Well where to start? I guess I got the Samsung NC10 because it was on craigslist and it was affordable. I researched it and it was fairly compatible with linux. It was also a nice net book on it’s own when it came out a year or so ago. I also recently purchased a Samsung Vibrant and it is a nice chunk of phone and runs android smoothly. Seeing as android is somewhat based on linux I figured Samsung would be a nice option. I also looked into a few other Acer and Samsung net books but just figured I’d get more bang for my buck from the NC10.

I found a few good resources on the Samsung NC10:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NC10
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks#Samsung%20NC10
• http://nc10ubuntu.wordpress.com/

As far as my linux flavor I originally intended to run Fedora but did not find as much information about it in regards to the NC10 net book. So after looking around it seemed people were having more success and ease using ubuntu. Plus I am a total linux noob and ubuntu for some reason just felt more user friendly and like I would have less of hassle converting over as a windows user who uses a mac at work.

Preparation

I read about a few instances of some of the function keys not working on the NC10 once ubuntu was installed. The people who didn’t have this problem were on a later BIOS (11CA). I looked into flashing the BIOS. Some people did it some people said not to. I went ahead and upgraded the BIOS before testing out ubuntu as I didn’t want to have to deal with figuring out how to get regular stuff like the functions keys working upon switching operating systems. Everything worked fine. Get BIOS here: http://www.samsungpc.com/08/products/nc10/firmware.html#firmware (you’ll want 11CA) Folks who were against upgrading the BIOS preferred connecting to voRia’s repository via ubuntu’s update manager, link for that here: http://www.voria.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=296 Note: Do this after you install ubuntu.

Installing Ubuntu

After that I followed the online guide to making the usb launcher http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download#column-8. This is pretty cool and allows you to run your net book on ubuntu when you have the usb drive plugged in. However upon restarting the net book with the usb plugged in it didn’t restart into ubuntu. I tried it a few times and could not get it to work. I looked online and found out I had to move the usb drive above the C drive in the BIOS mode. You get into BIOS by pressing F2 when the samsung logo displays (right when you turn on the comp, don’t blink or you might miss it) Once in there be careful and look for the tab that says “Boot”. When you are on the boot page select the first item “Boot Device Priority”. Follow the directions on the page for rearranging the boot order. Save and re-boot and it should read the usb drive before the hard drive.

Once I got that all sorted out I gave ubuntu a try and everything seemed to work just like it did in windows. My wireless connected up, webcam worked, function keys worked and firefox worked. I went with ubuntu netbook 10.10 and after testing out I installed it. A few minutes later I was running ubuntu on my Samsung NC10. I opted to go for a complete hard drive wipe but ubuntu also offers the option to dual boot so when you start your netbook you can choose if you would like to boot in ubuntu or windows. You can also partition your drives when you are installing if you are into that sort of thing.

Once everything was installed and running I unplugged the usb and began figuring stuff out. The netbook version of ubuntu lets you choose from a few different versions of ubuntu when you’re on the log in page. This came in handy later as I was not digging the netbook version sidebar. It has no options to be hidden or moved around at all. It did look really nice though and it kept me happy for about two days. Then I noticed I could log in to different versions of ubuntu and I have been using the desktop version since. The desktop version allowed me to maximize the space in ways the netbook version wouldn’t. However the netbook version offered a really simple interface that made it operate more like a giant ipod touch or something like that. Whereas the desktop version is much more like what you’d expect if you were coming from windows/mac.

Post Installation

I set up the desktop just how I like it once I became familiar with how the panels work (so awesome!) and I got all the programs I need to build a solid website (except for photoshop but I got GIMP). It also has workspaces, a growl style notification system, easy way to make launcher icons (shortcuts), compiz effects and all sorts of expected stuff (mail/chat/social clients, rhythmbox (itunes like music app), open office, photo manager, software center).

Some helpful links for getting things right:

• http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/tweak-notifyosd-notifications-in-ubuntu.html
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10229948#post10229948
• http://cloudliving.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/making-ubuntu-look-nicer-on-samsung-nc10/ (I only used this to install simple compizconfig settings manager)
• http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/10/customizing-ubuntu-10-10-with-a-dock-new-icon-theme-effects-global-menu-and-more/

Gripes

Not many but still a few. First, when you start up the machine there is some scary bug that throws the following error message “modprobe: FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.35-generic/modules.deb, no such file or directory” it appears to be harmless and just something that was overlooked (?) I haven’t really looked into fixing it after finding out it wasn’t anything to be worried about. Second, Evolution mail is turds and I cannot get it to connect to my gmail contacts for the life of me. But to be fair I haven’t really looked into that too much either since I usually just use my gmail in firefox. Gwibber appends the word “is” to facebook posts and in general I found the unity one interface to still need a little bit of work, mainly the sidebar needs get out of the way as it eats up a bit of precious screen space. But that’s it! Anything else was too minor to remember or I can live with.

Final Thoughts

Ubuntu rocks! Use terminal, it is your friend. Don’t be scared, the water’s fine.