BUY LCD TV, GPS, BLU-RAY, NETBOOK AND MORE - Kogan Technologies

My netbook has been good. The only problem I had with the Gos system was that I somehow erased the modem connector. This led me to the use of the latest Gos, which gave me screen problems. I have now gone to Ubuntu Netbook operating system. It has the update manager, which makes getting the latest version very easy. It is very fast to load, and has a similar large menu system as a smart phone. As I use the Kogan mainly for simple things and never use it for gaming, this system seems to work fine. It has traveled with me and remains in good working order, other than the mouse, and I am sure that is a driver problem. Prices of other units have gone down, but because Kogan have shown me the world of open software, I would definitely get one again.

My Sister & I have a Pair of Kogan Agora Pros that we use for Skype Communication Between Rural QLD & Sydney.

Battery Life we have found to be Excellent & Skype Video was good but if sound was turned up would feed back in to microphone which was generally otherwise too quiet. a Plantronics Headset with USB adaptor improved Sound Quality Greatly.

The OEM version of gOS did not receive updates, this meant in the long term that Flash Video would not function, to solve this I downloaded the gOS 3.1.iso image from the Aus-gamers link on the gOS website. My touchpad won't work so I use a mouse for the moment.

When I got a USB 3G Modem I found that the Vodafone wireless Modem Driver no longer worked on later kernels & that updating Network Manager to version 8 disabled the Wi Fi. So I bit the Bullet & installed Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 but this would not recognize my Huawei modem, then I tried Opensuse 11.2 which connected to my modem flawlessly, but Skype Video would cause it to crash (beta driver) & I still
get an error message to alter Xorg.config to true.

In the mean time I regressed to Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 which did recognize my modem & I could get Skype Video to work & with major modifications I could get the microphone to work but the numerous audio mixers were unstable.

Oh Joy Oh Joy in May 2010 I installed Lucid Lynx & it interfaced well with my Huawei modem, All worked well other than the Touch-pad & I held off installing Skype 2.1 as it remains in Beta form. Then I saw that Mint 9 Isadora (Ubuntu Lucid Lynx based) had been released & I opted to install it as had similar specs to gOS. All went well other than the touch-pad, the only other problem is Skype's Camera diver which recognized but did not operate the Sirius Camera - I could work around that for the moment with a external Logitec cam.

Mint 9 Is a great Operating System & when I get It all sorted I will send it to my Sister, then rebuild Agora Pro

I recently moved over to win7 with my Agora Pro. Not because there was anything wrong with gOS, just because i wanted all my systems to be the same.
I managed it with a minimum of fuss and everything works great.
I am very happy with this unit, i actualy came back to see if i could get another.
When is the next batch comming in?

I have installed Windows 7 on mine. With 2G of RAM I can also run a virtual machine or 2 using VMWare Workstation for those times I need Linux, XP or Server 2003. Even with the wireless card turned on and the screen fairly bright I get 3 - 3.5 hours battery life. A $5 cover from a Honk Kong site was all that was needed to complete it. When comparing notebooks remember this one comes with 2G RAM, not 1G, and a 6 cell battery, not a 3 cell. This notebook is excellent value for money.

Bought this as it was the best value netbook at the time. Was initially disappointed as when I typed I would be hitting the touchpad and applications would open and close. Plugged in a normal mouse and disabled the touchpad and now it works a treat. Big fan of gOS as well. Very good value and no further complaints, will buy again!

Just received my Agora Pro and it is just fantastic, cannot believe that some reviewers gave it negative feedback. It looks great and works beautifully, and I just love gOS.
It fits nicely into my backpack and you don't even realise it's in there. Well done Kogan, I have already told my friends about it.

Purchased the Agora netbook when a special deal was announced on launch at $299. Didn't bother with Gos as I wanted a real computer not a toy, so wiped it and installed Win 7 Ultimate, just to see if I had to use XP.

I added Office 2007 and now have a fully functioning computer suitable for work. Really pleased with the performance and being able to use Win 7 is a definite plus.

However, the netbook was not exactly usable due to the proximity of the touch pad to the space bar - even jarring the plastic edge and not touching the pad would cause the cursor to reposition - very frustrating when you are trying to type.

Mentioned this to Kogan support and they agreed this is a common problem with netbooks as you can easily inadvertently hit the touch pad. They suggested TouchFreeze, a program that disables the touch pad while typing and turns it on again when needed. Works great and the first and last problem with the Agora is gone.

Highly recommend it (at least with Win 7 on it ;-)).

I just bought my nine year old girl a kogan netbook for christmas and have been configuring it before I wrap it up and hide it until christmas day.

Not being familiar with Gos, I installed Ubuntu 9.04, and with a quick addition to grub the mouse was working in minutes (I believe this is just a bug for later kernel versions)

My girl, bless her little cotton socks... loves to play Unreal tournament on daddy's media centre PC (and she's quite good at it!).

On a whim I downloaded a linux installer for UT, and after a little fiddling around copying my old original UT cd to a flash drive, had it installed and running flawlessly. Magnificent frame rates and I was able to join a windows game server.

Can't wait to see her face xmas morning when she boots up and sees the unreal icon on her desktop.

Cheers

Received the netbook on Monday after ordering it on the Thursday. The GOS operating system was not the issue however, but as others report, the weak wireless reception. Less than 10 metres and no connection. I did a backup of the paritions, and then installed the Ubuntu Netbook remix from a connected external usb dvd drive. This however didn't last long for, as others have reported, the Synaptic touchpad does not respond. Tried various forums but no success. However all I managed to do was get the thing to boot up in terminal mode, I must have screwed some of the video settings. So, alas, I had to resort to a windows 7 dvd. Installed within about 30 minutes and found all the hardware devices. The wireless now is as strong as I would expected. So folk, looks like I'm going to be stuck with microsoft on this netbook.

Also regarding the battery life, haven't managed to completely discharge the battery yet but on a full charge the laptop reports a life of nearly 4 hours, with the wireless enabled and just with it just sitting there with the browser opened.

I just received my Kogan Agora Netbook Pro today. I was very pleased to turn it on and start it up. Already being familiar with the linux distributions, I felt at home using the simple gOS and what is more pleasing is that there is a good integration of WINE (able to run Windows programs) and the Mac OSX aesthetics.

I am disappointed with the power/connectivity of the WiFi device. Being only in the next room and the connectivity is often either full or drops one bar.

I am sort of shocked at the battery life. It says up to 6 hours with a 6-cell battery, yet I can only get 3hrs 45min from it. My sister recently got the government netbook which has a battery life of 5hrs 35min on a 6-cell battery... so I don't really know where it's going. I am disappointed with the shortened battery life.

For people looking to buy a netbook - this is a great deal in my opinion. The netbook is extremely fast and runs great with gOS or Windows 7 (if you can install it).

In summation:

Why to buy?: Very inexpensive, fast, light/portable and has a nice clean bright display.

Why not to buy?: Shorter battery life than other models, weak WiFi connectivity, gOS may not be the best for beginners (but I love it).