Works straight out of the box, as advertised!
If you read this review, I assume you know what Linux (and Ubuntu) is. I have worked for many years with a Linux desktop, but never as an administrator. I was therefore looking for the Linux experience, but without the hassle of installing the operating system myself.

If you look for Linux netbooks on the Internet, chances are you will stumble upon, not merchants trying to sell their wares, but articles written a few years back and bravely predicting a fews things: That Linux would soon conquer the netbook market, that netbook prices would go down dramatically, and that solid state drives would replace hard drives. Guess what, none of this happened. Hard drives are ubiquitous, prices have, if anything, gone up thanks to feature inflation (multimedia), and Linux netbooks are pretty hard to find.

At the time of writing (June 2010), there seems to be only a handful of merchants selling Linux netbooks. Among them are Dell and HP, if you manage to navigate their website. They have made Linux netbooks particularly hard to find, because many people would choose Linux as the cheaper option, and return the netbook as soon as they found out it was not Windows. At any rate, their netbooks were either non-customizable (no 6-cell battery, no memory extension) or, if customizable, too expensive.

Enter Zareason. From the outside the Teo netbook looks beautiful. The keyboard is one of the best I have tried, and I did try quite a few. A good keyboard was essential for me, and I'm definitely satisfied. I have not thoroughly measured battery life, but you can obviously carry the Teo around for the day without running out of battery. The charger is compact, in case you need to carry it too. The screen is a beautiful matte, much better than glossy for outdoor use. And last but not least, the Teo runs silently.

I got the Netbook Remix version of Ubuntu, and it works like a charm, straight out of the box. The netbook boots comfortably under one minute. I set up wifi easily, once I figured you had to activate it using the Fn+F11 combination. If need be, there seems to be an active community out there to help you out with any installation or configuration problems. And if you really can't figure it out, Zareason will help you. I asked them a question before buying, and they answered within a day, always a good sign (check their website for contact information).

The netbook is not as cheap as some Windows netbooks. However, it feels extremely well built, and has all the features you could be looking for. Obviously Zareason doesn't have the economies of scale that mainstream constructors enjoy, and getting such a netbook out at this price is quite a feat. If you are in the market for a Linux netbook guaranteed to work out of the box, I strongly recommend the Teo. You won't be disappointed.