I love my EEE, and I went linux so I could use it like an "internet appliance" rather than supporting yet another XP computer in my house. I also liked the more storage space, FOSS software, etc.
That said, I don't know if I'd do it again, and ironically, I don't know if I'd recommend it to a novice because there are just enough random things that don't work right. ASUS isn't an OS-maker and doesn't seem to intend to act like one.
The update feature was broken for the first 6 months of the 901's life. I couldn't use Firefox 3.0 for the first 4 months it was out because ASUS hadn't updated something on their backend. Wireless (like in much of linux, sorry) is spotty and even wired network connections are not a guarantee (I've had multiple hotel networks fail to assign an IP address, I can tweak at home, but not on the road).
I've had alt-tab (and control+T) randomly stop working twice.
I'm no Linux pro (I know enough to get my mythbox working, and little more), but of course, for this kind of device you shouldn't have to be (nor for linux to hit the mainstream either). Moreover, the use of an obscure distro means there's very little support online.
Moral of the story: Asus needs to do one of the following 1) Become a real OS provider. 2) Find another distro that someone has committed to support and document. 3) Go Windows.
I love my EEE and don't look forward to having to replace it someday, but when I do, unless they fix these other issues, I just may go with the Windows solution.
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I love my EEE, and I went linux so I could use it like an "internet appliance" rather than supporting yet another XP computer in my house. I also liked the more storage space, FOSS software, etc.
That said, I don't know if I'd do it again, and ironically, I don't know if I'd recommend it to a novice because there are just enough random things that don't work right. ASUS isn't an OS-maker and doesn't seem to intend to act like one.
The update feature was broken for the first 6 months of the 901's life. I couldn't use Firefox 3.0 for the first 4 months it was out because ASUS hadn't updated something on their backend. Wireless (like in much of linux, sorry) is spotty and even wired network connections are not a guarantee (I've had multiple hotel networks fail to assign an IP address, I can tweak at home, but not on the road).
I've had alt-tab (and control+T) randomly stop working twice.
I'm no Linux pro (I know enough to get my mythbox working, and little more), but of course, for this kind of device you shouldn't have to be (nor for linux to hit the mainstream either). Moreover, the use of an obscure distro means there's very little support online.
Moral of the story: Asus needs to do one of the following 1) Become a real OS provider. 2) Find another distro that someone has committed to support and document. 3) Go Windows.
I love my EEE and don't look forward to having to replace it someday, but when I do, unless they fix these other issues, I just may go with the Windows solution.