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Asus Budget Ultraportable Notebook Sold Sans OS
EconolineCrush writes "Tired of paying the Windows tax on notebooks? Asus's Eee PC 1201T budget ultraportable comes without a traditional operating system and sells for only $380. The 12-inch system has promising specifications, sporting an Athlon Neo processor, Radeon HD 3200 graphics, Bluetooth, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. It weighs just 3.2lbs with a 6-cell battery and can even handle light gaming duties. However, battery life in Ubuntu is considerably shorter than it is under Windows. Are there any better options for would-be laptop Linux users?"
"Netbook" probably means exactly what you think. "Notebook," however, which is what TFA is about, is a different term.
My other sig is clever.
I thought the same thing. $380? Too much!
I remember when the eeePc's and other netbooks started coming out for sub $300 prices that it wouldnt be long before we would see $150 netbooks... But I guess that isnt what happened because netbooks seemingly get more and more expensive.
Where are the cheap netbooks that I thought were the intent of the product?!
I don't understand why there are no laptops with a small power supply and (barely..) no battery.
95% of my laptop work is close to a socket and to a wifi internet connection. The trouble is that most laptops i used until now do not have a small power adapter. You still have to lug a considerabele power supply.
Battery is useful, but i could live without, and it would shave a small amount of the price and weight. And with a modularised design it could just be an other option.
Just buy the Eee PC 1005PE. I don't regret my purchase for a second and a 10+ hour real-world battery life is absolutely beautiful on a netbook. I wouldn't even consider a laptop or netbook with a pitiful 5 hour or less battery life these days. The whole point of a netbook is portability and that means not being shackled to an AC power outlet to power or recharge your laptop all the time so why wouldn't you pick the netbook with the most battery life?
It's a limit imposed by Microsoft. Or at least that was the case when netbooks came with Windows XP, now that they use Windows 7 I don't know if it's still the same. Basically there was a list of specifications the netbook should not exceed if the manufacturer wanted to get Windows at a reduced price. The ones I remember are 1 GB of RAM max and no more than a single CPU core. I think the hard disk capacity and the screen size were limited too.
Mada mada dane.
Here in Thailand, or at least in Chiang Mai, most of the computers and laptops I've seen come with FreeDOS preinstalled. If you don't want to install an OS yourself (and don''t prefer Freedos ;) you can just leave the new computer to the shop and pick it up with a OS of your choice a few hours later for a dollar or two extra install fee + price of the OS.
But the fact that this is rarely the case for any Linux-based desktop system tells me why power-saving and other (usually audio) features don't work well.
Its interesting that most of the (few) brands that work well with a distro like Ubuntu off the shelf also tend to be companies that offer certain models with Linux pre-installed. They're not like Dell, who will design a prototype from available components, then go to the component OEMs and say "We're making 2 million of this new system, but some of your chips come with standard features we'd rather leave out or fudge in software... chop that stuff off your chips and drop your price if you want our business".
Of course, the Linux drivers tend to be written for the OEM originals with their standard features intact, not the funky special-request variations made by Dell, Acer, etc. for their budget models.
What this translates into is that Johnny is perplexed as to why Linux has poor "PC compatibility".
Someone (that means us) needs to start insisting on systems that were designed with Linux or preferably a popular landmark distro like Ubuntu in mind. And we need to stop setting our friends and colleagues up for failed experiments when handing them discs expecting they can just run it on their PCs; It reflects badly on our judgment as individuals and on free open source software in general.
Where are the cheap netbooks that I thought were the intent of the product?!
Well, we lost the NET in netbooks. Like others have mentioned, they started pushing them as desktop replacements with faster processors and Windows. Also, somehow netbooks got defined as sub 12" displays with 160+ gigabyte hard drives. Netbooks were supposed to be small, light, and with a long battery life that ran simple applications and connected to the Internet. And wifi is being replaced with 3g for web access so that cell companies can sell contracts.
I'm still using my eeePC 701 (right now, actually) and storage space and processor speed has never been an issue. I have a few 2g SD cards, and some thumb drives but rarely use them. I use the Internet for storage or my server when I'm home. My only complaint with wifi is I wish I had an external antenna jack. If I want 3g, I'll break down and finally buy a smart phone. With a little tinkering a Droid can provide a hotspot, so no need for a contract just for the netbook.
OTOH, I would be much happier with a larger display and keyboard. A 12" version of the 701 would be considerably larger, but not much heavier. There are just too many sites that don't support small displays. Even slashdot has some issues.
Another day, another update to a Google android app.