Comments on: Asus eeePC Review http://www.davidhurst.co.uk/2008/04/10/asus-eeepc-review/ PHP/MySQL, REALbasic, Javascript Developer Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:20:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Martin - eeePC Owner http://www.davidhurst.co.uk/2008/04/10/asus-eeepc-review/#comment-13492 Martin - eeePC Owner Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:30:28 +0000 http://www.davidhurst.co.uk/2008/04/10/asus-eeepc-review/#comment-13492 I'm writing this on my asus eeepc now (4GB SSD / 512MB RAM). It meets my needs, and I'm loving it. It's tiny, silent, and it's faster than the (very) old desktop I had before. Apparently I'm lucky to have one - I found mine in a shop up in Tottenham Court Road in London in February. The specs are great for what I use it for. I chucked eeeXubuntu and compiz on it (I just toggle compiz on or off, depending on whether I'm in an eye-candy mood), got various TrueCrypt containers in place for my data, added the Amarok music player, playing with excellent quality through my hi-fi system (I have a load of music on an 8GB SD card), I plug in an old Canon Lide30 usb-powered scanner to scan my documents (works flawlessly with XSane), Skype video works, Firefox plus extensions works great (I just leave ethernet plugged in at home), does java and shockwave no problem, I've done some important stuff in OpenOffice, my small Samsung ML-2010 laser printer works straight out the box, KAddressBook has all my contacts, XFCE is customized just how I like it ... I can't think of anything that I need that I can't do. So, are the specs adequate ? Absolutely. This isn't a PDA ! However, I've found that to use it for any length of time I really do have to plug in my external LCD monitor and usb mouse. I want a USB keyboard as well, for my big old fingers - I just can't get used to the tiny keyboard, I constanty mis-type on it... The speed and capability is great, but if you connect an external screen/keyboard/mouse it's fantastic. I don't have a 'real' pc right now - this is all I have and it does everything I want. The only thing I'll probably need soon is an external optical drive so I can rip my next cd, or burn data. (Incidently, I play DVD's on AV equipment, and record TV on a PVR, so don't need any of that from a pc). By the way, "xrandr" handles dual screens great, and setting up some bash aliases in the terminal for the external screen, and truecrypt stuff, and whatever you use all the time, makes life sweet. I've possibly had to be a little bit geeky to get everything as I wanted, but I suppose in reality that's still true of any Linux distro if you want to customise it. But the eeeXubuntu project and online documentation/forums made it mostly a no-brainer. A real-life example. My 2 cents ... I’m writing this on my asus eeepc now (4GB SSD / 512MB RAM).
It meets my needs, and I’m loving it. It’s tiny, silent, and it’s faster than the (very) old desktop I had before.
Apparently I’m lucky to have one - I found mine in a shop up in Tottenham Court Road in London in February.
The specs are great for what I use it for. I chucked eeeXubuntu and compiz on it (I just toggle compiz on or off, depending on whether I’m in an eye-candy mood), got various TrueCrypt containers in place for my data, added the Amarok music player, playing with excellent quality through my hi-fi system (I have a load of music on an 8GB SD card), I plug in an old Canon Lide30 usb-powered scanner to scan my documents (works flawlessly with XSane), Skype video works, Firefox plus extensions works great (I just leave ethernet plugged in at home), does java and shockwave no problem, I’ve done some important stuff in OpenOffice, my small Samsung ML-2010 laser printer works straight out the box, KAddressBook has all my contacts, XFCE is customized just how I like it … I can’t think of anything that I need that I can’t do.
So, are the specs adequate ? Absolutely. This isn’t a PDA !
However, I’ve found that to use it for any length of time I really do have to plug in my external LCD monitor and usb mouse. I want a USB keyboard as well, for my big old fingers - I just can’t get used to the tiny keyboard, I constanty mis-type on it…
The speed and capability is great, but if you connect an external screen/keyboard/mouse it’s fantastic.

I don’t have a ‘real’ pc right now - this is all I have and it does everything I want. The only thing I’ll probably need soon is an external optical drive so I can rip my next cd, or burn data. (Incidently, I play DVD’s on AV equipment, and record TV on a PVR, so don’t need any of that from a pc).

By the way, “xrandr” handles dual screens great, and setting up some bash aliases in the terminal for the external screen, and truecrypt stuff, and whatever you use all the time, makes life sweet. I’ve possibly had to be a little bit geeky to get everything as I wanted, but I suppose in reality that’s still true of any Linux distro if you want to customise it. But the eeeXubuntu project and online documentation/forums made it mostly a no-brainer.

A real-life example. My 2 cents …

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