» My computer Early Retirement Extreme: — a combination of simple living, anticonsumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, resilience, and applied capitalism

Published on January 19th, 2009

I received the following question on my facebook page:

Hello, would you comment on the blog about what computer you use? I wonder if you use older computers only, or stick to open source software to reduce cost.

I use a 12″ G4 1.33GHz Powerbook from 2004. The reason I got it is because I did not want to spend a lot of time setting up a unix like system on a laptop and because I wanted a laptop since I do/did a lot of traveling. Since OS X, the Mac operating system has been based on BSD (geeks correct me if I’m wrong) which provided easy access to emacs and terminal based unix.

Today, it is much easier to purchase a laptop with pre-installed linux and the support for peripherals is much larger. Back in 2004, one could generally count on getting the screen to work, and likely the network card, but sound cards and wireless cards was a hit or miss affair unless you knew how to patch a driver.

I really like my computer. It’s the size of a piece of letter format paper, so it fits into bags, planners, and binders, as if they were designed for it. It also has a full size keyboard which is really important to me.

I reckon my laptop will die some day and I would want to replace it with another laptop. I have been looking at the ASUS Eee. I find the fact that it costs less than $400, comes with linux pre-installed and has a solid state drive (the hard disk on my mac died within my extended warranty) very appealing. I do not like the fact that the keyboard is only 95% of a full size keyboard. This may be enough to keep me from getting one. I type at 70WPM, but as I do not touch type and instead rely of idiosyncratic memorization of where to put my fingers down and often switch keyboards, a smaller keyboard would not work well for me.

For software, I have openoffice, but I only use that to deal with the occasional doc or xls file coming my way. For text editing I use LaTex and emacs. My calculator is “bc -l”. My RSS reader is shrook. I also have skype installed. Other than that most of my work happens online through the Camino browser.

previous post: Early Retirement Extreme for sale: $85,000

next post: Day 16: The stuff you actually keep and use

10 users responded in " My computer "

P said,

I have a Asus 901 with Linux. You won’t like its keyboard. The keyboard is mainly for two digit typing, so its mainly a read-only device. The 1000h might be better, but I recommend getting a laptop with full size keyboard. The netbooks can be improved with a separate USB keyboard, which is what I did.

Also, the screen on netbooks is currently 1024×600, which is too small for real work.

If you do go the Linux route, keep in mind that some vendors use less popular distributions, and it may be hard to install extra stuff. I prefer the more popular Ubuntu or Fedora with their mega software repositories.

KevinW said,

You are correct, Mac OS X is based on FreeBSD.

Patrick said,

“I do not like the fact that the keyboard is only 95% of a full size keyboard. This may be enough to keep me from getting one.”

Who wrote this?? Surely it can’t be the same Jacob who lives in an RV, cycles to work every day, and darns his socks so that he can have financial freedom? Because I’m pretty sure *that* Jacob could adapt to a 5% reduction in keyboard size.

LisaD said,

I use the EEE PC 1000H model as my main personal computer. I love it. I was concerned about the keyboard and of all the netbook PCs, that one had the best reviewed keyboard. In actual use, I don’t notice that the keyboard is slightly smaller. I DO however get hung up on the right Shift key often. It’s the price I pay for such a portable PC.

Mine has XP on it and is pretty snappy. I’m sure it would run even better with Linux on it.

It came with a very clean image on it. No extra crap software (with the exception of Windows Live). That, to me, says a lot about the philosophy of the company.

jon said,

I own (and love) my eeepc. I have one of the first models with the smaller screen but the keyboard feels like home after any extended amount of use. I would say the small screen is more bothersome than the small keyboard.

I type anywhere from 70-90 wpm and I would say I can still do 50-60 with the eeepc. Plus they have all types of USB ports to connect a regular keyboard when setup at home. (Just for the record I have larger hands than most as well)

Jacob said,

@Patrick – Haha, FI is a nice side effect of those behaviors, but I do them for other reasons as well. 95% would be okay if I did not work on a full size daily. It’s the switching around that bothers me. DW has an older mac with a <100% keyboard and that is bothersome to use.

Spork said,

I too have an ASUS Eee 1000h, use it when I travel. For me it is the perfect combination of price, features, battery life, and weight/size.

Yep, I’m also a 70wpm touch-typist, but when traveling I usually avoid w*rk (programming) if I can. For web use and email the Eee works for me. And I concur, that right shift key is the wrong size and in the wrong place. If I were to use it at home to crunch code I’d plug in a full-size USB keyboard and a larger monitor.

-Spork

racasper said,

Cool, so like other things, you buy quality and use it for a long time. Also you don’t spend money on lots of software.

Financial Bondage said,

good choice with using a mac. 🙂

bigato said,

I have the first eee pc, asus 701. When I first looked into the keyboard, I thought I would never type fast there. It’s so smaller. But I got used to it, and in fact even write a blog for some months in it. I got an external hd and for a year or more it was on almost all the time doing download. A true server. I never used the original system, put debian instead. It’s still functional, but the keyboard is failing now. I don’t know what to do and I doubt it could be fixed. If I buy a new laptop, I sure wont buy anything with a delicate plastic keyboard.

Early Retirement Extreme

My computer

10 users responded in " My computer "

Read the ERE book!

Recent Entries

Blogroll

Disclaimer / CYA

Most popular posts

21 day makeover

Other appearances

Post graduation work