At any rate, said issue is gone now, with no small measure of relief. This prompts me to proceed with discussing the unboxing and preparation of said Scout. First off, le box unwrapped:

With all the contents, including the Warranty Booklet, a CD which I haven't opened yet, 3 Cell Battery (couldn't find a 6 cell so this is a pain), Warranty Card, Power Supply, CE Compliance Booklet and a gift voucher offering a discount on Norton 360 and a Linksys Wifi G Router for only P2,099 (which is actually a sweet deal).

Anyway, moving on. I slip on the battery..

Open it (yes I'm doing this on my bed for lack of space).

.. turn it on, and I'm greeted with the Free DOS c: prompt, which is of course, useless.

Fortunately with my trusty 1gb. Kingston USB Drive..

.. plus Ubuntu's handy 'Create a USB Startup Disk' feature and a KDE ISO image I recently downloaded for this purpose..

.. I proceed with creating a Kubuntu USB Startup Disk. After which I plug the USB before booting Scout like so:

.. Press F11 while booting Scout, which results in a 'Please select boot device' screen. Naturally I choose the USB option.

And voila! Scout is now ready to install Kubuntu!

It takes a while though, but everything's pretty automated.

Finally nearly an hour later, I have Scout running the very elegant and smooth looking Kubuntu.

Which is as everyone who's ever done this knows of course, is far from over. First you have to update it:

Then you have to fix it so it works and looks the way you want it, such as how I'm installing msttcorefonts here:

The result? After two days, I've decided that I do not want KDE not because it's not pretty and good to work with (it is!), it's just that it's too different from what I'm used to and represents a too - big adjustment for me.

I'm not trying to duck the haters here, I think KDE is great as it is beautiful. I'd have stuck to it no doubt if I'd have started with it, but Gnome + Ubuntu is where I've started, I have 8.10 on my desktop PC (as I showed earlier), and so am not keen on re-learning stuff just to use it. At the end of the day these things aren't toys but rather tools we use to get things done, and so I need to make things as easy and predictable for me. Hence goodbye KDE and hello..

.. Xubuntu, which is what I used on my previous laptop Karen (may she rest in peace). It's very close to how Gnome works and faster.

So that's it, that's my report on my new MSI Wind U100x named Scout and how I got it unboxed and working. A work in progress from which countless blog posts will no doubt, result from hereonwards.

Incidentally, *'Scout' is from the lead character in To Kill a Mockingbird, whole name: Jean-Louise Finch, which I'm finally reading. It is without a doubt one of the most fascinating storytelling efforts I have ever encountered. A true work of art packed in a P175.00 purchase off of National Bookstore, stuffed in my backpocket. A fact whose irony has not escaped me whilst reading it in transit from MOA and back, trudging along the dirty highways and busy pathways of our polluted and over populated Metro.

There's something special about reading a book that transports you to a different time and place. I had come to look forward to these long trips to work just to read that wonderful little book. With it, radios can blare on their pathetic garble, people can elbow and push their way in and around you. In my mind, I'm in 1950s race - divided Alabama, absorbing the trials and tribulations of a 9 year old girl.

Only costs a little less than P20k too.

I hardly ever go tech lusting, but with decent specs and at that price range it's a steal. I've had cellphones more expensive than that.

Only snag is the 3cell batt, which I assume only lasts a little more than an hour. Otherwise it's a pretty thing, with standard notebook ports and stuff, and a keyboard that fills up the space end - to end, a necessity for my large pudgy mitts.

I found a blue one at 19k at the mall the other day. We'll see though. By Jan next year I assume it'll be at least 10% cheaper, so if I'm still itching at that time and if resources approve, why not.

First, the best so far. To date, nothing I've tried, and I've tried a lot, beats the experience of the 6 (?) year old PowerBook G4. Inasmuch as I dislike all sorts of hype from all sorts of manufacturers (yes and that includes Jobs), they have got it right with this one. I wrote about it in the defunct PWIT and I'll say it again here. The few times I managed to use this really knocked me out. Not only were the keys big and easy to find, the material (anodized aluminum) was cool and smooth to the touch and seemed better resistant to scratches than the Titanium models. More importantly the keyboard gives a reassuring just - right click each time that never made you second guess whether you did it right. The body seemed never to get too warm (somewhat contested, this) and was compact and light. Finally the screen graphics was typical Mac, meaning it was never too glaring and still gave good light running on batteries which normally goes down a level or two to preserve juice.

I am a pretty ok touch typist and so far, above PowerBook has been the most responsive to my needs, even amongst newer Macs. I would consider buying a 2nd hand model of this even if I could afford getting newer ones, just because of that excellent keyboard. Now I've never been a Mac person and yes, I do find irony in the fact that I find such a 'glamorous' thing to be the answer for hardcore writing, but there it is. That thing is wonderful. I know at least two people who own one, one of which, sadly, just uses it to watch YouTube, play mp3s and show off to friends (if you wonder why I disdain Mac hype all you need do is take a look at this guy), and the other being Butch Dalisay, whose ownership and constant praise of one should be more than enough reason to believe me.

Second would be my beloved Karen, an IBM X series. So far its job has been relegated to two things: 80% writing, 15% watching downloaded movies in bed and 5% 'net surfing. I believe that if a person manages to break down what he uses computers for then the chances of finding the perfect one increases exponentially, and I think that's why I love this machine.

However it is not at all perfect. Inspite of the fact it doesnt have a CD/DVD drive (it has a docking station which I hardly use), it still gets rather warm after a bit of use. The keyboard while responsive has smaller than I like keys, the screen is too dark when it is on batteries (necessitating that I find places where I can plug it first, thank God for Starbucks), and finally I happened to get a Japanese model so I've got 2 extra keys on the keyboard with no purpose at all. Finally, its plastic to the G4's anodized aluminum which is like comparing a Toyota's polyester interior to a Bentley's leather.

Regardless, it is small, light, and because of the excellent Xubuntu, a mean writing machine - which is what I feel whenever I use it. It's as if it's been designed for one thing and one thing only, to write stuff - which is good because of its weak processor, tinny speakers and weak LCD, it's not much good for anything else.

And now finally, the future(?), the Asus EeePC.

While obviously it answers the 'small and light' requirements, I've received reviews that the keyboard is way too small. Mind you, as this is a post about writing machines, that is enough reason to think twice right there. See its easy to be inundated with other tech details as it's choice of OS (Asus' version of Linux), price and connectivity, but if I can't write on it with my rather larger than normal pudgy fingers, then no go.

We'll see though. I'll try to get a hold of it soon. That low price (starting at P16,000 for the Celeron M models) is just too enticing to ignore.