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Review of Asus Linux-Based Eee PC 701
Bongo Bob writes "CNET.co.uk has up a review of the Asus Eee PC 701 that runs Linux. According to the reviewer. 'It's hard to fault the Eee PC, mainly because of its price. It can be difficult to use because of the cramped keyboard, but it's better than similar-sized laptops like the Toshiba Libretto. If you're in the market for a second PC, or looking for something you can take with you almost anywhere, the Eee PC is definitely worth buying.'"
And the Gutsy Gibbon seems to run great on them too! http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006278o-2000331777b,00.htm
Here's a .
And if it's slow, here's the coral cache: pic1
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I've gotta say, this is one lovely machine. Full Linux installation etc. What irritated me was the comment that 'you can install Windows XP, for those of us who don't have beards'.
Ha. Ha. Ha. It's funny. Laugh.
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It is more than quiet, it is completely silent. There are no moving parts: no fan, no hard disk, no DVD drive.
On a side note, the Eee PC has the same size and weight (within +/- 10 mm in width and 50 g) than the Panasonic R series (I have the R3, this year's model is the R7): http://panasonic.jp/pc/products/r7b/index.html However the R7 chooses another compromise: more expensive and more powerful.
Eee PC is slighty more expensive and has a shorter battery life. And the Alphasmart's keyboard is better for normal adult sized hands.
But the flexibility of applications and significantly more powerful wordprocessors available for the Eee PC makes it pretty attractive. Plus the ability to use wireless internet to have access to very complete online dictionaries, thesauruses and encyclopedias makes the EeePC a bit more versatile for writers. assuming you can get used to the keyboard.
I'm planning on getting two EeePCs, one for a writer and one for a programmer(myself).
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Great Unboxing / Hands on review.
Can't wait for them to go on sale stateside.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
This ASUS EEE looks to be very promising, small, light, it fills the gap between PDAs and UMPCs. And it's all about reliability, low power, almost no moving parts, and Linux (Xandros). A lot of people (like me) are getting really impatient, some are about to get mad. This site has also neat reviews of the thing : http://www.blogeee.net/ (translation) : http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogeee.net%2F&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools
> This laptop is for non-IT students, since compiling on the Solid State Disk (SSD)
> will kill it with-in a few months.
Not true, with proper wear levelling (jffs2 on bare flash or a proper
hardware FlashTranslationLayer), it lasts as long as any hdd.
The wikipedia article implies that there is a fan and the next version of the Eee due in April 2008 will be without one.
You are correct, nobody talks about it. All of the technical specs only say 'Intel chipset' and don't actually say that includes the video, but it does. Downloading the Chinese WinXP driver and extracting it shows it's either:
Intel GMA and part of the G965 series.
Mobile Intel(R) 910GML Express Chipset
I'm betting on the latter, and the rest is just stuff they forgot to remove when they were hastily throwing together the XP driver.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
You are welcome on my lawn.
See first comment in TFA :)
The wireless already works with the Linux that it ships with. According to the thread, it's Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon that has a problem with the wireless on it.
I worked for the company that makes the AlphaSmart machines for a while.
The Dana is pretty impressive for a PalmOS machine. However, it is worth pointing out that the Dana's odd screen size causes problems with a lot of PalmOS software. A lot of programs run, but are confined to traditional PalmOS screen formats. Other programs crash-and-burn.
The "mysterious" expansion slots are SD/MMC slots. IIRC, the machine has two of them and one of them is SDIO compatible. The "word processing" program included is basic, but a lot more powerful than the PalmOS memo pad function. It also includes Documents2Go, which means you have access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents on the machine (and Documents2Go does support the Dana's odd screen configuration).
It's a bit of an odd machine, however. The keyboard isn't horrible, which is a big plus. I don't know if the one I had was the latest and greatest PalmOS, but it seemed a little bit crash-prone compared to other PalmOS devices I've owned.
Battery life was.. fantastic, however. It can run on 3 AA batteries.
I checked it out and the Asus EEE has the Marvell 8388 wireless chipset. This is supported in the vanilla Linux kernel since 2.6.22 (July 2007). Sooner or later this will work in almost every distro.
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It's an Intel GMA 950. Not much, but it does do OpenGL, and can even do Compiz if you want to on this thing.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."