1 post tagged “arstechnica.com”
A good 2008 to you all. The first entry on my blog in many months. I'm writing this from my Asus eee-pc, the white, 4 gig model. I bought it at the local PC Club.
After 3 months of use, I like this little machine. The size is amazing. It weighs about 2 pounds. The screen size is 7 inches; About the size of the portable DVD player my family uses on long road trips. The screen size works okay. I wish it was a little bigger. Otherwise, it's very readable.
The keyboard is less-than the standard sized keyboard. I have a habit of hitting the right shift key instead of the Enter key. Yet, I've adjusted to it.
The Operating system is a variant of Debian called Xandros. The Easy Desktop is straight forward to navigate. The large icons were a pain. I switched to the Advanced Desktop, going with KDE 3.4.
The little features are very nice; Ethernet and wireless 802.11 B and G. Three USB ports, a SD card reader with SDHC capability. There is an external vga monitor port, audio in and out jacks, audio speakers and a webcam. This is a versatile laptop.
The software is all open source; Open Office 2.0, Firefox, Thunderbird and some games. I like Penguin Racer myself. I've added skype 2.0 beta. This version works with the webcam for video calls. I added VLC just recently (now I can access my DVR / media server at home via Orb.com to watch TV away from home).
At this juncture, installing new apps on Linux was a different world versus XP. I would suggest using the eeeuser.com website and their forums. Also, the eeewiki on the same site has been very useful. Go to the Arstechnica site (arstechnica.com) for an excellent article on installing Skype 2.0 beta.
I currently am using my eee pc at work for general web surfing and email access. After pundering around with KPilot (a Palm desktop wannabe) I decided to export my address book and contact list to my yahoo account.
There have been numerous articles and reviews on the eee pc. I'm not going to preach to the choir. If you need a lightweight laptop to travel around with working software, Asus eee pc is worth serious consideration.
