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First Full Review of New Asus Eee PC 900
An anonymous reader writes "After months of rumors, the new 8.9in screen Eee PC is out in the open and the first review is online. As well as the larger screen you get 1GB RAM, 20GB Storage and a multi-touch touchpad. It costs more than the old Eee PC, but it definitely sounds like it's worth the extra cash." I always thought the appeal of the original was the ridiculously low price, coupled with the ease of hacking. Not sure if the sequel will meet that challenge.
They say if you want the 20gig model with XP - your best bet is to buy the linux version and install xp yourself. But I heard somewhere that xp has problems on the eee pc. Though maybe that is just the 7 inch version and this newer machine will do better.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
A less-than-2-hour battery life is a huge problem for a machine touting itself as an ultra-portable. Everything else on these new models are pretty much spot-on. But a short battery life sort of defeats the purpose, methinks, unless their slogan is "Take it anywhere, just not too far from an outlet."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
They all seem to have pretty close pricing, for example the HP's 2133:
... anywhere from a $499 system running Linux to a $749 model using Microsoft's Windows Vista Business operating system. The low-end Linux version, which sports a 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM--is probably the closest matchup for the Eee. The Vista machine we review here today sits at the top-end with a 1.6GHz CPU and 2GB of RAM. I'm glad to see healthy competition in this market. I know some people are going to hate the non-standard stuff going on with these laptops and there's going to be some dirty tactics to 'lock-in' countries to purchase only a certain brand for schools (*cough* Intel/Microsoft *cough*) but these prices are going to continue to be driven down. Which from $400-$500 is a great price!While it may not be the year of Linux on the desktop, it's certainly the year of Linux on the super freaking tiny notebook that is difficult to type on (yes, I know what a USB keyboard is).
My work here is dung.
It's a new low for /. when "First!" appears in a story title.
The whole point is that it's so small, hence "ultraportable".
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
I'm 6'5" tall and have big hands. As I type this on my Asus 701 4G I can say I've had no problems with keyboard size. For what I do with the laptop it just works.
Screen isn't too big of an issue either. For sitting in meetings and taking notes it wins hands down compared to other laptops. I wish I had this when I was taking college courses and lugging around that old Dell Inspiron 8000. This thing would have blown that out of the water back then.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
What people like about the Eee is that it does 90% of what a computer does for the price and portability of a cell phone.
Toying with that formula is unwise. Instead, further pare down the bloated Xandros and XP installs so that people can use a 4-8 GB machine.
I thought they were going to install Intel's Atom in the next revision?
Regardless, the Eee is an important step for open source and Linux. See Asus Micro Laptop Brings Linux to the Desktop.
technical writing / development
Thank you, Miss Teen South Carolina.
At 329 pounds, that's about $650.00 bucks. You can get a full-sized laptop with twice the ram, more than 10x the storage, a bigger screen, etc., for under $500.00
Smaller electronics have traditionally cost more even as they offered fewer features (think what you could get in a desktop for $500 these days). Perhaps people balk in this case because this machine has so many features that they simply don't think it is worth more? Wait. . .I personally believe that American kids in such as in Europe and South Africa don't have Linux because they don't have ISOs.
You can get a full-sized laptop with twice the ram, more than 10x the storage, a bigger screen, etc., for under $500.00
I dare say you have completely missed the point of this device. The whole point is that it's not "full-sized".
No, you don't have a regular laptop. At 2lbs, the Eee 700 or 900 is about 2/3 the weight of a Thinkpad X61, about 1/2 the bulk, and about 1/2 the price as well. An X61 is a very small notebook by most peoples standards to begin with. It's already half the weight of the "average" ~5lb notebook, and much smaller than 6-8lb desktop replacement monstrosities. The Eee wins, even at the ~$500 I expect the US release to be priced at, by being a notebook you can literally carry in your (man)purse. Like a lightweight messenger bag.
i was looking at getting a new laptop to use between work and home.. i wanted soemthing extremaly light and usable.. i was in a toss up .. buy a cheap eeepc and give it a try or dump a good sum of money on a purpos built ultra light..
.. so i used it for a day.. while i have to say it is a wonderful thing.. it is not something i would want to do any real amount of work on.
.. tack on a media base with dvd burner and DVI out.. that acts as a docking station.. paid 1100$ all said and done.. sure it is 2-3x the price of an EeePC.. but it beats the living crap out of it..
by boss got an EeePC to play with
instead i got in on the dell latitude clearence they did in Feb.. picked up a D420.. with media base.. it weights in at 2.8lbs with extended battery.. i get 6 1/2 hours on a full charge.. a nice 1280x800 screen size.. Intel Core Duo at 1G. 1.5g of ram and 80gb drive
the EeePC falls into a gray area of the market.. if i had a kid.. yea an EeePC all the way.. but if i was going to use this thing on a dail basis.. i would have to some how shrink my fingers
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
I saw a post the other day pointing out that Asus were not evangelizing Linux - it just happened to be the best O/S for their needs.
Well you could've fooled me. They're doing a better job than those that are doing it deliberately. 20G vs 12G, sweet.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
"Assuming you have a spare copy"
And assuming you have a spare USB CD-ROM drive. Or does XP come on an SD-card?
I had the previous version of the eee and returned it after a few weeks. I bought it to use while traveling and it was functionally fine. But when I tried to use it in my lap (at conferences and on the bus, train, etc.), it had an annoying habit of flopping over onto its back. With the battery in the back undre the the hinge, there is not enough weight under the keyboard. When used at the slightest incline, it flops onto its back (to view the screen well you have to tilt any laptop down a bit when it is resting on your thighs). Hopefully they fixed this problem with the new version. Where did the speakers move to? if they put them up front that might help.
Electronics always cost more in the UK though. I don't think you can get anything for less than that over here, apart from some ultra-budget machines such as the basic Eee.
Unless there is absolutely some major reason you need Doom and the heavyweight versions of office applications with you at all times, you can do better with an HPC Pro machine.
I picked up a couple of NEC MobilePro machines for $50 on eBay. Windows CE 3, with Pocket Office, Pocket Internet Explorer, etc. I also picked up a Cabletron Roamabout PCMCIA wireless card for $10 with free shipping.
I get:
- Touch-type-able keyboard same as Eee PC
- Less weight
- Less bulk
- Instant on, instant off
- MS Pocket Office and a reasonable range of CE apps
- Many hours of battery life (at least 6)
- If you really need "FULL" Office, you can get SoftMaker office for $100
Just for fun, I tried installing NetBSD on one of these with X using a 4GB CF card and it worked fine, just like any X desktop. But I decided that I just wanted the original functionality so it's back to Windows CE for me, with 4GB of storage and a touch-type-able keyboard and all for $60 cash, and it's small enough to sit on your lap, open, on the subway even in rush hour crowds, which can't be said for the Eee PC.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
and this would make the perfect device for my sensibilities.
First make a dockable bluetooth headset so that it will recharge and be available when I want it, not sitting on my desk where I forgot it.
Second, add a cell phone with a sim chip slot so I can transfer my cell service onto the laptop.
I think that this is where they are heading, especially seeing as the Intel atom cpu they are scheduled to switch to has cell network capability built in.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
That £329 includes VAT. Take that off, and it's £280, which is $560 before adjusting for UK markup, so probably $499 US.
And the point is that it is small but nippy. The SSD provides the latter. I could throw this into my bag and use it on the train without needing to carry a dedicated laptop case, and a massive overall weight and volume difference.
If you don't need a small system, then it isn't for you.
You can install XP using a USB stick: http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/installing-windows-xp-from-usb-thumb.html
No. The whole point of the eee pc was that it was a tiny 300 euro laptop that was announced in an era where the cheapest laptops you could buy cost around twice as much. Moreover, it was announced in an era where the hardware industry was still shoving the idea that systems like the eee pc were ultra-specialized hardware that could only be bought for a huge premium.
Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
You can copy the contents of an XP CD to a USB memory stick, an SD card, anything like that and install it from there although you may have to make it bootable, but that's no big deal.
A quick search on Google will give you any details you need!
Dell D420s are excellent machines. I've used them for testing and they are actually an excellent form factor. Small enough to chuck into a backpack but big enough that you don't notice the keyboard being cramped.
With a 9 cell battery you can get 6 hours of use
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/92149/dell-latitude-d420.html
And it comes with a built in cellular modem so you don't need to hunt for wifi hotspots. In Sweden you can get flat rate 7.2Mbit HSDPA for about 30 US$ per month. That plus a D420 and a 9 cell battery is a very useful thing indeed.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Screen isn't too big of an issue either. For sitting in meetings and taking notes it wins hands down compared to other laptops. I wish I had this when I was taking college courses and lugging around that old Dell Inspiron 8000. This thing would have blown that out of the water back then. Mum, is that you?
From The Article:
because Asus has come up with a far better method. Instead of having to place your finger right at the edge of the touchpad to scroll, the Eee PC 900 will let you scroll from anywhere in the touchpad, as long as you use two fingers.
I am surprised that nobody else has thought of this feature:-P Great going Asus for being a real innovator.
I bought an EEE PC a month ago. Just last week I enabled the expert desktop mode after some fiddling around with a stubborn synaptic(ugh just purge the finicky entries, won't you?). I find it a lot easier to use than my Ubuntu server sitting downstairs(on a 700Mhz Athlon). Is it the speed? No. Ask me where I can set the mouse wheel scroll speed on the Ubunutu machine, and I won't know. Easily found it via the large-size Control Panel equivalent on the EEE.
Initially, I balked at the idea of having Linux run on such a nice piece of hardware, thinking I would switch to Xp instantly. Nope, I will keep it, even after years of frustration trying to use Linux as a workstation before. I'm not running it out of Linux advocacy, I'm running it since it actually freakin' works this time. Actively using google's apps already(gmail, etc), it was a nice little touch to have them linked already on the little frontent.
Sure, I can't quite get gcc running yet to compile downloaded apps, but I'm doing just great everywhere else. Hooking it up to a keyboard, mouse & monitor makes it a nice little workstation.
yeap yeap.. i didn't get the built in HSDPA beacuse i have teathering with my cell phone - so i jsut got the blue tooth.. and set that up..
so yea if i need net access i just open the con manager on the phone and say wireless modem and i am online.. very damn useful.. while the built in one would be nice.. at the time of ordering it was an extra 300$ and service for it around here is 60$ a month.. so i figured sence i already had it with the phone for 40$ a month and i would have to keep that anywyas.. i would just deal with that single extra step..
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
I bought a $350 laptop (Dell B150) almost three years ago.
Cheap laptops are nothing new, and anyone who bought an eeePC because it was cheap and not because it was small was probably unhappy with it, because even years ago you could get a full-size laptop for that price.
After a certain point, small isn't better - it interferes with useability. Look at cell phone keypads - some of them are now too small for anyone with even average-sized hands.
I'd rather lug my 17" around, and have a full-sized keyboard, lots of screen real estate and all the other goodies, than something that is just too darned small to use properly.
Kevin Smith on Prince
I am working on a project to "liberate" the EeePC so it runs only Free Software as defined by the Free Software Foundation.
Already, most of the bits are there, but need to be patched in to the kernel (e.g. ACPI, "eee.ko", ATL2 ethernet). There is no free wifi driver working yet, but it is actively being worked on as a part of ath5k.
The other main non-free part is the BIOS. Hopefully someday we'll be able to get coreboot running.
My notes, docs, code, etc:
http://www.blagblagblag.org/pub/BLAG/developers/jebba/eee/
git repository of patched kernel:
git://blaggit.blagblagblag.org/linux-freeeee
-Jeff
There's also a Sound Recorder and a Games icon, which gives you access to a handful of pre-loaded games, including the obligatory Solitaire.
I have a feeling this guy frequents Slashdot...typical reviewers would say "standard Solitaire."
www.purevolume.com/martyd
My former laptop is an older IBM stinkpad - great machine, but the keyboard is too small. I prefer - no, make that I DEMAND a full-sized keyboard. Maybe the smaller keyboards are ok for people who do hunt-and-peck, but nothing can replace full-sized keyboard. That's why I opted for a 17" laptop when the time came.
I have a friend who is going through a bout of RSI which was probably caused by excess use of the smaller keyboard on his laptop. They're awkward as all hell, and not worth the pain (literally).
One of the guys at the office spent several times what I spent, so he could buy a really small laptop. People went "Oh, wow! That is SMALL", but the one that everyone *wants* is mine - the one with the big screen, full-sized keyboard, remote control, tons of disk space, etc.
When it comes to actual use, size * does * count. Sure, it weighs more - but in terms of useability, pound-for-pound, kilo for kilo, dollar for dollar, it's the better value.
Kevin Smith on Prince
My 17" laptop fits in my briefcase, along with loads of papers, etc. A "dedicated laptop case" justs screams "STEAL ME!".
Put the briefcase on my lap, closed, and the 17" on top, and I'm good to go, everything at the right height, etc. And let's face it, there's a BIG difference between a 900mhz celeron and even the slowest dual-core 64-bit cpu, if you want "nippy". Ditto for 20 gig vs 320 gig of hd space.
If you had to chose just one, which one would YOU choose?
Kevin Smith on Prince
I couldn't care less. Your dad doesn't carry my bag, I do. Listing the people who agree with you is useless.
And? Other people don't want to, and you're not them.
It seems you think your opinion is relevant to others purchases when the truth is I buy what I want for my needs, and what you think doesn't matter at all.
That sounds like and good incentive to encourage people to try out linux, but does that truly reflect the cost of XP? Is XP even worth 8GB of solid state memory?
And wait until people figure out how easy it is in a Eee PC with Linux to NFS mount a drive to their older PCs running Linux with new 500GB drives.
mount 192.168.1.10:/home/movies /movies /home/movies/hackers.mp4 /movies
cp
And if the newer 32GB USB drives are not enough as an adjunct, Seagate has even bigger portable drives. These are like portable DVD players, music juke boxes and PCs all in one.
And... is that allowed by the EULA? (No, I haven't read it)
So say we all
I couldn't care less. Your dad doesn't carry my bag, I do. Listing the people who agree with you is useless.
Hmm, well my dad and you can't. Maybe you're just not very good at what you're trying to do.
And? Other people don't want to, and you're not them.
It seems you think your opinion is relevant to others purchases when the truth is I buy what I want for my needs, and what you think doesn't matter at all.
Well if you don't care what I think, why did you bother to respond? Personally I think whining about three extra pounds is useless. I'm guessing you've never been to the gym, because three pounds is very light, when you're talking about going from three to six. Seriously, if you think eight pounds total is a problem, you probably should re-examine your lifestyle.
My opinion becomes more relevent when you and other fat, lazy people complain about carrying three extra pounds and drive up health insurance premiums.
Set it on top of the keyboard and wait for osmosis to kick in?
Why oh why do they go with a touchpad on such a small device?
I would have already decided to buy one if it had a pointing stick.
The Asus Eee PC is obviously much improved, particularly in the areas of screen size and storage capacity. However, this is a very competitive space. The HP 2133 was recently introduced. It also has a 8.9 inch screen, but has the advantage of a 120 GB HDD option (although it uses a VIA CPU). Intel is begining to rollout it's Atom class CPUs for the UMPC market. Based on a 45 NM process, the Atom based devices should offer much improved battery life and better performance. Also, Dell announced that it is throwing it's hat in the ring, and will probably introduce a device in June, maybe with an Atom CPU. Bottom line: if you can sit tight for two more months you'll probably have many more options. http://backpackcomputing.com/ [backpackcomputing.com]
I guess nobody knows this for the new EEE, but even just for the old one, what is the maximum screen resolution if you hook up an external LCD panel. Could it drive a 20" 1680x1150 panel?
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
Well this looks like a great little deal, but what I really want to know is 'Will it play World of Warcrack' on the Linux desktop? What does it's graphic drivers function like gamewise?
Simnilar;ly, Iu alseo havce lkatrfge fiungerts, amnd nop troiuyblke tuypinbg omn m,y Eere PCV!@
I've got a Thinkpad R61e. Keyboard is very close, if not, fullsized. I love it.
kaens.blogspot.com
I've looked at a *lot* of the eee competitors, and Asus is the only one using an Intel chip (Celron w/512K L2 Cache), AFAIK. The others all use the VIA chip, which only has 128K L2 Cache. Keep that in mind when shopping around for UMPC's.
My next workstation will have eight cores. Screw all this pansy crap.
Cheers,
-l
Help cure AIDS, cancer, and more. Donate your unused computer time to worldcommunitygrid.org. Join Team Slashdot!
I've got to agree. It's hard to imagine an adult more physically pathetic than Hassanchop =)
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
I had a laptop in the mid 90s that cost that much and was about the same size in terms of volume, though it weighed 5 pounds. It was actually a pretty similar user experience, too. The keyboard was annoyingly small, as was the screen, and it took a long time to run anything, just like the EEEPC.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
I have both an Eee and a Nokia N800. I also travel a lot for work, all over the world. Honestly, I've found the N800 to be superior. It's pocketable, instant on, has a sweet set of applications available on the Maemo website, and is something I can have with me in an instant. The Eee is good at night in my hotel room when I want a keyboard and Open Office, but overall if I had to choose between the two, it would be the N800 hands down.
Nice try Asus, but I'll stick with my Compaq Portable.
${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
Not only would a 300GB hard drive make the unit larger and reduce battery time significantly, it would also double the cost of the unit.
For something like the Eee, I think flash is entirely appropriate, and 20GB is a good bunch of storage for a small machine like this.
If you need the 300GB, you could get a USB powered external disk and plug it in to watch your seasons on the go.
Not every product is going to be perfect for everyone, and your claim of trading 512MB RAM for a huge ass hard disk doesn't jive with this product.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
But people mention the price as though it is cheaper than anything else you can get. The summary itself mentions perceiving the "appeal of the original was the ridiculously low price."
I'll stick with the sub-$500 laptops I've been buying for my family, with dual-core processors, widescreen 15" LCDs, fullsize keyboards, plenty of storage space, and DVD+/-RW drives.
In this model the keyboard is bigger than before? Or it is the same?
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
Boot? Battery life?
Boot time is a red herring. I don't think I've actually turned my n800 off since I last updated the firmware. There is really no reason to do so. I just lock it and let it go to suspend.
As for battery life I can leave it in suspend over the weekend and on Monday still easily get 6ish hours of music playing and a lunch's worth of wifi browsing.
I'd love to see better battery life while watching video, playing games or with wifi on, but even when doing those things it'll still trounce the battery life of an eee PC. (by more than an hour) Overall the n800 has one of the longer usable battery lives of any mobile device I've ever owned. Most of the laptops I've dealt with have a hard time giving me three and a half hours of wifi browsing on a charge.
I agree 100% with the GP's general experience. The MIDs are a better 'ultramobile' for me than these subnotebooks. I just bring the laptop to meetings and such and bring the n800 everywhere.
And I completely agree with you about the dev situation on the Nokia tablets. It's a mess. (though there is Red Pill Mode, btw, if you need root on the device)
The n800 sold me on the potential of a pocket computer. It's a true shame that Nokia doesn't seem to have any real plan for it.
Hopefully Android will pan out.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
I'm fairly fit, in summers, I cycle to work any time it doesn't rain, etc., etc.
:eek:
I hate carrying a heavy laptop around.
My old 8.1 pound monster of an Inspiron 1100?
My old 3.5 pound ThinkPad X21? Nice, very nice indeed... but it could've been lighter.
My old 5.5 pound ThinkPad R51e? Too heavy.
My 4.3 pound ThinkPad X61 Tablet? Could be lighter.
My 4.9 pound iBook G4? Again, could be lighter.
An eee (or something similar) would be GREAT for me to have at work. Something small enough to be pocketable (in a large pocket... but I have those) for running around work, for logging stuff? Perfect.
OK, I'm assuming you have OS 2008 installed. If not, upgrade immediately.
Go to the Maemo Applications site.
Download/install USB Control.
You now have access to USB host mode. Granted, not as handy as having it native to the OS, but it's available.
The previous poster addressed most of the rest. Granted, the Dev system is bad... but it could be worse. *coughPALMI'MLOOKINGATYOUcough*
Magnesium ignition requires a temperature of at least 800 degrees F. I highly doubt your laptop gets hotter than a commercial oven. Even if it did, solid magnesium is very resistant to ignition (not to say that it doesn't ignite, just that it is resistant) compared to the magnesium ribbon (which has a much larger surface area) or powder that you probably remember seeing burn back in chemistry classes.
In other words, don't worry about your Panasonic's case igniting. You'll be fine.
It was that or "Popplers", everything else was taken.
Additionally, Popplers taste great!
Cole's Axiom: The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant. The population is growing.
You got to tell me where can I buy such a cheap laptop here in Europe. At this very moment the cheapest laptop that is available to me is one of those cheap grey line laptop which is selling for 435 euros, which is considerably more than 350 dollars.
Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
That's why the next revision will come with a warning label:
"For front pocket ONLY"
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
It's as easy to RTFE as to ask about it in a post. :)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/proeula.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/eula.mspx
"You may also store or install a copy of the Product on a storage device, such as a network
server, used only to install or run the Product on your other Workstation Computers over an internal network;"
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I'm just pissed. Asus was so close... A lightweight hackable laptop for $200 would have been ideal. I understand that their first generation didn't have the volume to be made so cheaply, but now that they've got everyone's attention, they should be (IMHO) concentrating their efforts on hitting their initial price point. Instead, they're increasing the storage, screen size, RAM, etc, and increasing the price correspondingly.
Seriously, HP, Dell et al are going to roll out their own versions of the EEE PC, and with their marketing and support, Asus will get left by the wayside. For $200, there are a lot of low-income families that would be willing to buy a laptop for the kids to take to school, lots of hackers (like myself) willing to tinker with it (yes, I realize there is already a large hacker group for the EEE, but plenty more would be willing to crack it open at $200 instead of $500+), and without Windows, the big name vendors would be much less likely to intrude on their marketspace.
Doesn't Sony make a tiny Vaio about the same size as the EEE PC? I'm sure it's probably twice the price or more, but as Apple has shown, make a good solid ultraportable, and people are willing to pay for it.
It seems like the new maxim is "Cheap, Tiny, Hackable. Pick any 2".
I guess I'm wrong; I'm sure they've analyzed the market for these things. But anybody got a good recommendation for something the size of an EEE PC for cheap? I see there's an EEE PC on eBay for only $255, but it's still got a while left, and experience shows it'll go over $300 by the time it's done. Older is fine, I'll just stick a small linux distro and XFCE on it.
Thanks
I live in Japan and have been thinking on getting one of these cool UMPCs. I have been considering a Kohjinsha and the eee, but unfortunately they have serious drawbacks.
The eee is shipped here only with Windows XP, which increases the price enough to no longer be attractive.
On the other hand, the kohjinsha UMPCs are damn sleek pieces of hardware, double as tablets and have a very cool mouse-replacement similar to the Thinkpads (this and the touch screen being the best things of this machine). Unfortunately, the Windows XP model only has 512mb of ram and the mouse-replacement thingy is not as cool as the one in the Vista model, which has the 1gb and Intel A110. But come on, Vista? even if I can replace it on my own with XP, I feel kind of dirty paying for that costly Vista license.
No, multi touch screens (the one on the iPhone is actually licensed from a German company) and mouse pads have been around for years. What Apple has patented are aspects of using a multi touch mouse pad or screen with certain UI features.
Cycling on it's own doesn't mean your fit. Also, if you are a cycler, I did ride my bike to school when I was 10, with a lot more than eight pounds in my backpack... closer to 14. I was able to do it, and your body does adapt.
I'd rather not lug an 8lb 17" laptop around with me on the tube everyday. Luckily I have a computer at work, so I don't need to do this. Maybe if you are a salesman, or a consultant that works on client premises, a large screen laptop is good.
But for other uses, casual uses especially, a small, light, chuck-it-in-the-bag device is far more appealing. Oh, it's cheap as well, so it won't be too precious.
Different people have different needs. You clearly need that 17" laptop on the train (if you get a seat, or have the space to open the lid because the seat in front is too close). My 12" iBook is a good size for my mobile needs, but most of what I use a 7" or 9" device would suffice.
In my defense, I said fairly fit, not fit. ;)
Anyway, your body does adapt, but it's not really the weight in the pannier (or backpack, but I dislike riding with a backpack) that matters all that much. My bike is a very heavy older steel frame bike, I'm not a weight weenie when it comes to my equipment for riding with.
What does matter is the weight of the computer when you're carrying it around, using it all day.
It's funny how everyone is complaining about a couple of extra pounds, but we don't listen to our kids complaining about having to lug a half-dozen books around for various classes, and we've forgotten about our own experiences, having to stuff our pack sacks with books, pens and pencils, hiliters, note pads, ruler, geometry set, calculator (or abacus if we were from the generation that had to walk to school uphill, in the snow, both ways).
Kevin Smith on Prince
Ah, I remember the hell of school textbook carrying. And the days you had sports as well. Lockers weren't much use if you had to carry it all home for homework too. Generally though we can't lug such huge bags onto the tube daily, so space restrictions do apply!
The abacus users had to walk to school, uphill both ways in the burning sun, towing a sizeable chunk of pyramid behind them!
I've been reading up a lot on flash drive technology recently, and it's seems that Xandros on the eee has been tuned somewhat to run well on flash (unionfs, run mostly in RAM, etc) to ensure that not to many writes are made to the flash drive. Generally most flash today is NAND based and has 100K write/erase cycles - some embedded-quality industrial flash drives have better ECC, wear levelling and bad block management to go somewhat higher (but you then pay more for the CF or SD card) - so it's important to do this to extend flash drive's lifetime. However the trend is for low-end flash to use MLCs (>1 bit per cell, vs SLCs which have 1 bit per cell) - drives using MLCs typically have even lower flash lifetime (10K write cycles), and the flash drive manufacturers are usually vague on this, particularly the cheaper ones.
The write cycles are across each individual erase block (something like 32 to 128 Kbyte), not per sector/page. Bad block management is critical to 'wear levelling' - as one erase block gets worn out (flagged by ECC) the data is moved across to a new erase block. As long as there are enough good erase blocks and you aren't doing a lot of writes to every part of the drive, there should be enough good blocks around to substitute for bad blocks. There's also work to ensure that if power is lost while multiple pages are written to an erase block, the drive can detect which were written OK - it then reads these and writes them to a new erase block, marking the old erase block as bad. The flash drive has a software Flash Translation Layer (FTL) that hides all this complexity, and the better vendors put more effort into good FTLs.
So... Some care is needed to install another Linux distro, or standard XP, onto the eee - not to get it installed, but to avoid wearing out the eee's flash drives too quickly. There are various flash-optimised Linux distros including Damn Small Linux (DSL, http://damnsmalllinux.org/ Puppy, SLAX, Debian Live (http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/), etc, which manage to write infrequently to flash by running from a RAM disk (with no swap on flash, or at least reduced 'swappiness' parameter) and using unionfs or aufs to map a RAM drive 'over' the flash drive, allowing writes to be delayed until much later, and thereby minimising number of flash writes. DSL writes only when you shut down, or on demand, and Puppy writes every 30 minutes or so. Generally, Live CD distros are quite easily adapted to run well with flash, whereas hard disk distros do not run well on flash.
Ubuntu for eee looks very nice if you like Ubuntu, but doesn't do any flash optimisation that I could see from its wiki (apart from recommending use of noatime in fstab which is quite basic) - perhaps someone has done this as an add-on though. XP embedded apparently has some tweaks to do the same thing as Linux, but you need to be quite a techie to find and apply the flash optimisations, compared to simply installing Damn Small Linux which is already flash optimised.
There seems to be a lot of confusion on this - a good summary of this from eee perspective is http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=297632. However, some people actually advocate removing unionfs from the eee Xandros setup in order to gain some flexibility, without even mentioning the issue of increased flash wear - see http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:removeunionfs which also suggests use of ext3 which will further increase flash writes (default is to write to log every 5 seconds typically). This is a really bad idea... I would really suggest reading up on this before changing the default setup, which uses unionfs in a similar way to DSL and Puppy Linux to minimise flash writes.
Does anyone know a major distro that runs on the eee and is already flash optimised to minimise writes?
I suppose Ultralight backpackers thru-hike the Appalachian trial using ultra light camping gear because they're too obese and out of shape?
Because you asked a question and I gave you an answer.
No part of that requires me to give any credibility to your vacuous ideas about the subject.
Good thing you can step in front of a mirror so you don't have to imagine.
I don't know you, have never seen your posts, and yet you attack me for no reason. You are clearly a sockpuppet for the tool who I just STFU.