# Looking for a new netbook



## ma (Nov 29, 2014)

Hello, 

I'm looking for a new netbook laptop; my old EeePC 900 (from 2008) has too little battery time, and the Acer Aspire One D250 has a problem with the display (from time to time it goes completely white, the system is running,  but one has to reboot to get an image again); 

What I want is more or less: 

1-2 GB RAM;
1024x600/768 display, ~10 inch ;
50+ GB SSD disk;
normal QWERTY/Z keyboard (no tablet);
WiFi supported in -HEAD;
USB ports for a UMTS dongle; 
and of course, it should run FreeBSD.
Any pointers to a modern device?

Yesterday I saw an Acer Aspire Switch 10 in a store, has someone tested it with FreeBSD?

Thanks.

Matthias


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## zirias@ (Nov 29, 2014)

Trying not to make this look like a rant, but more like a warning:

Stay away from WiFi devices not supported natively in FreeBSD. NDISulator on amd64 (the in-kernel one or the newer from GitHub, that doesn't matter) seems to be like a lottery. Expect a panicking kernel or half-loaded and frozen drivers 
Even with a native driver, search Bugzilla first. I bought a replacement mini-PCIE card, only to find out the current driver panics, too. (PR pending)
It really is an annoying thing to have a shiny new FreeBSD on your notebook unable to use a wireless network.


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## wblock@ (Nov 29, 2014)

Acer sells some Windows versions of their C720 ChromeBook, the Aspire ES1-111M.  These appear to mostly come with 32 GB SSDs, and some reviews suggest special partitions.

The Dell Inspiron 11 might be another option.  They have touchscreens, and whether that would work with X or not, can dim or blur the display.

Replacing the wireless card with an Atheros is usually the easiest way to get supported wireless.  Many of these small systems are not meant to be user-maintained, and do not have hatches to access wireless cards, memory, or drives.


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## wblock@ (Nov 29, 2014)

Oh, and these are slightly larger, 11.6 inches.  That also brings an increased resolution, 1366x768.


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