Samsung 305U1A - Part 1, Windows 7 Home Premium
Summary: Well, I did it again - another new netbook/sub-laptop. I have a good reason this time, though, because several of my netbooks have gone to new homes recently, and another is likely to go in the near future.
Well, I did it again - another new netbook/sub-laptop. I have a good reason this time, though, because several of my netbooks have gone to new homes recently, and another is likely to go in the near future. The Lenovo S10-3s is in Georgia now (the country, not the state), and the brand new Acer Aspire One has moved on as well. Combine that with the fact that I saw an exceptionally good deal on what appeared to be a wonderful new Samsung Series 3 model, and here we are. I seem to be turning into quite a Samsung fan - this is my third one, with my existing N150 Plus and NF310 - but there is a good reason for it, because they are making very good and very interesting small systems right now.
This one is a Samsung 305U1A, which seems to be a completely new line for Samsung. It is extremely thin and light, measuring 196x277mm and only about 25mm thick, and weighs only 1.2Kg.! It has an AMD E350 1.6GHz Dual-Core CPU, 4GB of DDR3 memory, AMD Radeon 6310 graphic controller, 11.6" 1366x768 display, 500GB SATA disk drive, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. All of that AND a four year warranty and I got it for SFr 399.- (about £275, €325 or $425). If you live or shop in Switzerland this is an exceptionally good deal - I checked all of the other usual distributors and the toppreise.ch web site, and the next closest price was nearly 100 francs higher. Wow. The only bad thing about it is that it comes with Windows 7, and over the next few days I am going to explain in detail how to load various Linux distributions on it, and how they work.
The first thing I wanted to do was see how the disk was laid out BEFORE going through the Windows install/startup procedure. I booted a Linux Mint 12 LiveUSB stick, and started gparted to have a look. Hmmm. All four partitions allocated already, one for the Windows bootloader, one for the Samsung Recovery partition, one looks like the Windows installer/distribution partition and one which spans most of the drive that looks like a normal Windows C: partition. Well, if it is still using four partitions after Windows installs it will make life a bit more difficult, as I will have to shove some things around to make room for an Extended partition where I can install Linux.
While I had it running Mint 12 Live, I took a quick look at the hardware. Obviously the basics were all ok, because it booted without problem and the display was the proper resolution - it was running the FOSS Radeon driver. The other common stumbling blocks looked good as well - it had recognized and configured a Broadcom WiFi adapter, and Bluetooth was up and running. The touchpad has real buttons, hooray, no idiotic "ClickPad" thing (to be honest, I had checked this in advance, I would not have bought it if it had a ClickPad). It has a pretty typical "chicklet" keyboard, which is never my favorite, but it seems ok. The display has a non-reflective coating, which makes it very easy to read in glaring light. It has an HDMI port, which is a big plus - I always look for AMD/ATI systems now, because they have HDMI while the typical Intel Atom systems do not. This is a big plus when I want to connect it to my TV or other external monitor to show pictures and such. It also has a VGA connection, three USB ports, a wired ethernet port (more on that below), and an SD/MMC memory card slot. By the time I shut down Mint Live, I was even more pleased and impressed with it - this is a lot of system for the money!
Ok, so now I am ready to slog through the Windows setup procedure. I don't want to give Windows any excuse to complain during installation, so I wanted to connect a wired network cable. Then it occurred to me, this thing is so thin I don't see how they can have an RJ-45 socket on it. Hmmm. Turn it all around, and sure enough there was none to be seen. It's not at all likely that it would not have wired networking, so look again, a bit closer. Aha! There it is! What clever lads they are! I was right, it is too thin for an RJ-45 connector. On the side, next to the power plug, there is a clever little flip-down cover which opens and forms the bottom of the RJ-45 plug.
I suppose there are other systems which have something like this, but it's the first one I have seen, and I'm quite impressed.
So, I connected the wired ethernet, booted it up and started the slog through the Windows First Use procedure. One very nice thing about the Samsung setup, it gives you the choice of using the disk as one large C: partition or splitting it into C: and D: partitions. When you are planning to install Linux you can save yourself some trouble at this point by choosing the two-partition layout so you can later delete the D: partition, create and Extended partition in that space, and load Linux in the Extended Partition. The rest of the Windows installation and configuration went pretty smoothly, it took about 30 minutes until it was up and running for the first time. Another plus for Samsung, this system is not overloaded with extraneous garbage. All I had to do was delete Symantec Internet Security and install AVG Free, then install Firefox 9.0 and Opera 11.60 and it was ready to go.
Boot time for Windows seems relatively slow, but that is no surprise. Even worse is after entering my password, the amount of time it takes to actually bring up the desktop and be ready to use seems like an eternity. Samsung seems to heavily promote "Instant On", which is nothing more than sleep/resume, so I guess if you were using Windows regularly and were willing to trust sleep/resume that might avoid this slowness. Personally I don't trust Windows to run for several hours without screwing up and barfing on itself, much less for several days and across several suspend/resume cycles. Your mileage may vary...
So, I'm now over the first hurdle and ready to start installing Linux. I'm really looking forward to this, I expect that this is going to be an excellent Linux netbook. With the four year warranty, this might actually be one that I keep for myself - unless my beloved partner sees it, and decides to claim it to replace her now aging N150 Plus.
Next up: Initial configuration for Linux installation, and installing openSuSE 12.1
jw
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Talkback
(although IMHO leaving Windows on a netbook is a waste of valuable disk space. I already have a 17" laptop that I dual-boot for Netflix and Steam games, so whatever smaller one I purchase will be solely Linux.)
Not only on first look, but after a busy 8 hours of work on this new Samsung netbook, I still think this is undoubtedly the best I have ever had. The screen size is just right (1366x768 on a 10.1" display can get very cramped, that extra 1.5" makes a huge difference), it is noticeably faster than anything else I have around here, and absolutely everything has worked with openSuSE 12.1 so far, including all the hardware, adapters, drivers, controllers and such, sound, all of the Fn-Key combinations, suspend/resume, brightness controls (manual and automatic), touchpad, and whatever else I might be forgetting. Wonderful, just wonderful.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
jw
I aspire to be agnostic about technology my experience has been there is no simple this is better or that is better... it's generally a trade off (unless you are talking to a fanboi or an opensource person apparently).
The hardware and software are intrinsically linked and therefore come as (at least from a user perspective) a single entity. To head an article, "Samsung 305U1A - Part 1, Windows 7 Home Premium" is simply bad journalism - surely it should have acknowldged JW's perspective as an opensource champion. Then I would have enjoyed an article as billed rather then wandering when I was actually going to get to the part the title alluded to.
As an aside I presume your comments about the security updates (system and third-party) were tougue in cheek as I see them as a valule add, their to protect us in an IT security arms race with our personal wealth and identity at stake.
David
“Why not post a video to prove to us your points...”
Sure. Right after YOU post a video showing your installation running for months without a re-boot, which is a typical Linux user experience.
“Right now my up time is saying 6 days 4 hours, 47 minutes and some seconds. It would have been longer, but I had to reboot into the Windows 8 dev preview for some work.”
Wow! Your point just keeps getting stronger and stronger. Ever heard of hanging yourself with your own rope?
@ Davidinlondon:
“I aspire to be agnostic about technology my experience has been there is no simple this [sic] [look it up]...”
You ASPIRE to be? What you have just said with that one word is that you are NOT, but hope to be sometime in the future.
I assume--but given your poor grammar, spelling, sentence construction, lack of coherence...--that what you meant to convey is that you ARE OBJECTIVE about technology....But this is as hard to decode as the rest of your, umm, insights. But isn’t it fun using big words, just like the grown-ups ?!
“Then I would have enjoyed an article as billed rather then wandering...”
You need to stop wandering as you read your computer’s screen.
“ ...I see them as a valule add, their to protect us in an IT security arms race with our personal wealth and identity at stake.”
If you ‘valule’ your wealth and identity so much, you should be running Linux (folks: forget ‘valule add’ and ‘their’; after all this, it’ll just make your brain hurt).
“I felt the article was so biased that it came across as someones a'level assignment (how old is JW :P).”
My guess is: old enough to have learned to work hard, write objectively and well, use the English language properly, and use razor-sharp reasoning. Is lack of age your excuse for your lack of these qualities?
@ Jamie Watson:
“To head an article, "Samsung 305U1A - Part 1, Windows 7 Home Premium" is simply bad journalism...”
You need to listen to this gentleman; he is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, an expert in journalism.
You obviously need a higher class of respondees to your articles. My suggestion is to quit using the word “windows" in your titles; that only attracts non-carbon-based lifeforms.
Good trolling job, and a great article--as usual--Jamie. I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment.
Warmest regards...
@Andre Da Costa - Six days uptime! Wow, that has to be some sort of record for Windows. Post a video showing the problems? Seriously? Do we need to re-establish the history of the world at the beginning of every conversation? I don't think so.
@Davidinlondon - I fail to see a problem with the title of the blog post. This particular post is about a Samsung 305U1A, and about booting, installing and running Windows 7 Home Premium on it. I do, however, have a major problem with your statement that "The hardware and software are intrinsically linked" They certainly are not, the hardware is nothing more than a platform for running WHATEVER software the user might choose to use. I choose to use Linux, or Solaris, or AIX, or other Unix-like systems whenever I can. I assure you, the only "linking" that is happening is what Microsoft and the OEMs are forcing on consumers by not offering them a simple choice. The same is true about "security" - I specifically said that I removed Symantec Internet Security not to leave the system with no such software installed, but so that I could install my preferred security solution, AVG Anti-Virus. I object to the "sucker deal" offered by Symantec, and others, with "Free Internet Security" for 60 or 90 days, and then demands for money to continue updates. If you are happy to pay for Windows, over and over and over again, and to pay for the security software which you yourself said is a "must-have" on a Windows system, that's fine. There is an old saying about "A Fool and His Money", which is still true today.
Oh, and before you make a feeble attempt to insult someone with a remark about "someones a'level assignment", I would suggest that you check your own syntax, grammar and spelling. Unless of course you really were "wandering" while reading my blog. Perhaps A-Level exams have lower standards today?
Thanks to all for reading and commenting, and Merry Christmas.
jw
Anyone who seriously believes "The hardware and software are intrinsically linked" must be too young to remember the pre-WindowsXP era and too narrow minded/blinkered to understand anything else.
Thanks for reading and commenting, as always, and Happy New Year.
jw
There is an intrinsic link between the hardware and software in commercial terms, i.e the production of Window's drivers. New hardware has a compatibility timeframe 'window' of sorts for commercial software such as MS Windows.
Hardware designed and produced today, generally won't be easily downgradeable to operating systems such as Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, if a company needs or chooses to still use any of these. Drivers are likely, only to be produced for Windows 7 (with some Vista compatibility).
Companies attempting to run a single operating system for support purposes find it increasingly more difficult to downgrade new replacement hardware to OS's such as XP, because drivers just aren't available. This is one side of the timeframe window. The other side of the timeframe window is where hardware bought 2-3 years ago doesn't have a full set of Windows 7 drivers, to implement seemless upgrades of XP,Vista to Windows 7.
Companies are caught in the middle.
Limited Resources and limited shelflife of products today, mean a unified Windows support 'ideal' is harder than ever to achieve. Add in different user support procedures for different versions of Vista/Windows 7, such as Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate. The problems are compounded.
In saying all this, an interesting addition to the review would be your experiences of downgrading to Windows XP, along with the difficulties encountered. The AMD e-450 isn't well supported in this regard as far as I can tell, i.e booting a standard Windows XP install disk, but be good to see it documented, along with time taken.
One of my favoutite put downs when talking to over zealous Windows 'Server' advocates goes like this:
(me) "Erm, do you know how MS actually wrote Windows Server?"
(server guy) "Eh?" (never occurred to him that god didn't create it just after light).
(me) "in the 1990s they took a MS WindowsNT (cardboard) box, wrote the word 'Server' on it in crayon and multiplied the price by a factor of ten, they haven't written a new O/S from that day to this"
Usually starts a heated debate that I always win.
Why not just run the same O/S on all your hardware? I shove the same Linux distro on everyting I have new or fairly old (seven or eight years old) and it just works.
Are all these issues unique to Microsoft Products?
jw
I left space for Linux and then started to install Ubuntu in a dual boot config, following this suggestion:
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2011/05/22/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-ubuntu-11-04/.
It has been a nigthmare.
Fisrt of all, I have to install GRUB into MBR; the instructions above did not work (Ubuntu couldn't install GRUB at all).
Then, Linux cannot use the Broadcom wifi in the Samsung machine.
Also, you have to uncheck the facility of shutting down the screen after xx minutes in Ubuntu - when it wakes up (after a keyboard stroke for example), it shows horizontal lines and the screen is completetly unreadable.
And: my Ubuntu is eating battery.
But that's what happens to us Linux lovers, and maybe there will be fixes to everything.
All in all, it will be interesting to read your part 2!
fh
You are right, it is a frustrating nightmare, in my opinion brought on by the fact that Linux is continually playing "catch-up" with the latest hardware revisions. You are also right, in the end they do an extremely good job of catching up, and I don't expect this case to be any different.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
jw
I just wanted to know if it is possible to install a Windows® Vista (without any additional memory / hard drive installed in it. As in raw.) Or do you have any post related to this? Please let me know thru my email.. Thanks thanks! :)
I work in the telecommunications industry, so I have nothing for or against Microsoft. I enjoy reading your articles because you are so biased in the way you find "problems" with windows and how you attack all things Microsoft that at some point there is no other option but feel sorry for you and your problematic phobia.
Have fun and please keep posting, it is always a nice break from serious analysis to read a phobic rumbling.
Cheers
Nuno