Firefox Blocked!

enough said, my company is blocking the firefox... it sucks. Now I have to rely on IE7. I guess I have to make the best of it.

Forsa 1022N: OS Installation & Peripherals - Linux

There are 2 Flavors of Linux which I already install in this machine:

1. The Easy One: Linux Mint 3.0 (Cassandra)
   
2. The Classic One: Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)

With The Easy One I've manage to have almost every peripherals detected but Hardware Information applet from Control Center refuses to work. Actually, right after installed there is a component need to be updated (Hardware Abstraction Layer / hal). But as I have the DVD repository, I decided to skip that update and directly goes to the DVD which unfortunately doesn't include that update :(
The main thing is I cannot have the modem set up so I cannot connect to the net. List that do not work:

1. Modem
2. Beryl (Found that the renderer should be forced to nvidia on Feisty Fawn installed system)
3. All network connection is not tested

Nice thing with Mint is proprietary/restricted components are installed out-of-box e.g DVD/VCD playback, Flash & Java.
As everything works I decided to remove the Easy One and went to the Classic One for more enlighment :)

With The Classic One goes the same song but we must install all
restricted & proprietary component. But with Feisty I've managed to set the
modem 'detectable' (as Alsa modem) but cannot dial out yet. (to be continued...)

Forsa 1022N: Overall build

The looks is standard (I will post the picture as soon as I know how-to :P). Based on

• MSI 1022 Whitebook (notebook barebone) system
  
• Pentium M 1.6Ghz, (CPU Part of Centrino)
  
• Nvidia 6200 Go Turbo Cache 128, it's a DirectX 9/OpenGL 2 capable machine (later on application),
  
• Connectivity: 3 USB Ports, Firewire port, PC-Card slot, PCI-Xpress Card slot, VGA D-Sub, TV-Out, SD/MMC/MS Card Reader
  
• Network: RJ11 Port (modem), RJ45 Port (wired network), Wifi Adapter
  
• 13.3 WXGA (1280x800) LCD display
  
• Storage: 80GB HDD, DVD-RW Multi
  
• A Synaptic Touchpad with scroll
• Got an wired optical mouse, a bag and an additional screen protector (I use the 'default' screen protector from the notebook) as a bonus
• There are also bluetooth option but I did not purchase it.
  

I know, I know, there are many Core Duo or Core 2 Duo suite outhere which is also cheaper, but I am talking about graphic capable (read: gaming) 'desktop replacement' here so this is turn out to be the best deal for my budget currently. (Point me if you have other options though). Also I remind you that I use the AMD K6-2 3DNow before this for my computing needs :).
I got a good seller (Mr. Arif Sutanto, T-Store) from Gadtorade community. I got it for roughly Rp.5.5M and he sent it directly from Jogjakarta..
On First week I have trouble with the Power Cable (from outlet to adapter) resulting burnt & smokin cable. Although the distributor (http://www.forsa.co.id) has offer me a new cable I decided to buy it myself in the near store, save me time & money, I got it for Rp.50K.
On 2nd to 3rd week I occasionally have 'fong' condition (hang is software stop responding, fong is for hardware wont power-up due to electricity problem - I guess it from battery and adapter combo) but now I never have it anymore. Usually when it happens I will disconect the battery and reconnect it again.
Heat is nearly not an issue although I feel my left palm is warm while typing. Air intake fan is on left bottom of the notebook and ended on the left side of the notebook (I would recommend not to put anything blocking the exhaust).
Another nice touch is the Glowing Forsa Logo from top of the lid, I know it from a friend watching the notebook from far sight (with rather envy look :)), I don't know whether the original whitebook have it.
That's it for the hardware, Next I will be talking about the OS installation, Linux and non-Linux ;).

My New PC Experience

My FORSA 1022N is up for 3 weeks. I've try to install it with LinuxMint (Cassandra) and Ubuntu (Feisty) and also tested it with Windows 2000 (Select Edition) from my company.
So far everything's Great! I will breakdown the review my experience into some smaller topics like Overall build, OS, peripherals & applications, stay tuned :P