Readers, I got the Asus Eee PC
Yesterday, I made significant weight-loss and a financial security goals. I also bought a new computer. A light one. In cash.
I had written about the Asus Eee PC — which I’m calling “One Laptop per Adult” — but was thinking about waiting until April or later, when a rumored slightly-larger model was set to debut. But when a Day Job Office Mate got one of the low-end Surf 2G models on a lark and wanted to upgrade to a larger (but currently unavailable) model, we agreed that I would buy his. As you, dear readers, know: I love making the most out of low-end hardware.
The Asus Eee PC Surf 2G is the same size as its litter-mates, but has the smaller available processor (800 MHz) and RAM (512 Mb). It has no webcam (when have I ever used one of those?) and its solid-state hard drive is a pokey 2 Gigabytes. (On which the operating system and applications must also reside, leaving about a third of that for one’s own files.)
But the pluses make this small machine a darling.
<ol>
<li>At US$299.95 retail, it is terribly cheap, but the more robust models reach another hundred dollars.</li>
<li>Yet it is solidly built. It might look toy-sized, but doesn't feel like a toy. Because it has no moving hard drive, it is quiet. The speakers are quite good. The button on the touchpad is a bit hard and I'm sure to use a spare USB mouse -- there are three USB 2.0 ports -- in daily use. </li>
<li>It has a custom adapted Linux operating system -- though built on Xandros, which many Linuxy types hate for philosophical reasons -- that non-Linuxy types would use with ease. Indeed, I was going to swap it out instantly but have decided to leave it for a while, adding and removing individual pieces of software.</li>
<li>It sips power. 22 watts -- less than the compact fluorescent bulb in my desk lamp -- and the packaging was mostly cardboard with just a bit of plastic. (That matters to some.)</li></ol>
More about who might-could-would well use an Asus Eee PC later.
Pictures below the fold.
16 February 2008 at 1:36 pm
I got a 4g surf for $330 on newegg a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. Upgraded the RAM to 2gb, threw in an 8gb SD card for extra storage, and it’s brilliant. I hope to take it on trips — even work ones — instead of my far heavier and bulkier MacBook Pro.
I hope you’ve learned about hitting F11 in Firefox already. That makes it far more usable.
I ended up installing stock Ubuntu and it works rather well with a few tweaks. If I had to do it over again, I’d probably install eeeXubuntu, which is supposed to be smaller and faster. I’m contemplating compressing the /usr directory with squashfs and unionfs — that’s supposed to save about a gig.
16 February 2008 at 2:29 pm
@Fr. Chris. No, thanks for the F11 tip, which gives a full screen view. If I don’t stick with the default OS, then I have the eeeXubuntu already downloaded.
Thanks for the later tips.
Oh, and I not knowing you had gotten one, I was thinking of you since I know you travel for church purposes. We tested the Eee on the Day Job Dell projector and it worked like a charm after a restart. For presentations and trainings, perhaps.
16 February 2008 at 2:38 pm
Oh, and how could I forget?
Stephen Fry, the actor and man-of-words, got one and loves it. Though as much as I like Linux, I think he oversells it.
16 February 2008 at 10:27 pm
I saw the Fry review — he’s great. :-) I agree, though, that Linux is probably ready to start slowly chipping away at Windows’ hegemony; it is not well placed to overturn things and steal massive market share.
Having been a Linux guy from way back, I appreciate how user-friendly Ubuntu is compared to those days, but there are still a number of things that take a lot of work at the command line to get running. I don’t see many folks who are not like me being willing to do that work to, say, get their Guitar Hero guitar working for Frets on Fire, or get non-standard WiFi drivers working or something.
17 February 2008 at 4:32 am
I think the Eee PC looks kinda funny in any color other than black. I think it’s the speakers beside the screen or something.
17 February 2008 at 11:13 am
Where does one get one? And what word processing capabilities does it have? And…I’m not an Ubuntu or Linux person. Would it be a major pain to learn something like this?
(Looking for an alternative to carry to school that “lugging” is not the appropriate term. I dropped my powerbook and my dell laptop is a widescreen gaming rig. It doesn’t travel except to conferences.)
17 February 2008 at 1:08 pm
@Peregrinato. Good questions.
You can buy an Asus Eee from any number of online retailers, like Amazon or Newegg.
The default word processing software — really the one you find on just about every consumer-orientated Linux distribution — is the Writer part of the OpenOffice.org office suite. If you use MS Word in MS XP, you can use OpenOffice.org intuitively or nearly so. But I would want to add the Base (database) part if you want to mail merge or do high-end bibliography work.
Others might not know we’re neighbors. Do you want to see the default Asus Eee before I install the eeeXubuntu? Let me know.
17 February 2008 at 5:40 pm
It’s a date!
18 February 2008 at 1:25 pm
SO CUTE!!!
21 February 2008 at 11:13 pm
Even the name sounds like a squeal of cuteness!