In keeping with my mother’s tradition of strange gifts for my birthday, she has this year decided to give me the world’s smallest computer, a Dell Mini 9. It is almost like a laptop, except it only has a 4GB Solid State Drive and 512MB of RAM (although a 16GB SS D and 2GB RAM module have been ordered). Compared to my Dell 5150, which is nearly 7lbs, this thing is about 2lbs and is very easy to physically move around. I am not entirely sure what I think of the device yet.
Today I found that it is physically easily to maneuver and can be very handy for moving between sitting locations. My uncertainty comes from the part where I can not really find anything to do with the thing other than web and email. I added my blog utility (BloGTK), but it doesn’t like the wide display area of the monitor, it hangs off the bottom. Additional problems include difficulty typing on the small keyboard, which is more because of the weird layout than the size, Dell has a funny interpretation of Querty. I like the movement of the F keys to being subordinate to the Fn button, but things like the apostrophe being beside the spacebar make me a little uncomfortable.
I am also having a hard time picking an OS for the system. I thought Ubuntu might be smaller on the tiny drive (since thats what ships with it), but a custom Windows XP ends up being about 1/2 the size. I only have until the new drive arrives to decide what to install on the system (I have one more week, as the drives are backordered).
Overall, an interesting new toy.