Just What is this ASUS Eee Thing Anyway?

davidmwilliams writes "ASUS have released a cheap subnotebook. It is far from state-of-the-art tech-wise, with 512Mb RAM and a Celeron processor. It has a 4Gb hard drive and no optical drive. Its screen is 7" and runs at the odd resolution of 800x480 and the operating system looks like something Fisher Price might have designed. Why would you buy it? What on earth can you do with this?" I've been wondering this myself given the huge coverage in the media of this thing.

Comments

Tons of Potential

[eldavojohn]

Just What is this ASUS Eee Thing Anyway?

I've been wondering this myself given the huge coverage in the media of this thing. Well, you posted an article about the source for it violating the GPL (a fixed shortly thereafter). You might have learned something about it then. Or you could do a quick search on your site for it and you'd turn up the first review you posted and we discussed.

Believe it or not, the "huge media coverage" that I've noticed of this thing has only been on Slashdot. Other than that, it's a big name manufacturer, in our world it's huge news.

It has a 4Gb hard drive and no optical drive. Its screen is 7" and runs at the odd resolution of 800x480 and the operating system looks like something Fisher Price might have designed. Why would you buy it? What on earth can you do with this? That's not solid logic when you're speaking to a crowd that busts its ass trying to get Linux running on their microwave. I didn't see the reviewer giving any real specific applications of the laptop. Back in college, I used to work with pioneer robots in my classes. The damned things had a 15 lb. Dell notebook mounted on top of them. Ridiculous. Try hauling the robot and the laptop to a demonstration or presentation.

Re:Tons of Potential

[ozmanjusri]

Frankly, it is a geek toy.

Or a useful tool.

We've just put 20 of them out in the field with a custom app for some of our data collectors. They're doing a fine job at a fraction of the price of a UMPC.

It's great

[MrDoh!]

Spent 40 bucks on a 2gb ram upgrade, chucked on an nLited winXp. Now I've got a little utility machine that's /REALLY/ tiny and cute, and didn't cost the earth.
Keeping it light, in both weight and bootup times means it's a great companion to my main dev laptop (Dell M something) that takes an age till it's usuable with all the dev tools/sql servers it loads up. It barely takes up anymore room in my laptop bag, so if I need to check something quick, that comes out, boots in 30 seconds and is good to go on a wireless connection rather than dragging out my main machine.
I love it. Screen is a /bit/ of a pain, and just a smidgeon more screen space would have been great, but it works for what it does.
Tempted to get a white one for the kitchen area, just to have vids playing whilst at the breakfast bar, music playing whilst cooking, or whatever.
9.5/10

Weight, apps available...

[IANAAC]

I can see the allure of a device like this.

I personally have a PepperPad 3 that I use while travelling. It came down to weight and the apps available (such as OO.org, Thunderbird/Sunbird, etc.).

I do a lot of travelling and lugging a 6 pound laptop w/accessories through airports sucks. With a fully functional Linux distro on my PP3, I can now use a much smaller messenger bag, and everything, including full-sized external keyboard and mouse, weighs in at less than 3 pounds. And it does everything I need it to while travelling.

What this little machine is....

[CodeShark]

Is faster than anything I owned in the 1990s with a bit less permanent memory.

Seems to me I remember the day when a 640K operating system and a 40Meg disk were king, so having 1.5 Gig left over to play with after the OS is loaded --that's like luxury space. Oh, and I can go back and get more permanent memory if I delete some stuff if won't ever use, can add and subtract multiple versions of multi-gigabyte portable (SD) memory, and if I use a USB Wifi stick, I can connect even to the web at pretty good speed?

What this thing is is portable. Medium powered. Flexible. Ideal for a Linux person like me who would like to have a road warrior unit he can live with -- without the backache.

Re:What can you do with it?

[darjen]

That's exactly my problem with it... you have to carry it in a bag/briefcase. As it says in TFA:

Perhaps it may not suit you as your primary workhorse but there's no denying that the Eee is king of mobility.

I honestly think that title belongs to the Nokia N810 tablet. After all, you get a screen with the same resolution with a built-in keyboard in a form factor that fits in your pocket. I don't work for Nokia... just a fan of that particular product. Sure, the N810 might have about half the processing power (clocked at 400 mhz compared to the EEE PC's 900 MHz), but if we're just talking about mobility, isn't the EEE is about as mobile as a typical subcompact notebook? Which I admit is pretty mobile... but in the end it still requires a carrying case.

Fast and Cheep, but not Powerful???

[TheCycoONE]

Sure, it's not state-of-the-art - but when it comes to laptops you have three competing demands - fast, cheap, powerful - but you only get to choose two I think the author confused laptops with some technology where fast and powerful weren't the same thing - like tractors. Personally I thought weight, battery life, speed, disk space, price, screen real estate, and durability were the competing factors in laptop design. This laptop chose weight, speed, and price over the others.

I'm planning to roll it out for a hospital

[jkrise]

At a hospital I consult with; the IT penetration is surprisingly very poor among doctors. The hospital typically receives 600 patients a day; of which about 275 are diabetics - who require repeated visits over years. There are about 150 in-patients who typically stay for 4.5 days before discharge.

IT usage is about 60% for the in-patients; but less than 12% for out-patients. The problem? Doctors are fed up with using PCs - Windows or Linux. Some of their biggest complaints:

1. Long boot time; Linux is only slightly better here; and Vista is downright pathetic and consequently been banned. The EEE PC boots up in less than 20 seconds and the GUI is immediately functional. No need for any useless login, active desktop, active directory etc.

2. Ultra portable - so the doctor can carry it to the wards and rooms; and dictate into it when necessary. Very cumbersome with laptops; tablets are better; but very expensive compared to the EEE (1:8).

3. Wakes up from suspend in less than 2 seconds - unparalleled.

4. The interface is very user friendly and makes sense without training - unlike Windows.

Surprisingly, this is still not widely avbl in India. Ingram Micro is getting it in the 3rd week of Jan. as I hear. We are ordering about 120 units for our doctors; who are genuinely thrilled with a computer for the first time in their lives.

****

A second appln. is for an e-governance system whereby citizens apply for assistance - there are about a dozen welfare schems like for handicapped, destitutes, old age pension, widow pension etc. The EEE PC is much more functional than a laptop and can be easily carried to the villages by trained self-help-group women assistants. The e-governance appln. is a web-enabled semi-offline-capable system; so even if there is no broadband; the locally installed LAMP appln. gives a very similar look-and-feel; once in a few days it gets synced with the main server.

Being about 25% of the price and weight of a laptop makes the EEE PC very handy for both these situations.

Re:What can you do with it?

[afedaken]

I've done an N810, and a EEE. The EEE wins for me hands down. Larger screen, and keyboard instead of a thumb board. I'll take a thumb board over T9 predictive entry, but I'll take a touch type-able keyboard (even one as cramped as the EEE's) over a thumb board any day.

I can text message with my phone (ATT Tilt), but the EEE makes slashdot doable, and the web in general a lot more pleasant than it was on the 810.