In my previous post I had mentioned about the Samsung N100 Netbook and the MeeGo operating system that it comes loaded with. I checked the MeeGo site and found the OS quite interesting and so I tried the MeeGo v1.2 Linux OS on my BenQ JoyBook Lite U102 netbook.
If you are using a netbook running on the Windows OS, you will be surprised that the same netbook with the same hardware works faster on a Linux platform. There are some Linux distributions especially made for netbook and works well on most netbooks. I had written about the Ubuntu 11.04 operating system which I was using before testing MeeGo. The Ubuntu OS worked pretty well and every device on my netbook was detected including the Tata Photon Plus USB broadband modem that I need for surfing.
If you are new to Linux you can still try the live CD or simply run the OS without installing it on your system. The installation process gives you an option to run the OS directly or install the OS permanently.
The MeeGo installation process on BenQ JoyBook Lite U102 was trouble free with a simple interface, design and to the point. After installation when the system starts the first thing you notice is the speed. The boot time was pretty good, I think about 30 to 35 seconds. I liked the interface, it is made up of panels (you can see the video I posted below). The best part I liked was that there is a separate panel for Social networking sites and for instant messaging, so no need to use the browser for that.
The default browser used is Google Chrome. The OS is very fast as you can see in the video below. However MeeGo was a total disappointment, it failed to detect the Wi-Fi and the Tata Photon Plus USB device. So I was left with a very fast OS with no Internet connection. Tata Photon Plus did work with no efforts from my side on Ubuntu OS and even on Jolicloud OS which I am currently testing.
I would really love to see MeeGo developers fix the Wi-Fi and (Tata Photon plus) HUAWEI USB modem issues. Hopefully the next release may be even better. There is however a workaround to get the modem and the net working, but I would rather prefer the OS doing it.