You may have seen a flurry of webbook related articles appear over the last couple of days. As with pretty much all news stories some of it is true, some of it not so true, and it certainly doesn’t tell the full story. I will try and find out what I am allowed to say to enhance the truthiness of the situation.
I hope that whatever the truth of the story, this site will continue to provide its excellent support for those of us who knew what we were doing and prefer Linux. It is just sad that other people aren’t prepared to learn.
I agree – I am a Linux convert thanks to the Webbook.
I’m also a new linux user thanks to the webbook and very much enjoying the trip. But I have a history of tinkering and CLI use on OS X, which is a form of FreeBSD underneath. If I was being honest, is Ubuntu (hardy or intrepid) quite ready for people buying ‘free laptops’ advertised on the X Factor?
I use Windows XP at work, and it drives me round the bend. But it presents fewer ‘blank look and turn to google’ moments than Ubuntu has for me – and I have no fear of opening up a terminal. Obviously, my benchmark for ease of use is OS X, which is a high hurdle, yet if Ubuntu can stop me in my tracks in terminal (sorry) bewilderment on occasion, I hate to think what it does to your average user.
Alan has done a marvellous job on this blog and long may he continue to do so. But it has to be said that, if selling to the great British public in general, some things – like the ‘turning on wifi indicators’ issue and the x video issue – really shouldn’t have left the factory like that. The customer i the Carphone context is, almost by definition, not going to have any Linux experience and, most likely, no tweaking experience at all, so support was always going to be an issue even without those first hurdles.
Still, if the stories are even partially true, the Ubuntu webbook has done an excellent job in opening up Linux for some tens of thousands of people. I for one am considering a suitable distro for my old iMac G4, currently running OS X 10.4…
wow, I had no idea they were advertised on the X factor. Lets just say that isn’t where I would have tried to reach all the people who would be excited about Ubuntu Linux pre-installed on a laptop, or even the concept of Free as in Freedom.
The Webbook is my first encounter with Linux, and I am impressed. LInux is as good as expensive software, but not many people know that yet.
On a different but related point, I would like to know how to monitor mobile broadband usage. Reinstalling Ubuntu on the Webbook seems to have removed the monitoring facility that was originally on the desktop. I found a freeware program on the internet, but it does not work with Linux.
Sue
I’m very sad that CPW has given up on the ubuntu Webbook so soon. It would have been a help if in-store staff had had more knowledge. I see they are now offering the Eeepc701 for around the same price that the Linux Webbook started at – perhaps the Webbook was neither fish nor fowl in purchasers’ minds with regards to, “is it a laptop? is it a netbook?”. I do feel that more documentation in the package would have helped people feel less adrift if it was their first experience of Linux. Seems a particular shame given that everything works so well under Intrepid.
Sorry, didn’t realise that the Eeepc701 that they are offering is XP too.
Hmm… I think the X Factor is possibly not the best place to show off a webbook either.
Considering most people watching it are clones, and thus will be using a PC World desktop complete with Windows Vista Home Premium!
ive got a webbook and an eee pc with xp to ybody reading this dont get the eee pc xp its slowest pc ive ever had
I am sure some very nice people watch the X Factor, it is some kind of talent show I believe. I have a feeling that some kind of science fiction show would be a better place to put the adverts for this product. I think the people who want a Linux powered webbook are not the demographic that the marketing people want to market to. If I wasn’t involved in the project I would have at least seen the adverts in the London Metro but probably not read them in detail and I probably would not have realised it was running Linux.
I have had plenty of slower PCs than that! the eeePC 701 has a 900Mhz processor, I think the slowest I ever had was a ZX spectrum +2 running at 3.5Mhz it was great!
yes, there are certainly aspects which could have been done better, documentation being one of them.
If I had to take an educated guess at where the recall rumor came from, I would say that they took the display units off the cabinets and returned them from the stores to wherever they go centrally. This might be termed a ‘recall’ of the display units, which isn’t quite what most people would understand a recall to mean.
Not so much done better…
Simply done in any way, shape, or form would possibly be a good place to start.
For what was included in a ‘leaflet’ in my box, it would have been better (and more environmentally friendly) to print the box contents list on the side of the box.
If people needed an instruction on how to insert the battery, or switch it on – perhaps they would have been better served investing in some good quality pens and paper? Lol.
As for X-Factor – been to college lately Alan? Most of the people that watch it fall into one of two camps – blonde lasses with not much better to do, or, bored lads who are looking at the other form of talent to that which you described!
CPW staff didn’t seem to know much about the Linux Webbook, which indicates a lack of training and/or interest in what CPW was selling. For example, nobody in my local CPW could tell me whether or not the Logitech Nano (a laptop mouse) would be compatible with the Webbook (it is), or whether Firefox is compatible with Ubuntu (yes it is). Even a couple of hours of training would have made a difference.
Sue
It is interesting that Acer Aspire One mini laptops also have Linux pre-installed. There was a lot of interest in them in our local PC World, and in Tesco, where I had a chat with a couple who were buying one. The man seemed to know a bit about Linux and actually seemed to be a fan.
Showing my age here… I had an equally slow Sinclair ZX81. The RAM-pack added a massive 16K memory to the machine’s internal 1K, although it had to be propped up with Plasticene to stop it coming loose. Happy days
Pretty much, we have a monthly recall of stock that’s obsolete or not selling. It goes back to the main warehouse where they do whatever they do with them – in the webbook’s case, hand them out as employee laptops or reimage them with XP. It’s not a major thing, and the Ubuntu webbooks actually went back a couple of months ago so I don’t know why the fuss about it now…
I bought the webbook with my eyes open and so I knew from the start that it was Linux. However what worries me slightly is the fact that, if CPW abandon the machine, then they’ll also abandon any responsibility for it. I’ve had bad experiences along the same lines with phones where, once the model is off the high street store’s lists it seems to lose its warranty, support and anything associated with customer service. When a machine comes off the current list companies just don’t want to know; the device just becomes a pariah. Maybe I’m being too cynical but it would seem that 60000 people have just been relegated to untouchable as far as CPW are concerned.
It’s a pity. I like my webbook. Maybe I can’t watch videos on it. Maybe it doesn’t have an annoying little paperclip, but it doesn’t cost me a fortune to get legal software or when I want a bell or whistle that I’m only going to use once a century. Best of all it doesn’t break my back lugging it around the city. It would be nice if I could look forward to these bonuses for more than a few months before something goes wrong.
I wouldn’t worry Jostlin, these devices come with a warranty and just because they’re no longer sold that won’t change. Elonex have a support line and repair service, and CPW branches are able to send webbooks for repair. We even still offer repairs on phones that are years out of warranty (at a charge, of course). Just because the Linux webbooks are no longer sold it certainly doesn’t mean that any customers that have one are ‘untouchable’.
Linux, ubuntu especially, is only difficult for people moving from Windows XP, after all they’ve only had 7 years to try and get used to the desktop and applications, you can’t honestly expect them to manage to understand a new PC desktop environment overnight. These people are also the same people, who will and do struggle with Vista, MS latest and ……est operating system, as that too is ‘unfamiliar’ to the populace.
The truth, is, well my daughter has been using the ubuntu based edubuntu operated PC since she was 4, she’s now 6, and can accomplish the following on her own:
Browse the web, especially ceebebies
Download pictures from her point and click digital camera
Play the many educational, and non-educational games that are included for free.
Use open office (writer and draw)
Tuxpaint
Also, at the other end of the scale, my 65 year old father, uses a Linux PC, for all the usual tasks, browsing, email, writing letters etc, again, he’s now been using Linux for at least 4 years now, again with no problems.
It was always going to be a risk installing it on my parents PC as they live 100 miles away, but in 5 years, I haven’t once been called upon to fix something.
So, to claim linux is not ready, is a phalacy, it’s simply a case of too many people are afraid to rid themselves of their last 7years of knowledge gain.
Strangely enough, of the ‘regular’ users that use their PC’s that I know and help, the split is now around 50-50, the vast majority of the time I’m called upon to fix something, it’s invariably an XP machine, and then the same happens again a couple of months later, whereas, with linux, it’s usually just a case of a 1 time fix, or show howto.
Personally, I really hope Elonex try and push the ubuntu webbook, through other distributors to be available instore.
PC World, have done very well with the EEE.
ToysRUs, do well with the EEE, and would be an ideal candidate for an Edubuntu version of the webbook.
By all accounts, tesco are doing well with their line of linux based netbooks.
I do feel, in the long term CPW may have shot themselves in the foot.
Cheers
Tony
Cheers
Also, do bear in mind that your webbook is running Ubuntu. This means you have a world of experts and enthusiasts on hand to help you. And they won’t be disappearing any time soon…
The support available for Free Software is far superior to that which you don’t receive from M$. Ever tried phoning them for support?
If true, this is a great pity – this was a good way to introduce people to Linux. I wonder how much of the problem derived from the fact that the support people didn’t seem exactly familiar with the OS, and often seemed to run off the ends of their script…
And thank you for doing the 8.10 install – I am downloading it via BitTorrent now.
Jostlin,
If you have any problems, no matter what they are, post them on here please!
I’m only learning myself, as are most of us at a guess. We’ll try and help, and where we can’t, the mighty Alan normally knows what to do to get it working again…
Most problems on here have been solved within 48 hours – I doubt if CPW will have answered your call in that space of time!?
I’m confused – all this talk about Linux vs XP usability and whether users like/can get on with Ubuntu or not. The facts are:
* When you upgrade to a new phone the interface is usually different from the previous model, even the keyboard layout is different in most cases! – unlike a laptop. People don’t mind this;
* The interface on my HDD recorder is different from my TV and from my old video recorder, and is different from a sky box etc etc etc – consumers have no problem with this fact, they accept it as part of the upgrade cycle – they mix and match consumer electronics based on features NOT user interface;
* People loved the iPod – the interface couldn’t be more different from anything else at the time (although it much copied now);
* People really like Macs when they use them – ditto comments on the iPod.
So….
The conclusion is that M$ put the pressure on – like with Acer over the One, and like they have with Asus and the latest EEE netbooks and the EEEBox – all the models of which are only being release with XP.
Some people say knowledge is power.
Mike-O-Toss would most likely claim that money is power…
It was my impression that Carphone Warehouse had stumbled into selling the Ubuntu Linux webook without giving any thought to the implications of doing so in terms of marketing and promotion, staff training and, in particular, technical support.
It is a mystery to me how companies think they can make a success of selling Linux laptops to the general public without providing their own staff and customers with the most BASIC information about the potential benefits of Linux (usually no need for virus software etc) on the one hand, and the inevitable compatability issues etc on the other.
An (online?) demo of the Ubuntu operating system (in the form of a promotional video) and a 50-100 page user manual would have sufficed to give most customers confidence in the product they were buying.
However, the CRUX for non-expert computer users – the majority of customers! – is the availability of technical support, or the lack of it. To my knowledge, software problems are not covered by the warranty, and yet most computer problems are software problems. How many IT specialists in the UK have been trained in Ubuntu System Administration? How many have conquered the command line? (None in the Geek Squad it seems…)
The bottom line is that Alan Bell’s webbook blog is the only meaningful support infrastructure available to webbook users. (Ubuntu forums etc are of little use if one not a power user and one has a serious problem.) Alan has become our lifeline.
I am a novice who made a conscious and principled decision in favour of Ubuntu Linux. I was willing to embark on a learning journey and to take a certain risk in doing so, but the last three weeks have been chastening, to put it very mildly. I never anticipated the type and magnitude of PROBLEMS that I have encountered with my webbook! (See http://webbookblog.com/some-updates-and-an-update/ 29 October 2008).
As I continue to grapple with a dysfunctional Update Manager, the printer I bought to go with my webbook is already beginning to gather dust….
Unless Alan can wave a magic wand for me, I may yet wish I had been among those who returned their webbook to CPW while they had the chance….
I really loved, and still love, my beautiful white webbook. I have treated it with the utmost care and the exquisite heron on my desktop is a poignant symbol of the high hopes I invested in my first computer. However, I am now approaching my wits’ end…
Alison – I fully agree with your comments about CPW, and my experience is almost exactly the same as yours. I would have been completely lost with the Webbook if it had not been for Alan’s blog, which seems to be the only comprehensive source of help and advice relating to the Webbook. I also bought the Webbook because I love the design. The idea of a compact and portable laptop appealed to me, and I wanted to learn about an operating system other than Windows.
I also had problems downloading a software update (I tried to upgrade to version 8.10 – intrepid), and my Webbook was out of action for a week or so as a result. However, I was able to rebuild the Webbook using a Linux Wristvault (a preloaded memory stick) that Elonex sent to me free of charge. (They also offered me a Windows XP Wristvault for £49, but I was happy to persevere with Ubuntu.) After the rebuild, I had another go at downloading version 8.10, and it installed without any problems.
I am not sure whether you have already tried this, and I am not pretending to be any sort of expert, but it might just be worth a try.
Sue
Hi Alison,
I saw your link above, about your update problems, and added a short note to the thread you liked to. Hope it’s helpful.
akk! ‘liked’ -> ‘LINKED’
Thank you for sharing your experience, Sue. At least you were attempting to upgrade the OS, whereas I was only installing Automatic Updates! It is certainly reassurimg to know that the recovery wrist vault exists, though I hope I won’t have to use it.
Thanks to Alan’s surgical intervention and some friendly advice from more knowledgeable webbook users, I think my system is back on track. I am just watching and waiting to see what happens in the next few days as I don’t want to rejoice too soon!!
My next challenge will be to connect my HP D1470 printer at long last…
By the way, I agree with others that the Ubuntu webbook deserves to be relaunched – by another distributor if CPW really want to wash their hands of it. (The stunning heron motif should be used as the default desktop background next time instead of that dull-as-ditchwater grey!)
In retrospect, average users would perhaps have taken more easily to Canonical’s customised Ubuntu netbook remix, which comes with add-ons like Flash and Java preinstalled. On the other hand, a standard OS like Ubuntu Hardy Heron provides more learning opportunities for those of us who would like to stay with Ubuntu in the longer term.
If the Ubuntu webbook is to be relaunched at some point, the drafting of a user manual could perhaps be a community project, under Alan’s supervision. That would be in keeping with the Ubuntu ethos. Before I got bogged down with Update Manager problems, I was planning to put together a list of additional beginners’ FAQs that I was going to post under: http://webbookblog.com/webbook-faq/ I thought they might be the sort of points that a basic user manual could cover. A listing of the most useful web resources would also be appreciated by anyone purchasing a webbook.
I have tried Ubuntu Netbook remix, however it does use some tricks with the graphics card to do all the transparency of the images and menus and so on. This didn’t really work at the time with the openchrome drivers, I will give it another go soon. That is a good idea about a community developed manual, it kind of needs a wiki structure, but also needs to be a printed typset manual. I wonder if there is any wiki software that prints well.
I know this may sound far too easy, but so far with Ubuntu and HP printers especially I find the best way to get them working is to get the webbook online, plug the printer in and turn it on, then have a cup of tea or coffee. Ubuntu should have popped up a message about the printer then and it should work.
So far I tried about 6 different models including a multi function one and they all work without a problem.
Paul
Guess what I’m doing with my HP PSC1510 later today?
I’ve never played with printers and linux for a lack of experience, so I shall follow your advice, and let you know how it goes!
Alan waves many a magic wand on this blog! Lol.
Along with most posters on here, I feel somewhat indebted to him for all of the help and useful tips he has offered us…
If it’s a multi function device make sure that hplip and xsane are installed too.
And now we have a central place where we can all meet up and show off our WebBooks, remember to put capitals in as it will annoy the marketing people who decided on the original name.
http://www.facebook.com/grouphome.php#/group.php?gid=58702678824
I joined it! First time I have been on Facebook for months and months.
Hi Alan..I need to install web and walk on ubuntu so that I can get internet connection.Thanks a lot and this forum is superb..!!!
can you help me on this??
maybe, what is web and walk?
Web N Walk is the software that comes with the T-Mobile dongle, as long as it’s a supported dongle it shouldn’t need it for Ubuntu, with any T-Mobile connection, you will need to phone up customer services and prove to them that you are over 18, there is a restriction in place until you do this and you won’t be able to access sites such as Facebook, Hotmail etc.
Paul
I took this deal from CPW with the webbook laptop and now I really like ubuntu and would like to know how to install the driver for the T mobile mobile broadband on another laptop which has ubuntu installed.So how do I install the driver.If you google web and walk you will understand what I mean.Let me know if I answered your question.Thanks..
Paul- Thank you but all I need to know is how to install the driver on ubuntu and get TMobile mobile broadband to work.
Which version of Ubuntu is it that you have, I’ve not tried it on 8.10 but got it going on 8.04. And as for the content restriction it’s amazing how many people aren’t aware of it and call the wrong support number to get it sorted.
I have one which is 8.04 hardy..
do you by any chance have one of the first webbooks with the Orange HSOConnect client? if so then what you need is the Wader mobile broadband client (which technically is the dialer rather than the driver). If so then go to synaptic package manager and add a third party software source, here is the line you need to paste in:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/wader/ubuntu hardy mainthen after a refresh you should be able to install wader-gtk from the package list.
I am also downloading 8.10 right now..
did you see this?
http://webbookblog.com/intrepid-on-a-stick/
the easy way to 8.10 You can also just do an upgrade online from the update manager, but some people have reported problems with this.
Alan what is the code to install a driver on ubuntu?