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.'"

Comments

Smalll inexpensive linux thin client - fantastic!

[mrbill1234]

This is just what I want - a small, cheap thin client. I think this one will be on my xmas list.

Being solid state - i'm thinking that this thing will be ultra quite too.

Before someone asks

[mrjb]

Yes, it does run Linux.

Re:Before someone asks

[__aaclcg7560]

It runs Windows XP. :P

Re:Before someone asks

[stuntpope]

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.

Re:Before someone asks

[cerberusss]

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.

Student market

[meatflower]

If they advertise this right they could see big sales among students. I'm going to be taking some programming classes next semester and this looks like it would be great to carry around to practice with.

Re:Student market

[Anonymous Coward]

> 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.

Re:Student market

[afroborg]

Hmm - despite the fact that this is no longer true with current wear-levelling techniques, you could quite easily compile to a RAM disk if you were really all that worried.

Re:Student market

[MSG]

As I understand it, pretty much all flash drives do block rotation on their own, so filesystems like jffs2 aren't necessary to get wear leveling.

Re:Smalll inexpensive linux thin client - fantasti

[NeoSkink]

And the Gutsy Gibbon seems to run great on them too! http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006278o-2000331777b,00.htm

Asus Eee PC 701 vs. Alphasmart Neo

[__aaclcg7560]

For general word processing, how would the Asus Eee PC 701 compare against the Alphasmart Neo?

Re:Asus Eee PC 701 vs. Alphasmart Neo

[OrangeTide]

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).

Re:Asus Eee PC 701 vs. Alphasmart Neo

[MBHkewl]

Do you really use a laptop to just type" nowadays?

You're more likely to have a copy online (GMail?), to keep it in a safe place, and/or share it with certain people. So, the wifi comes in handy.
Having a general purpose tool is better than a restricted one, especially when they come at the same price.

Then again, you might have issues with the keyboard.

Re:Asus Eee PC 701 vs. Alphasmart Neo

[faedle]

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.

Link to the photos

[cerberusss]

Here's a .

And if it's slow, here's the coral cache: pic1
pic2
pic3
pic4
pic5
pic6
pic7
pic7
pic7


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.

Re:Link to the photos

[eddy]

How about some videos, complete with size comparison against a 15.4"'er.... Note the funny 'hey, a USB-memory just works on linux, huh?!' stuff in there. Hilarious if it weren't so sad.

Re:Link to the photos

[Darundal]

They didn't note that a USB Thumbdrive was instantly recognized (which it would be) but that a wireless mouse was recognized and was working immediately upon insertion of the mouse's wireless adaptor. Which ultimately does seem to be the kind of thing that one would note if that person was not a Linux user. While you say it is sad that they note that, it is actually sad that it is worth noting. When I got my current mouse (an Ideazon Reaper which I won at QuakeCon) Windows refused to recognize it until I had installed the damned drivers for it, whereas with my Ubuntu install, it worked perfectly the second I plugged it in (DPI switching and all).

User Site

[MrCopilot]

http://www.eeeuser.com/

Great Unboxing / Hands on review.

Can't wait for them to go on sale stateside.

Re:User Site

[Superpiduh]

A nice review (with videos) here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2604764

Re:User Site

[AncientPC]

According to that site, the 4G will launch in US on 11/1/07. I wonder when the 8G will be available, and the prices for each model ($245 for 2G / $440 for 4G?).

It looks very promising

[fredboboss]

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

What about installing fave Distro?

[mooterSkooter]

So, yeah, how simple would it be to install another distro and what distro is on there now? I mean, would ubuntu run well on it or would I have to use DSL (which I'm tinkering with right now)

Re:Smalll inexpensive linux thin client - fantasti

[mrbill1234]

The wikipedia article implies that there is a fan and the next version of the Eee due in April 2008 will be without one.

Fantastic niche market machine

[asc99c]

There's my new support laptop sorted out. This looks very well targeted at the ever expanding groups of people who always just might need to get to a PC at any given time. I spend half my life on out-of-hours support for various systems.

There's a 15 minute response time so I can normally just throw the laptop in the car boot - as a result I've got a fantastic 17" laptop which is great for working on. But it's more luggable than portable. The occasions when I'm going to be more than 15 mins from the car, it's a real pain carrying a laptop weighing over 4 kilos.

I've been in the market for an ultra-portable for the last year. All it needs to do is run Putty, have a web browser, and VNC back to the office for any specialist applications. It'll probably only be used once or twice a week - and by used I mean carried around with me just in case - it'll get switched on less than that. Finally got something on the market at the right price.

Not that good value now

[reclusivemonkey]

I saw the news about this a while back before it was released. However I was recently bought a laptop by my sister for £300 from Tescos here in the UK. Its a Gateway ML3108b and runs Linux just fine (although the soundcard doesn't seem to work). When you look at the price of fully fledged laptops now, this doesn't seem much of a deal.

Re:Not that good value now

[mrbill1234]

I think the issue here is the size of the Eee, not the features. You won't find something of the Eee's side for that price.

This and the OLPC are going start a revolution

[DrXym]

The Asus EEE is the perfect device for using on planes, coffee shops, lecture halls, holidays etc. It has a decent suite of apps, has wifi, can (in theory) run anything Linux has to offer, it's tiny and it's very, very cheap. I imagine you could even use one of this on an airline tray which is impressive in itself.

The price is also important. It sucks if it gets dropped or stolen but not as much as if it happened to a Vaio costing 4x as much. I expect people will be tossing these eee devices into backpacks rather than hauling around enormous laptop cases. If I were Microsoft I would be very scared by the trend these ultracheap laptops will start. Not only do they demonstrate that Windows is not a necessity, they'll act as a wedge for Firefox, OpenOffice, and Linux too.

The same applies to the OLPC assuming they produce a commercial variant. They really should since I predict there is a lot of money to be made if they did.

...but will it run Vista?

[adamofgreyskull]

Seeing as everything from a battleship to your grandparent's electric blanket will run Linux, I think we need a new meme...

Re:...but will it run Vista?

[solevita]

But can it perform cunnilingus on a hardwood floor?

Re:...but will it run Vista?

[the_brobdingnagian]

Yes, but does it run OpenBSD? Seriously, I would like to know if all devices (wireless, graphics...) work under OpenBSD.

Re:...but will it run Vista?

[IHateEverybody]

But can it perform cunnilingus on a hardwood floor?

You'll need a Roomba for that job.

Re:Smalll inexpensive linux thin client - fantasti

[kripkenstein]

And the Gutsy Gibbon seems to run great on them too! http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006278o-2000331777b,00.htm Well no, not according to that article:

There are some problems to fix. The wi-fi adaptor isn't working (it's an Atheros I haven't encountered before), there have been a couple of odd battery messages, and selecting power down from the desktop doesn't actually turn the PC off. No wifi would be a showstopper for me personally. But anyhow, it does seem like this might be workable. Perhaps somebody will throw together an Eeebuntu? :)

Re:Hm..

[Aladrin]

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.

Re:Travel computer

[Skuldo]

I just typed that into Google and bingo:
http://www.google.com/search?q=battery+powered+usb+dvd+drive

Re:Smalll inexpensive linux thin client - fantasti

[ydrol]

See first comment in TFA :)

Eclipse

[Bloater]

But can I run eclipse on it? and fit the gcc/g++ toolchain and all the intermediate build files for my projects on its flash storage?

Re:Too bad it has Xandros aboard

[westlake]

The day you sell the Eee PC without a preloaded distro

The day a retailer tries to sell a laptop without an OEM system install is the day they go bankrupt.

The Geek can play Roulette with distros that may or may not support his hardware out-of-the box. The rest of us can't afford to gamble hundreds of dollars on the chance that we can probably get this thing to work.

The day the hardware manufacturer ignores Microsoft [Q1 revenues up 25%] is the day they go bankrupt.

Re:Not through the nose

[aurispector]

"And it is enough to start the revolution"

The unique thing is these three things in one package: price, size and linux. My luggable-not-portable inspiron 1200 filled the "cheap" niche but loses on size and was only available with xp.

This thing just might be wildly popular if it turns out to be as great as it looks. If it is, the overall price of pc's and laptops in particular ought to be dragged down. Linux gets a free boost since non-linux users attracted to the package will give it a try and undoubtedly like it. The ultraportability makes it obvious that you CAN'T expect it to run heavy duty apps - it's a web surfing/email box.

Out of the box, it will do what it was obviously designed to do and please almost everyone. I sincerely doubt many current non-linux users will really care about the lack of Windows once they see how well it works.

I also hope is ships soon as it's really annoying to have to keep emptying this drool bucket.

Re:Alphasmart makes me sick.

[faedle]

To defend AlphaSmart:

Part of the reason why the machine had an "outrageous" price is mostly because it's a specialty device manufactured in small quantities, and AlphaSmart provides a whole lot of support to their purchasers. They never intended to market the device to end users: it was designed, marketed, and sold primarily to the educational channel. A lot of the larger educational customers weren't paying full list for the product, but even so, it's been priced at under $500 for quite some time.

The Neo is currently $219, which seems totally in line with a mature product based on a low-end 16-bit CPU (IIRC, the Neo is a 68000-derived chip) and Flash memory. While the parts might be $10.. I don't know if you've ever done small-run production before, but it would not surprise me if it cost them (today) $50 per unit to build at a typical job shop. That margin is totally in-line with a lot of other specialized electronics.. you think the $3000 plasma sets at Circuit City cost more than $600 to make? They don't.

Additionally, AlphaSmart used to be very "friendly" with repairs and returns. A lot of the cost of the device included after-sales support. I worked in their repair shop (at least a number of years back, they did ALL of their repairs here in the US), and you'd be surprised what kids can do to these things in an educational environment. Often times, we'd be rebuilding machines for free, or for parts-cost if it was a broken display. We also refurbed the units for schools on a regular basis (send us your entire stock, and we'll clean them up, put the latest software, etc.) dirt cheap.

Lastly, to AlphaSmart's credit, the machine isn't a sloppily assembled Chinese piece of crap toy. It is sturdily built, well thought out, and well supported by the company...

CNet is just embarassing

[ealar dlanvuli]

"The Eee PC is theoretically fast enough to run Windows XP, which is great news for those of us without beards."

This is not the quote of a professional review. This is what I would expect to read in a slashdot post written by a astroturfer or a troll. CNet has become increasingly worse, but now I think it may have jumped the shark into tabloid land. I can't believe any competent editor allowed this drivel through, and even worse a professional writer thought it was acceptable if it wasn't put there by one of the editors.

I think it might be time for /. to stop linking to CNet. At least, ones with Rory Reid, Jason Jenkins, and Shannon Doubleday involved in any way.

Sean

Re:CNet is just embarassing

[hey!]

"The Eee PC is theoretically fast enough to run Windows XP, which is great news for those of us without beards."

Which means ... women can't use Linux. Men of east asian descent like me could use linux, but we don't because people would laugh at the kind of linux use we could manage.

Re:CNet is just embarassing

[Spacezilla]

Jeez, it's a joke, lighten up! If you're going to go through your entire life being insulted that easily, you're in for a rough ride and you're going to be missing out on a lot of fun!

Humour impaired much?

[Anonymous Coward]

All sorts of professionals use humour in their work, even those working in far more serious, far more dangerous lines of work (eg. doctors who dress in funny clothes when working with children, pilots who tell jokes over the intercom to put passengers at ease). If you are so humour impaired as to not understand that there is room for a bit of humour in nearly all lines of work, please try to stop being such an emotionless robot and join the rest of us out here in the real world.

Re:Hm..

[Constantine XVI]

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.