Samsung N130

Recently got a new netbook in the form of a Samsung N130 to replace my Advent, which met its demise at the hands of my 20 month old. It was replaced on household insurance fortunately and its spec seems basically the same. I think they're all much of a muchness really. Seems like a nice netbook for my basic purposes.

Firstly booted it up into XP to ensure it worked. Was a bit put off by the Samsunng recovery facility, which has a partition of its own plus it also wanted to split the XP partition further into a C: and D: and run a backup. Took ages before I could get to actually use it. The XP install is about 6GB! So didn't look around that much.

So I quickly set to installing Ubuntu9.10 on it from a live USB stick, setting up a dual boot. I kept XP seeing as it was already paid for and has its occasional use, but I am very tempted to wipe out everything, including all the restore nonsense and just have 100% Ubuntu. But I know I would probably regret it. It would be nice to be able to clean it up to just a Windows partition and an Ubuntu partition, but I don't know how to get rid of all the Samsung stuff. Suggestions welcome!

So as usual, Ubuntu installed, booted and worked wonderfully and quickly. So, so pain free and simple compared even just to the XP initial setup, let alone a fresh XP install. My only hold up was wireless, as often encountered. But a quick bit googling quickly found a solution here. Sorted, all working! Updated and installed a few essentials to get started.

On a side note, was a bit pissed off with the insurance company. Made it clear from the beginning that I wanted the old one back if possible. The screen was smashed but I thought I could use it as a little server. They told me no problem on multiple occasions I could get it back.

So I sent it off to be innspected, very time consuming process, as one glance would show how beyond repair it was and got a call back to offer the Samsung. Agreed on the Samsung and asked for the old one to be sent back. 'That'll cost you £100 please'

'Eh?!'

Apparently they failed to mentioned that as soon as I sent it off it became their property and I had the right to buy it back! Maybe this how all insurance companies work, I don't know, it was my first encounter. So I ended up just paying £15 for the HDD! Gits!