Linux.com reviews the Asus Eee PC. “The Asus Eee PC has been heralded as a groundbreaking new computing experience and great for children. While the computer didn’t bowl me over, my kids were another matter. When you hear about how small the Eee is, believe it: the unit measures approximately nine by six inches and weighs a mere two pounds. It’s hard to take something that small seriously because it looks like a toy (and its name sounds like a sneeze). Open the lid, however, and you’ll find power and features that belie its diminutive size.”
I bought the eee pc when my main Linux box died and I had two weeks left in school. I ordered the Asus eee from NewEgg after reading about it on the web. I plugged in my external USB drives, printer, and scanner and it worked with all my devices. I was even picking up wireless from a neighbor. It really is a very cool laptop. I use it at work and school to check email and type up reports. I like the fact that it is powerful enough to run a home system. I was surprised that it could power my 22 inch LCD screen. If you plug in a USB keyboard it is a little easier to use since the eee keyboard is very tight and I tend to make more errors typing on it. I wasn’t fond of the Xandros OS it came with and installed eeeXubuntu. It just amazes me that it is more powerful than my home box. I love that it runs off a solid state drive and boots up in about 15 seconds. I ended up also buying an 8 Gig SD card to make room for mp3s and boosted the RAM to 1 Gig. The RAM is easy to install you just unscrew the back cover and pop in the new memory.
I have a screenshot of the eee running Xubuntu:
http://markbokil.org/images/eee/eeexubuntu.png
Edited 2008-01-12 23:59 UTC
I like the eeexubuntu on it, looks real good.
You’re really making me want one now! 🙂
Edited 2008-01-13 17:17 UTC
eeeXubuntu is really nice. It is a work in progress though so all the built in Asus hardware such as the video camera are not easy to use yet. Networking, sound, VGA out, and wifi are currently working well. Follow the progress on eeeXubuntu over at http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ubuntu:eeexubuntu:home
The review was quite good IMHO, it provided me with all the info I wanted to learn, and the product, Eee PC, sounds like a fantastic thing
If only my daughter was a few years older I would want to buy her one to play with 
Um, maybe you should buy her one now, and spend the next couple of years becoming totally familiar with it, then give it to her! 🙂
If only my daughter was a few years older I would want to buy her one to play with …
“Daddy, how come Linux won’t run my game and educational software?”
Because Daddy is too dopey to know how to download Linux games and educational software ?
8^p
Edited 2008-01-16 08:18 UTC
I had a large laptop. It weighed about 7.5lbs. It was a PITA. When I upgraded I went with small and light.
The smaller size and lower weight has allowed me to casually take it on trips, which gave me access to Google maps / Google Earth almost everywhere I went. Additionally I had games and work at virtually no cost in space or weight.
If you haul a heafty 18″ big-screen laptop with the most powerful CPU/Video, it isn’t casual. It doesn’t look casual to others, it doesn’t feel casual to you. It is an effort.
I predict that the smaller size, weight, price, and increased durability from the removal of magnetic storage on the new generation of flash-based laptops will make the new small laptops the casual anywhere devices that tablets, car-PC’s, current laptops, and some cell-phones are trying to be; a casual computing device that enables access to the web, documents, and applications and does not feel out of place taking with you anywhere.
Just as exciting is that these devices cost less than what Microsoft is charging for an OS. If Microsoft does not offer significantly lower prices it may see Linux become the primary OS of casual computing.
Hardware prices are sparking real OS competition. A win for everyone.
I have been using an Eee PC for about three weeks now and have had no trouble with the wireless connection. I am using the default OS but have enabled the full desktop mode.
http://216.110.210.251/fatelk/images/snapshot1.png
This is a great laptop, small, lightweight, just powerful enough and rugged. the price is great too.
In a year that saw a flurry of fun tech purchases (a Nokia 770 followed by a replacement N800, a MacBook and the EeePC) the EeePC stands as my favourite and most useful. While I still reach for the MacBook when doing major work, the MacBook has really been relegated to a portable PC, always plugged in to monitor, keyboard and mouse, the EeePC has completely taken over as my main laptop.
It’s extremely convenient and has enough oomph for all of my routine tasks. At the size of a large-format pocket book, I routinely use the EeePC as a PDA, a browsing tool, an eBook reader, music player and video player. I think they completely nailed the form-factor. It’s a great machine and is a shining example of why Linux is such an important software platform. This product would not have been possible with Windows, and Apple has no interest in such a low-priced and low-end system for OSX. Asus could not have customized or bundled an equivalent feature set, and the price certainly wouldn’t have been so low. Just as importantly, for Asus anyway, they wouldn’t have been able to make it with the profit margin that they are no doubt enjoying.
Go Asus!
The asus eee is a great little laptop
You can even run Windows on the Eee PC by using the wireless network to connect to your main PC running Win XP Pro with ThinServer XP
It never fails to amaze people
http://www.aikotech.com/thinserver.htm