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Hands-On With the Windows XP-Based Asus Eee PC
MojoKid writes "Though the Asus Eee PC Windows XP variant isn't due out until sometime in April, HotHardware was able to get their hands on a full retail bundle before they hit store shelves in the US. The standard assortment of accoutrements is included in the bundle, along with a couple of notable upgrades. Asus took the initiative to provide an additional 4GB SD card from Adata, a healthy storage expansion for the system. In addition, an Asus-branded optical mouse was thrown in for good measure. Microsoft's Windows Live messenger, photo gallery and email suite are pre-installed on the the machine for collaborative and social networking capability, in addition to Microsoft Works for word processing, spreadsheets, and calendar functionality."
Aaaand the good link.
I can't wait to get my hands on one of these, and put Linux on it.
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
I'm not sure I'd run out and get the XP version with only a 4 GB SSD just yet (albeit with an additional 4 GB card). The 8 GB is available now (see http://backpackcomputing.com/ for the link). Also, a version with an 8.9 inch screen, but the same overall form factor should be out in a few months.
I thought that Microsoft was withdrawing Windows XP from the market in a couple of months. Are they still going to offer it on these low-end machines?
I love how XP computers are still making headlines in their releases...News like this has to be a real slap in the face to Microsoft with the tireless Vista promotion, when XP is still big news.
Aren't people gonna want to install the office 07 suite on that thing? I mean, when i make vmware images for xp, the minimum is 8-10 gigs. isn't microsoft works... no... i'm gonna stay away from the microsoft bashing.. I just see people wanting more standard performance out of it than it can really do. We shall see who lasts the longest before their Eee complains about low disk space. I guess if they want to use it as a web browser and email reader, they would have to use a few gigs to get outlook on there. only communists use mozilla anything. nutscrape. yeah.
I guess if you drag your knuckles....
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
I'm going to wait for the bigger screen. http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/hands-on-with-the-9-inch-eee-pc/
Marginally off-topic I suppose; not related to the Eee PC at all.
When I was in high school, I considered ASUS the market leader in PC components: excellent quality, good price point. I always bought an ASUS motherboard at upgrade time. But around the turn of the millennium, their products started getting worse and worse: poor stability and interoperability, barely competitive on price. Nowadays I stay away from them completely. Note that I'm speaking exclusively of motherboards; I don't believe I've ever used any of their other products.
I suppose the turning point coincides with an increased focus on non-motherboard components. Maybe that's the answer: their focus and business plan expanded, to the detriment of their flagship product line?
Why would anyone even get one of the 4G-X models? The new model with XP will have an 8gb ssd, a gig of RAM, and a touch screen. It'll be released sometime during April.
:P
The price has crept up to within $100 of a "standard" basic notebook. The only thing this little machine has going for it is size - 800 x 480 is utterly useless because you spend too much time dealing with cartoonishly huge windows. I run into this kind of trouble every time I visit my parent's house and attempt to use their machine set to 800 x 600 - it's bloody unproductive. I'd gladly reconsider the eee when they release the upcoming version with a 1024 x not-quite-enough screen, but I fear the price will be at least $399 for a semi-usable configuration.
I just bought one of the linux base ones from newegg, and I looked around a bit. The midrange 4 gig model sells for about $350, and the 4 gig model with the webcam and a better battery goes for $399, with linux.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=eee+pc&x=0&y=0
Now they are trying to say that they are going to sell a windows based version bundled with a bunch of other stuff for only $399?
The only way I see that happening is if Microsoft pays them to do it. If they are selling a smaller bundle with a free operating system for the same price. I call shenanigans.
once more into the breach
Yea, It's a real slap in the face when older OS versions are capable and reliable enough to build new products around.
I've got a friend with an old iMac. It's got OS9 on it and works just fine. What a slap in the face for Apple.
At least according to the specs on newegg.com this thing has VGA out. If one can squeeze PowerPoint onto the thing, it would make the ultimate PowerPoint presentation machine. A mere two pounds, ultra-small, and more than capable of giving PowerPoint presentations that aren't overly loaded with multimedia.
Can anyone verify the presence of a VGA port? eeepc.asus.com doesn't specify, though it may be because every other page on its website is down at the moment.
The WinXP version will retail for 399USD. This includes the SD card and an extra mouse. As far as I know the retail price for the 4G linux version is 399USD. So I am struggling to understand the economy here, provided that the Linux is (supposedly) free. Is actually MS paying to get XP in these things? Or is Xandros license actually more expensive than WinXP license? Please, help me to understand...
These devices work better with GNU/Linux, so I hope the Windows version flops. Asus is unable to supply the GNU/Linux version as it is, so they must have lost their minds to roll out the XP version on hardware that only works when you stuff up SD card with binary crap.
The full featured Xandros OS fits in about 200MB. It includes open office, flash, firefox, Google mail and chat links, Skype and other software that can use the webcam and a reasonable media player. This way, the 4GB model is a good convergence device providing movie playback, music, business software and a video phone. Movies? Yes, they play great off USB thumb drives and you might be able to stream them to yourself with kmplayer. In other words, it does everything the other thin laptops want to do and does it with 1/4 the hardware and power use. Sweet isn't it?
The upshot is that you can get the XP version and have a hard time keeping it working or the Linux version that works today, but the price will come down eventually. Right now Asus is having trouble delivering 1/3 of demand due to battery shortages. Other hardware makers are sure to rush into the gap and prices will fall. If you think Steve Ballmer is shitting bricks now, just imagine him when these devices hit the projected $200 mark. Xandros and Asus have handed him his ass.
Why not put Open Office on it? I work at a college, and papers submitted in MS Works are compatible with nothing, not even Word. You can get a translation file for Word, but it loses all the document formatting.
Perhaps nothing will undermine Windows as much as EEE PC. The Linux version has been quite popular. The Windows version is more expensive and will suck. That must get people wondering....
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Why bother when you could just use Google Docs? Opps, I mean uhhh, you just can't do "serious office work" with an ultraportable unless you use Open Office. No! That sounds even worse, I'm sorry. Just use the Xandros version. Oh, I give up this comment is such a Microsoft bash. I'm a hater, sob, a biggot who wants the baby Balmer to cry.
You need help
Hands on - Apply directly to my fist.
The Eee couldn't have been designed just for kids:
One of their marketing photos has a blond woman with large breasts using it at the beach.
They should have added Norton security and then compared its speed against the Linux version...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
The game.
ASUS doesn't need to make a smartly customized eeePC with a choice set of applications . . . that's called the eeePC. The XP version is for people who can't see past the lack of their comfort zone, or desperately require XP for some reason. Plus, for people who are in that interesting demographic that loves/needs XP but would prefer OpenOffice over works, well hey, it's "OpenOffice.org" for a reason
Plus, have you gotten the impression (ie. do you remember the quotes) that ASUS was never too keen on XP in the first place? Hell, this Xandros-based distro on the eeePC is their baby, I'd suspect that at least some members of the company are sneering at running XP but realize there's a market for it, and their reaction to that reality amplifies the points I've made above.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
Did anyone besides me see that "Microsoft Works" and read it "Microsoft Wonks"?
Scary thought.
Is the price of the mouse and the 4GB SD card worth the shame of buying a license for MSXP and MSWorks?
(Probably need the extra SD if you're going to run MS software, I'd guess.)
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
$350 for linux version. $399 for Win XP w/ 4 GB SD flash (~$20), a cheap mouse (~$10). Sounds like a price of ~$20 for XP. Maybe Microsoft is already being competitive with their pricing of Windows in certain places. That, or there is still some price discrimination.
I know its not a popular subject around here, but putting Linux on a notebook costs money as well. There has to be someone to call when it doesn't work.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I'm also curious about the price.
I just bought a 4G (with free carrying case!) this past Thursday from a local small computer store (that I have been a regular at for over 10 years). I asked the owner what the mark up is on the system and he told me that ASUS sells them to him at 379$ and if he wants to sell them at a price other than 399$, he needs to get written permission from them 14 days in advance. He can't even have a sale for them at 389$ without telling them and getting permission 14 days before the sale, in his words "it's not worth the effort just to cut my profit in half."
What he did mention is that ASUS gives him a quarterly kick back for ever 50 machines he sells, 5000$, and for every 20 2GB memory upgrades, 2000$. As an FYI, the 2GB memory upgrade cost me 50$ and they're not allowed to charge the customers labor in order for it to qualify. Same goes for the various accessories, but he didn't mention what he gets on those, I assume it's comparable. He figured they'd be doing the same with XP when it came available.
Regardless, I installed the Advanced Desktop via apt-get as soon as I got home Thursday night, and have not missed the EEE's default custom desktop one bit.
Note: all prices are in CAD
FYI, In Japan, XP is the only flavor of Eee PC. Not sure about other countries.
You want fun, go home and buy a monkey!
"Movies? Yes, they play great off USB thumb drives..."
Really?
Before I installed a 2 Gig chip, I watched Das Boot with subtitles, and my Eee PC displayed occasional frame drag, and the sound track was slightly off as well.
This off of a 4 Gig memory stick with decent transfer rates, and will play movies on my other PC's without these issues.
So admittedly, I'm skeptical about you're being able to watch movies without any problems with the "stock" 512 Megs of memory.
I do however, use my Eee PC to stream the music for both of my radio shows with the included media player, and it worked wonderfully with the "stock" 512 Megs of memory.!
If it don't GO... chrome it. ~ Frank Banks
I've been looking at these from one of my suppliers, it comes with Linux loaded and "supports XP". There is also a touchscreen adaptation listed by a number of vendors on eBay.
I stopped reading at this point. You seem to be advocating these machines and "GNU/Linux" (personally I prefer just Linux, or the name of the distro), but you need to be realistic about it.
The Ballmer "joke" doesn't help you much, either.
I don't see how this makes the device more useful.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I'm tired of hearing this. The price is on target because it is not a basic notebook. It is an ultra portable device at an affordable price point compared to other ultra portable devices (read ultra portable does not necessarily mean laptop). People buying the eee don't care that the resolution is low, that the device can't play crysis, or that they can get a bigger brick at the same price. All they care about is: is it portable and does it allow me to do email, internet (yes people think browsing web pages == 'internet'), read documents, and run my little apps (IM, youtube, and mp3s).
Until the eee pc came out, every computer manufacturer failed at getting the requirements right for a laptop. It just so happened that asus got it right and that the tech needed (SSDs, CPU speed increases, ram capacity increases) was cheap enough.
However, I still give the OLPC/XO most of the credit for helping to create the market. If all of the news and media coverage of the OLPC never came to be, Asus and others may never have attempted such a device.
The touch screen seems like a far more worthwhile upgrade than WinXP. I hate touch pads. Carrying a mouse is a PIA. And how would you use one standing up, or on your lap?
I don't really mind Windows XP and it does have some advantages, but for the kind of things this machine is built for, it's a little pointless.
Has anyone here tried the touchscreen mod?
and soon to be unsupported OS and software. Wow, how uninteresting.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
But I could be wrong and don't have a way to verify right now. Perhaps I misread the result when I did a df -h months ago. One things for sure, all of the file systems were well below 80% utilization, which is better for ext2 and ext3 filesystem performance.
A 2GB install is not very impressive for a GNU/Linux distribution. GPE and Oppie distributions fit in 64 MB and the world is swarming with 50 MB distributions like Puppy. These are admittedly less functional than a 2GB install and get there by lacking fonts, helpfiles and other stuff. DSL and others like it ride between the extremes and but are aimed at much less capable hardware. 2GB is pretty much a standard Debian install and I expected better of Xandros.
Of course, 2 GB it's still 1/2 to 1/4 of what a Windows system will want to eat up, so the GP post is a good warning. Windows users should wait until larger capacity units are out. They will get better price and selection anyway.
Huh? A local retailer, Dick Smith's --- they're a big chain with stores throughout Australasia --- is selling EeePCs with XP preinstalled already. Are they rolling their own?
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
It seems a good comparison of Eee PC performance with the OS options was forgotten. Being priced the same, the systems are nearly identical, besides OS version with an accessories bribe for the XP model. A logical assumption from this fact would be that the XP Eee PC has poorer performance, and is of inherently less value then the linux model.
Linux is only free if your time (or your friendly neighborhood geek's time) has no value.
Oddly enough, I can play movies on a PIII 500 MHz laptop with 128MB RAM, streamed across the network.
Put identity in the browser.
Until this year I'd have bought the XP version just to run Visual Studio 97 on it (and specifically the VB6 IDE) Now I'm running VS2008, and good luck getting THAT moving on an eeePC. I'm already cursing the 1.8ghz laptop for being incredibly sluggish with the IDE.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
I installed XP on my EEE pc last year. Without some tweaking, the regular size windows XP partition is huge relative to the EEE's HD size. I didn't find it on the article or other posts; how big is the expected partition for EEEs with preinstalled XP?
Is it me, or does "Microsoft Works" immediately sound like an oxymoron? I'm just going to blame the sleep deprivation.
What day is it? Could you please tell me?
Didn't XP selling ended in December last year? if yes, how come these laptops ship with it?
I play standard def MPEG4 (XviD) movies on my Eee 4G running XP SP2 just fine from USB memory stick, USB HDD and over the network (wired and wifi) without any problems. I cannot promise I have had no frame lag but nothing that I can remember. My only criticism is that the volume is a little low for noisier places like on a plane. I just use ffdshow-tryouts to process the audio and blumb it up that way. It is a lovely little portable movie player :)
It's not often mentioned that the Eee pixel size is rather smaller than regular flat screens.
On my 19 inch monitor, an Eee-sized 800x480 window actually corresponds to an 11" diagonal screen. And you use the Eee at much closer distances. At normal operating distance, the 7" Eee screen is almost exactly the same size as that 11" window.
Certainly, I use it differently. On my Eee I put Firefox into full-screen mode, and hide my bookmarks panel. And less than 1 in 40 web sites have problems in display.
Andrew Yeomans
I may be misinformed here, but I think 4GB with WinXP is a slow-motion suicide...
Im not saying WinXP is total crap, but if you look at typical user's installation of any Windows after, hmmm a year or a half, how much space is XP going to take then? How much of this 4GB will be left to use?
My guess: not much.
The $499 Windows Laptops outsell $399 Linux laptops 5:1, he didn't say anything about any laptops that sell for more than $499. 17% of laptops being sold are NOT Linux Laptops, 17% of his bottom of the barrel laptops are Linux Laptops
They have to compete, since obviously Asus has no problems releasing Linux only.
I am sure other PC manufacturers are watching, and may try to market properly speced and functioning Linux offering even if only to get out of idiotic exclusivity agreements with MS (which they should not have signed in the first place).
Ladies and gents, maybe this time the year for Linux in the desktop has really arrived, thanks to a company that saw the bleeding obvious: the differential in price between Linux and Windows. This year of economic downturn will concentrate the minds of a lot of people that will wonder why they should keep paying for more expensive, buggier, standards shy software.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The only thing that truly makes this class of machine interesting to me is the super low price for something that can do basic web surfing and document handling. That it runs Windows or Linux is largely immaterial except for the fact that they have to put in more hardware for it to run Windows and possibly pay for the Windows license. This makes the machine more expensive. A $499 and up machine that will compete with low end notebooks with 1024x768 screens does not excite me. A machine that costs $250 (or even less!) that is focused on certain kinds of basic functionality does.
The cheapy machine is something I can throw in my toolbag and use as such. ASUS continues to pimp these things out and raise the price point. I think they are jumping the shark already.
That is why in the UK you can't get one at all, unless you are willing to wait 3 or 4 months.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
According to the article, "The machine is also built on Intel's 915GM Express chipset with Integrated graphics." We all know what that means - the eee PC is VISTA CAPABLE! http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900863
Then what? there will be a point when Linux is up to scratch for more demanding tasks.
It is not if but when.
The reason Ballmer was blabbering about patents is because they know their normal modus operandi of embrace and extend is simply not going to work. Patent litigation is is plan B, and even that may not be a plan at all if US courts finally see the light and strike down software patents for what they really are: the cave of the Ali Babas of the IT industry.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Well, take a tip from the global financial markets ..... Wait for the inch to take another tumble against the centimetre (which is backed by the light standard, and not about to alter much any time soon ..... it would create chaos for the whole of physics). Then you'll be able to buy a so-called 19" laptop with a screen that is only 28.5cm. across!
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
There are way too many people who wouldn't consider buying it without XP, so they have good reasons to sell it with XP. However unless MS is willing to subsidise it, IF they get sold at the same price point, as the article suggests, (even with more memory on the Linux machine) I would expect Asus to have a higher margin selling EEE with Linux loaded.
The point is that Asus has started a price war for sub-notebooks. There are loads of vendors joining, anyone of these offering Linux will be able to either sell for less, or have a higher margin for selling it with Linux.
Black Asus 701 w/4gb drive - $370
.NET, Winamp, Putty, Notepad++, AVG, and my entire doom collection up to 2 and quake collection up to 3. Works like a charm.
2GB ram and 16GB SD card - $80
5.25" IDE USB enclosure - $40 (Old spare DVD/CD burner)
Mouse, USB - $10
Earphones - $10 (Decent ear plug kind)
Total cost: $510
I slapped a spare copy of XP on the drive, installed Open Office, Paint
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
With the current next gen Eee, I hope they have fixed the tiny shift keys. I'm all in favour for subnotebooks but the love stops when they mess around with the keyboards especially essentials such as Shift, Return and Backspace.
I gotta learn that trick :)
My only concern -- with all these small-screened portables -- is that some applications might not take the smaller screen into account.
I remember stumbling across some (dev)notes saying that GIMP 2.6 (with GEGL) was going to stop supporting 1024 wide screens or something to that effect as 'legacy systems.' So you wouldn't even be able to fire up GIMP to do something if your screen was less than ~1280 pixels wide. (maybe I'm just misunderstanding the notes that I read...)
And how would you use one [mouse] standing up(...)?
Have you tried using your butt as a mousepad? Heh, the image is just horrible...
Stupidity is an equal opportunity striker.
Fellow slashdotter Bill Dog
These guys are amateurs. I'm sure Tom's Hardware or Ars Technica could have gotten this fluff piece up to 15 pages easily.
In Soviet Russia, XP license pays for YOU! -Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
How do you keep the touch screen readable? My EeePC is collecting dust too fast even without greasy fingerprints.
BTW the EeePC touchpad is much better than in (a very old) Compaq.
Have you actually tried the Linux version of the Eee PC? There is essentially NO learning curve at all. I wrote about it here: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/4708
All the activities you describe (browse the web, RSS reader, ebook of sorts, etc.) instantly work out of the box with the Linux version of the Eee PC. That includes connecting to our WAP encrypted home WiFi network, using the web-cam and all that. It was amazing to behold.
My wife, who is non technical, was able to use the thing as it was and out of the box within minutes.
"Though if that's the best argument you can come up with, you shot yourself in the foot instead."
You are absolutely correct, life got real busy round these parts and I couldn't/can't formulate a meaningful response, so I should have just shut up.
Apologies all around, to anyone still following this dead end thread.
Guess I'm human like everyone else here?
If it don't GO... chrome it. ~ Frank Banks
OK, I've got it now...
Thanks to all of you who felt compelled to point out the flaw in my argument.
Never mind that the numbers weren't truly germane to my point.
If it don't GO... chrome it. ~ Frank Banks
According to this post, the Linux support is free.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.