Doing a little warm-up here.

I ordered a Litebook on March 11 and am expecting to see it towards the end of the week of April 10. That's a longer delivery time than they advertized, but, I've been watching things and know there have been a couple of hiccups. So, I can say that it is within tolerance.

We'll see how that goes.

Here's why I considered, and, bought the Litebook. I've had an Acer C720 Chromebook for a couple of years, although, I deChromed it soon after acquiring it, installing PCLinuxOS in its place.

My expectation is that Litebook will be as easy to use as the deChromebook with fewer disadvantages.

Some of the things I like about the C720 are the light weight, and, long battery life, and, I'm hoping to retain those. I have a Thinkpad for serious laptoping that must weigh 20lbs, and, seems to be getting heavier.

In disadvantages, I include the small screen size and resolution, and, the lack of some simple keyboard functions, like a delete key. Also, function keys 1-10 work, but, are labelled with symbols reflecting ChromeOS's use.

The touchpad is way too sensitive (maybe I could fix that), but I prefer a mouse anyway.

The wireless works, but sometimes when recovering from a sleep, I have to 'network reload' to get it working again. I use a bluetooth mouse, and, it also has a problem recovering from a sleep.

But, otherwise, it's OK. I suppose it would be better if I reinstalled ChromeOS, and, signed my life over to Google.

So, basically, I'm hoping for a lightweight laptop for light use.

The Acer C720 has a Celeron 2955U, and, I routinely use another light weight Celeron powered computer—a Gigabyte Brix GB-BXBT-2807. I've had both units apart and am familiar with small computer layout. I may as well add that I have a couple of Raspberry Pis in service and have used devices in that category for a number of years. That's the long way of saying that I'm familiar with how the little units perform.

Reading comments about the Litebook, I suspect that many people don't grasp the light-weight, low-powered philosophy, even though they may have the category in their pocket. To me, it sounds like an ideal configuration for light use, like web browsing, and, web browsing, and, let's not forget web browsing.

And, that's the way I use the deChromebook. When I want to quick-check the email, or, browse the web, but don't want to turn on my desktop, or, breakout the Thinkpad, it is ideal. For example, I recently had a meeting for which I prepared some paper charts and graphs, but, also wanted the full story close-by. The deChromebook was perfect for the job—small, light-weight, and, quick to boot. That's what I am looking for.

While I'm waiting, I am doing some preparation. I will install community edition PCLinuxOS64 Xfce, I've downloaded the 2017.02.iso, installed it in a VM, and, am adjusting it for my use. I've got it in good enough shape to get started, and, will remaster, and, stick it in the next day or so.

I haven't done anything about the wireless, or, touchpad issues, and, won't do anything before the install. I want to see if the 4.10.6 kernel takes care of those things by itself.

April 15 Update

Strangely enough, this morning (Saturday), I was using the deChromebook as I usually do, and, dropped it. When it hit the floor, the tip of the power connector took the brunt of the force, and, broke off.

Later in the morning, I fired up the main computer, and, checked my email. I had a notice that the Litebook had been shipped. It's the fourth communication I've had from Alpha. The first was the order confirmation; the second was a shipping update pointing out the order tracking address; the third was info about the wireess and touchpad drivers; and, the fourth being the shipping notice with a USPS tracking number.

So, I ordered on Saturday, March 11, and the estimated deliver is Wednesday, April 19. A little longer than the original projection, but, I have followed the story, and, know there were a couple of holdups.

Continue to unboxing, and, booting.

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