Green Tech Girl

As I’ll probably say here 100 times, it is much better to rescue an old computer and make it useful than to simply toss it out into the garbage. Linux makes this easy – er, well, kind of easy, depending on the distribution and your tolerance for troubleshooting. While more and more Linux versions are requiring more and more computing power, thankfully, not all of them suffer from the never ending quest for software progress.

Puppy Linux is one of the lean, mean Linux distributions specifically designed to work well on older as well as newer hardware. There’s an extremely small version without a lot of added software, and a more “bloated” version that includes Seamonkey browser and email suite.

It’s kind of funny to me that there are actually computer conspiracy theorists out there who think the CherryPal really doesn’t exist and those of us reviewing it are making it all up because we don’t have actual video of the computer in action. Well, pardon me, but I don’t have a video camera – I’m a writer, not a cinematographer! (I’m a doctor, not a mechanic, Jim!)

The CherryPal is slowing getting shipped out to those “on the list” – whether Brand Angels or those ordering the machine. There have been some other reports of glitches – people not being able to login or other bugs. Most people who get one seem to have no problem with it out of the box, fortunately, but this is definitely a machine that has some kinks to be worked out.

My thoughts on the CherryPal upon further use:

Pros: I love how absolutely quiet the machine is. I love the small footprint and the “green” aspect of saving on electricity. I love having a no-nonsense Linux box without hassling with Windows or a lot of bloatware. So on the whole, I’m really hoping that we see more machines like this in the future.

Cons: The CPU is woefully underpowered for the software. Upon testing, I discovered that the CPU often runs at about 100% just to load a large web page. Really complicated web pages can freeze the machine, even when using a leaner browse such as Epiphany. I have yet to test video on the box, but I’m not hopeful what with the current performance. I’m wondering why they went with Xubuntu as the OS instead of a more optimized Linux distro such as Puppy Linux.

Given the limitations of the CPU, I would not be able to replace my regular computers with the CherryPal at this time. I do plan on using the CherryPal, however, for writing and checking online email. I often leave my computer on all day as I like to go back and forth from the computer, and I’d much rather leave on the low-powered CherryPal than my laptop, so I don’t burn out the laptop earlier than I need to.

As for a cheap computer, though, it might be better to get an old computer and put Linux on it. I have a Pentium III I run Linux on. I just put Puppy on it and it is 10x faster than my CherryPal.

So if you want a second machine to save power with, the CherryPal might be a good option. It is not a replacement for a full-powered desktop just yet.