a whole lot of effort to perform the simple daily tasks that seemed so effortless in Mac OS… like installing new apps, or printing.
Now, one thing I have to share about myself is that, as willing as I am to take on the most ambitious of tasks, I’m a particular variety of lazy: I absolutely refuse to work any harder than I absolutely have to, to accomplish something.
And so, while Windows 95 (and later 98) offered many of these features, the operating system still hadn’t yet started delivering on an “everything just works” experience (again, largely configuring devices and installing / uninstalling applications), and so I’d continued to dismiss any prospective relevance it may have otherwise offered me.
But by 1998, Apple had declared they were hard at work on a modern successor for Mac OS that would be built on a UNIX-like operating system (one they had acquired from NEXT).
So I waited.
A Patience Rewarded
I was living in Rome when Mac OS X 10.0 finally shipped. This did not, however, prevent me from picking up my copy on its release date—24 March 2000. I’d waited years to have UNIX in my Mac, and I wouldn’t wait a day longer.
Within hours of installation, I knew it’d be a long time before I would seriously look at anyone else’s computers.
I finally had all my work tools on one easy-to-use machine. It ran all the meticulously-crafted Classic Mac OS applications I had been using, as well as the “server side” software I needed for my Web development. It was sluggish, and felt rather like a work in progress, but there was enough there to show me enough of a desireable illustration of where Apple were going to take this thing in the years to come.
I’ve sailed 9 more years since that moment, and am now contently running OS X Leopard on my desktop and laptop computers. Mac OS X Leopard is — in my sincere opinion — the finest consumer-grade operating system ever made, bar none.
But here I am, typing all this on this HP Mini netbook.
Change
A number of factors drove my consideration to get a netbook, largely revolving around conducting my writing activities for Uncarved under a highly mobile context.
Although I own a two year old MacBook Pro laptop, I have simply been leaving it at home if I don’t have a specific reason to bring it along for the day — it’s too large and heavy to arbitrarily decide to carry around, just in case I may wind up using it. It’s also a pain to use in most public transportation situations, including flying (at least, in economy class).
The foremost factors weighing in on my purchase decision were that I wanted something that was:
- notably smaller and lighter than my 15” MacBook Pro,
- offered a better writing experience than my iPhone, and
- wouldn’t set me back more than $400 US
Apple doesn’t presently have anything that satisfies those criteria, but there was even a bit more to it: after nearly 20 years of exclusively owning Macs (and subsequently-introduced Apple products), I had grown curious to learn what the consumer experience of non-Apple computers looked like in 2009.
It’s the year of change after all, isn’t it?
I also felt some sort of obligation — considering how much reverence I hold for Apple’s products, as well as the frequency with which I praise their quality, both here on Uncarved and to my colleagues and friends — to give a proper and fair look at a product from another manufacturer.
And since I’ve been writing so much about product design (and even, specifically, netbooks), I thought that writing about the experience would make ideal material for some Uncarved posts.
But what would I stand a chance at actually liking?
The Search
I had helped my friend research some netbook options earlier this year. She was similarly looking for something to get some writing done on the go, and had a full-sized iMac at home, which she would continue to use as her primary machine. We took a trip down to J&R, in downtown NYC, on a Saturday afternoon to check some of their netbooks out, and discovered that Jobs and Cook are largely right — most have ridiculously cramped keyboards and feel like pieces of junk.
A handful of these netbooks, however, did stand out.
The Sony netbooks were attractive and seemed well built, but they were all priced well into the MacBook’s neighborhood (at the $1000 threshold), so the compromises on screen real size and keyboard size became extremely unattractive.
Outside of that, the only other netbook on display that carried some feel of quality (both aesthetic and overall feel) were the HP netbooks. And of them, the only one priced in the neighborhood we were hunting for was the HP Mini.
I should note that, although I was hoping to get my hands on some Dell netbooks for showroom comparison, J&R didn’t have any on the floor.
My friend picked the HP Mini a few weeks ahead of me, and had glowing impressions to report after her first couple of weeks of ownership. She mostly raved about the convenience of its portability, reported an “adequate” battery life, and — being a fellow touch-typist — noted that the keyboard felt “big enough” to get used to.
Hardware-wise, I had essentially made up my mind.
But I had no intention to buy a Windows netbook. I make no secret of my contempt for Windows. I’ve used it sporadically over the years, and know it can certainly perform any job one might buy a computer to perform — from web surfing and email, to video editing and 3D modeling. The main problems are that I find simply find it distasteful as an end-user, and poorly built as an engineer.
After some initial research, I was actually entertaining the idea of installing Mac OS X on this thing to bypass the Windows “problem.” The installation procedure would be lengthy, however, and I wasn’t sure I’d be happy at all with the performance once I was done.
After further investigation, however, I’d learned that HP Mini was also available in its Linux flavor (which, like Mac OS X, is a UNIX-like operating system). HP actually tailored their own software for the device, based on Ubuntu 8.04. HP calls their derivative MIE (Mobile Internet Experience). I’ll describe MIE’s customizations in detail in a future post, but on casual inspection, its software heritage is not at all cosmetically obvious (which is, in my opinion, frankly a good thing), featuring a theme that matches the look and design of its enclosure.
The Sell
I continued poking around and found a couple of reviews about MIE that featured screen shots and even videos of its interface, and I became intrigued — it was no Mac, but neither was it Windows. MIE had its own aesthetic character that was actually pretty… well, nice.
I was intrigued.
Since my intention was specifically to use this netbook for activities involved in writing posts for Uncarved (researching stuff online, as well as the actual writing), I second-guessed the merit of jumping through all the hoops necessary to install Mac OS X.
Besides, it was time to check back in on Linux’s viability as a primary operating system for a computer. It had been about 10 years since the last time I’d given it a sincere go, and I’d felt like the “plug and play” conundrum had become, largely speaking, a “solved problem” for the majority of devices. The product was specifically advertised as working with cameras and printers, and even included its own built-in video camera for video conferencing.
Plus, all I’d be doing is foraging the Web and writing blog posts… and wouldn’t the experience also be perfect material for Uncarved?
And so I was sold.
It’s On
I’ve had this HP Mini for two weeks now, and I gotta say that I am — on the whole — sincerely pleased with its design as a usable and coherent product. That isn’t to say, however, that there aren’t a number of rough edges — I’ll be writing about these in future posts — but I’m pleased to be able to say that this netbook demonstrates to me that Linux has matured into a piece of software that is a perfectly suitable solution for casual consumer’s use.
In the coming weeks, I’ll continue to document various facets of my experiences writing with the HP Mini, ranging from its overall cohesiveness as an electronics product to the degree to which it specifically meets my mobile writing needs.
And I’ll be writing most of those reflections directly on it.
But to be clear, my Macs are in no danger of getting replaced. In terms of tool paradigms, my Mac is my studio, my iPhone is my secretary, and this netbook is the moleskine notebook I carry around in my back pocket.