It’s Worth The Wait: Eee PC First Impressions
October 25th, 2007 by ant[10/27/07 2:07am edit: had to switch the galleries to flickr as the self-hosted one uses up way too many resources]
[10/26/07 3:44pm edit: more pictures can be found here]
Click here to view the first impressions gallery (more pictures coming tomorrow)…
Let me begin by summarizing the Eee PC in four words: It’s worth the wait.
Four months ago, ASUS announced the Eee PC- a tiny, affordable, full-featured laptop. It was music to our ears- the ultimate portable gadget. Most of us have spent those last four months “guestimating” on when they would be released- and tormenting ourselves with excitement over speculation. To be fair, four months is actually pretty fast in getting a product to the market- much faster than many recent tech items. The Eee PC 4G was recently released in Taiwan on October 16th, and will be launching in the United States in the coming days.
Thanks to the folks at ASUS, an Eee PC arrived at my doorstep this morning. It was love at first sight.
The first shock came while opening the mailing package. Inside was the Eee PC product box. It was small- about the same size as a motherboard box. For some reason, I expected it to be much bigger.
Soon, I had the ASUS Eee PC 701 4G in my hand. It’s tiny. Good tiny. Tiny as in: take two DVD cases and put them on top of each other and the result is just slightly smaller than the Eee PC. From front to back, the Eee PC is about the size of a Nestle Crunch candy bar and from left to right it’s about 1 1/3 Nestle Crunch candy bars. I put the Eee PC in my shoulder bag today and barely noticed it in there, unlike how i always can notice when i carry my current 12″ notebook.
Also in the box were guidebooks, an AC adapter, and a case. I haven’t had a chance to read the guidebooks yet, so I’ll get back to you on that later. A quick glance did show that they include instructions for installing Windows XP, instructions for doing a system restore, and a CD with the manual and Windows XP drivers on it. The AC adapter is great- small enough that you can take it with you without taking up much space. But even better: the plug prongs are both small (instead of the one small one large variety) so you can plug it in an electrical outlet upside down if needed. The case is a form fitting neoprene sleeve- something that I would have actually paid extra money for as an accessory. It’s nice quality.
The best way to describe the Eee PC would be: proportional. The keyboard, screen, and touchpad all seem to be the proper size. Nothing is too big or too small. I’m not saying that a larger screen size on it wouldn’t be a welcome addition for some- but the screen is great how it is. The keyboard is not that much of a switch from typing on my Dell 710m laptop, just a little smaller. The touch pad is nice as well. I’m not too fond of the tightness of the physical mouse button(s)- i know that sounds ridiculous- but the button is a little tough to push down and it makes a loud clicking noise. I’m sure that over time it will soften up- and besides- I tend to do the tap-on-the-touchpad for a click anyway. By the way- the physical button is both a left and a right mouse button depending on which side you press it at.
Turning on and off the Eee PC is shockingly fast. It turns on in about 20-22 seconds and off in about 9 seconds.
The screen is absolutely gorgeous. It can go from very dim to very bright with many settings in between. I’m interested to see how the different brightness levels affect battery life. Whites are especially vivid and crisp. The screen is definitely high quality and makes the Eee PC a pleasure to use. The resolution is good as well. There’s enough screen real estate for almost all websites to work perfectly. PDF files look great on the Eee PC as well, so long as you view one page at a time. If you try to view pages side by side, it is still readable, but the text is a bit too small for me.
Of course, to the left and right of the screen are the rather large speakers. Unfortunately, if you turn the Eee PC against light properly, you can see that there are only speaker openings at the top- the bottom is just decor. Still, the sound quality is good- they are your typical laptop speakers.
The Eee PC comes loaded with software- Firefox, OpenOffice, Pidgin, etc. The Linux interface is really nice- very polished. There are plenty of different settings to play with as well, and four different “themes” for the Eee PC interface. I was surprised not to see a “terminal” application- in fact, I still can’t even find the Linux terminal. It must be around there somewhere…
The wireless networking card is great. It found many more networks than my other wireless devices can find, and the range appears to be superb. The network manager too is solid and works well, remembering the networks that you connect to often.
I’ve shown the Eee PC to several of my friends in person and all of the responses are always positive, even from people who are not extremely interested in technology. People are impressed with the size and functionality, and sold once they hear the price range. Many people guess that it is much more expensive.
There are, however, several quirks. The battery indicator only shows the percentage left- but does not estimate the time left. I suppose after I use it for a while, I’ll have my own idea of how much time is left, so it’s not too big of an issue. The clock in my system tray is in 24h mode rather than 12h am/pm. Not sure if I just missed a setting, maybe? Also, there is no ~` key in the top left of the keyboard. [Edit: The ~` key is oddly placed to the right of the esc key.] Granted, in all the years of computing I’ve probably used that key only once or twice. What makes it odd on the Eee PC, however, is that the “1″ key is where the ~` key normally is, so i’ve been hitting “2″ instead of “1″ accidentally. [edit: Also, F1 is not directly next to Esc.] No big deal- just a little something to get used to.
Ultimately, the Eee PC meets all of my personal expectations and actually exceeds many as well. I’m really pleased with the size of the Eee PC along with the high quality screen. The software interface is also easy to operate. I’m excited to explore further the features of this device in an upcoming full review, where I will focus on battery life, benchmarks, wireless ranges, and many other things.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Congrats on your eee! Now I’m even MORE excited to get my hands on one.
Thanks for the update!
October 25th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Great post! Two questions; is this the US Eee you’ve received, or did they send you one of the Taiwanese models? Mostly asking this queston based on what language the manuals etc are.
Second question.. how loud is the keyboard when typing?
Thanks!
October 25th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Wait, no ~ at all? I hope there’s a way to make one somehow, given that I actually DO use it on a regular basis. And the lack of terminal is a bit ominous as well. Any SSH client built in?
October 25th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
did you get this for free?
if so, are you going to give it away in a contest :O
October 25th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Wait, the ~ is next to F1.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Dave, there is a ~, it’s ABOVE the 1 key; I ghad the same worrying thought til I checked out the gallery :).
Btw Ant, in the coming gallery photos, can we have a size comparison of it next to Nestle Crunch bars?
October 25th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Whoops, my bad, fixed. This is the US Eee.
aelfin: you caught me right before i was about to eat the crunch, good timing! Let me grab my camera….
October 25th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Crunch pic is up, along with dvds!
October 25th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
i can’t wait anymore~~~~~~~
October 25th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Lol, awesome, thanks! *toddles off to shop to quash sudden desire to eat Crunch*
October 25th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Congrats!
Great First Impression review! Hard to imagine what a “comprehensive” review will be like.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Thanks for the review! I can’t wait for this thing.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Does the built in video cam work when running the bundled skype application? I heard that it does not.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Cool - Now what happens when you load another OS, like Ubuntu for example? You do have to choose the file system for flash drives on the install, and partition your home on it’s own and any cache on it’s own, etc. A how to on doing this would be fun. I would love a full Ubuntu capable machine that was this size. Hmmm, I wonder if the drivers that Ubuntu has would all work out of the box?
Of course, maybe with dual boot, we could also run Xubuntu (a lighter Ubuntu).
October 25th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Oh I have one question. Does changing the screen light settings involve pushing a keyboard button or is it software realated?
October 25th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
danny: i hear it does not. I’ll check to make sure. I can say that in the webcam application, the video looks great.
Groklaw: There’s a whole section of the manual on how to install WinXP that i bet would be perfect for figuring out how to install any OS.
Yuki: Keyboard buttons (specifically fn+f3/f4)
October 25th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I am so jealous now. Does anyone know when and where to buy in Vancouver ,BC? Hate waiting…
October 25th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
PS - How robust is the email client (does it do IMAP)? Please show a few pictures of a working Email Screen, hopefully doing IMAP with 2 accounts active, and reading one email in one picture, writing email in another picture.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Also - can you hook up an external USB CD/DVD burner, and boot a live CD (Knoppix, or Puppy Linux, or Damn Small Linux, or even a Ubuntu Live CD).
Then boot the LIMP live linux cd, and view a DVD movie with it, (you might have to use an older version of LIMP if the newer one does not work for you).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/limp-vkk-ver1/
October 25th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
How did u get this early purchase?
October 25th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
are they sending any image of the xandros os? any recovery disk or image in case crashes? or if we install another OS then decide to go back to default. thanks
October 26th, 2007 at 12:21 am
There is review of the eee on Laptop ( http://laptopmag.com/Review/Exclusive-First-Review-Asus-Eee-PC-701.htm ). Unfortunately they say the $399 is for the 4G.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Great mini review. I’m now more excited to get it than ever.
But I’ll be waiting a while… for the 8GB Model.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:43 am
To piggyback on “Groklaw’s” comment about hooking up an external dvd drive, what are the chances of the Eee playing dvd’s?
October 26th, 2007 at 2:14 am
I’ve read its very easy to flip to a “normal” kde desktop from the settings menu. Have you tried that and can you get terminal/ssh etc from there?
October 26th, 2007 at 2:35 am
If there isn’t an Xterm-like program, to get to a console you can try hitting ctrl-alt-F1 and hopefully it will switch you to a console. Then, to get back to X-Windows, hit alt-F7 or maybe a different F key if that doesn’t work.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:42 am
Finite-
Unfortunately, ctrl-alt’s don’t work.
However, fareast’s method in forum post 6345 does work– go to the file manager and press ctrl+t
Now i’ve got a console!
October 26th, 2007 at 2:59 am
If you want to use the Linux terminal, “Ctrl + T” or “File Manager(檔案管ç†å“¡) -> Tools(工具) -> Terminal(開啟主控å°ç¨‹å¼)”.
October 26th, 2007 at 3:08 am
I wonder why ctrl-alt-F1 doesn’t work. But it’s great that you’ve got a console now! So, any chance you want to paste the output of some or all of these commands for us? Thanks!
cat /etc/apt/sources.list
cat /etc/debian_version
cat /proc/cpuinfo
cat /proc/meminfo
cat /etc/fstab
df
lsmod
lspci
lsusb
October 26th, 2007 at 3:16 am
With the mouse buttons joined and doing a left or right click based on the side of the button that you click, can one do the essential middle-button click? Do you click in the middle or on both sides at the same time?
October 26th, 2007 at 5:07 am
Danny: Skype don’t have cam support for Linux. You’re probably better off using Wengo or any other SIP service. It’s an open protocol, so it guarantees interoperability. It’s got full support for every OS, and the sound quality is actually better. That said, I’m betting the folks at Skype are about to release a cam support version in the coming weeks. It’s either that or lose their market.
October 26th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Ant, knowing if the eee can use high-speed, high-capacity 4Gb SD cards would be nice, because I read somewhere that the EEE cannot use them…
October 26th, 2007 at 6:49 am
I want one in Spain!! I want 100!!!!! asus eee pc 2g the best
October 26th, 2007 at 7:31 am
Flash memory has a finite number of erase-write cycles, doesn’t it?! So, is it posible that the internal flash memory of the eee pc gets unusable after a year or so?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Regarding video support
lixy: thanks lixy! now I know that skype for linux does not support video and its important news. can you recommend video calling software with clients for both windows and linux and which is free to use? that free and video and OS interoperability.
Ant: now that lixy has set us straight, we are left with two questyions:
1) does the camera work for video in other applications?
2) can we install other applications to take the place of skype?
3) how easy or hard is it to install othe applications? I thought i heard that its not possible or very hard to do.
Ant, thanks for all you are doing for the nascent community of potential eee users.
October 26th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Is the GCC compiler installed on the Eee PC?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:44 am
niclas:
great question. there is a limit. the question is when is that limit reached. there is also a limit with hard drives befoe they crash. but hard drives are easy to replace. finally, to my knowledge, there are different types of flash, and there is a newer, more expensive type that does not have such a limited number of writes. which kind is asus using? does anyone know more about this?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:46 am
ant: you received a 4G, so that’s gonna be the one asus puts to market first and in the greatest numbers. Do you know what the price is going to be?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Niclas, from wikipedia:
“Another limitation is that flash memory has a finite number of erase-write cycles (most commercially available flash products are guaranteed to withstand 100,000 write-erase-cycles for block 0, and no guarantees for other blocks[citation needed]). This effect is partially offset by some chip firmware or file system drivers by counting the writes and dynamically remapping the blocks in order to spread the write operations between the sectors; this technique is called wear levelling.”
Does anyone know if Eee PC use this “wear levelling” ?
October 26th, 2007 at 8:05 am
The hard life and times of a laptop drive is something that is pretty well known.
Safe to say that if your using and carying this thing around with you on a regular basis a flash drive is easily going to outlast a motor-driven drive.
If you want the drive to last more then 5 years or something like that just be sure to never use more then 80% of the capicity (or so). This way the wear levelling mechanisms in the drive can avoid ‘hot spots’ that will wear it out prematurely.
Don’t forget also that harddrives themselves are only rated for a number of read-writes themselves. Magnetic media does have a limited lifespan and it’s not a problem for the 99.99% of users out there so far.
The big big big advantage of Flash over motor-driven drives is that it’s pretty much shock-proof.
Anybody who has owned a ipod can tell you that these things wear out.. not from wearing out the drive by using it, but by wearing out the drive from dropping it and banging into things and stuff like that. Meanwhile people with flash-based mp3 players are pretty much indestructable.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:13 am
“Does anyone know if Eee PC use this “wear levelling†?”
Everything uses wear levelling. CF Cards, USB sticks, etc etc. everything.
Maybe not SD cards, But I wouldn’t be suprised if they do something.
With flash-based media you require hardware logic to make it read-writable like a harddrive. In Linux-speak they call things like harddrives ‘block devices’. Raw flash devices are not ‘block devices’ and can’t be treated like a normal drive.. they are ‘mtd devices’ and require special software and file systems to manage correctly and require software-based wear levelling.
In order for the OS to use them like regular drives they require hardware to take the MTD-based storage and emulate block-based storage. The same hardware that does this translation also does the wear levelling.
Generally you only see MTD stuff being used directly in very small embedded machines. (like a linksys router)
October 26th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Could people please checkout the forum - a lot of these questions have been answered. You can check out ants or my initial thoughts posts for most details and search for anything else you want to know.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:35 am
I can’t wait to get mine so i can do in depth reviews and tutorials on it and really show some advanced eee’ing.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Can you describe the power supply? Is it universal? Is the plug detachable so you can replace it etc?
October 26th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Nice to see you got one early Ant!
For those that were wondering why you can’t use ctrl+alt+f1 it is most likely that to get the eee booting faster Xandros didn’t feel the need to start any additional ttys (virtual consoles)… i am sure if you load up Ubuntu then it would have VTs no probs.
As for DVD playback… it will support all USB devices that you can plug in to any normal Linux PC. I am not sure if Xandros licensed libcss so DVD decoding might not work out of the box…. but then again it might!
October 26th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Thanks for the pictures and yuor opinion. Come on Nov 1st
October 26th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Guess I should have started a blog back in june when they announced this thing, then i would have to wait so damn long for this thing. Congrats on getting Asus to notice you. Hopefully Allasus will get there orders at the same time as bestbuy and newegg. Otherwise I think a small company in PA may have a riot on their hands
October 26th, 2007 at 9:47 am
nate - Hmmm, this blog does not take really long posts as I just posted a long answer to your Flash question - Re Flash (the ugly) - a few experts showed up at Groklaw (note that one of them works in defense and works with Flash a lot) and so here is a link if you want to follow it:
http://www.groklaw.net/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20070526142455986&title=OT%20-%20Dell%20has%20SanDisk%20SSD%20for%20%26%2336%3B549%2C%20but%20not%20for%20Dell%20E1505n%20Ubuntu%20Laptop%20%28too%20bad%29…%3F&type=article&order=&hideanonymous=0&pid=576075#c576291
And so, all this Flash stuff in the link above, is why I have been talking for a while that the Eee PC needs a Tech Service Dept or user servicable, replacable, or upgradable Flash Storage and not to have it a permanent feature that is impossible to replace on the main board of the device.
If the warrantee is 1 year (?), and you have Flash Problems after that, what do you do? Can’t just take out a screw driver, and unplug the bad part and plug in a new one can you?
This reading (all of it) should give you some answers, or maybe some more questions.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:14 am
i think everyone forgot to ask this.
is the ram upgradable ?
October 26th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Modsoul: that question actually HAS been answered before, it’s all over the forum, it has appeared in all reviews posted in the main comments in this Blog… BTW: yes it is, but you make void the warranty.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:31 am
hmmm…
i was wondering how you pronounce eee. is it a long or short e, or is it said with each e seperate? eg. “ee-ee-ee”
also, is there any word on whether asus will be coming out with other colors? (specifically black) maybe when the 2/8g are released or like next year (god forbid) or at all!
October 26th, 2007 at 11:05 am
My pre-order from allasus is black.
October 26th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Wait, you didn’t specify whether you were comparing to the Buncha Crunch, Nestlé Crunch White, Nestlé Crunch ice cream bar, Nestlé Crunch with Caramel, Nestlé Crunch with Peanuts, Dark Nestlé Crunch with Caramel, Nestlé Crunch Stixx, Nestlé Crunch Dark Stixx, Nestlé Crunch Mocha or the Nestlé Crunch Crisp.
October 26th, 2007 at 11:27 am
[...] eeeuser.com says: “Well worth the wait” [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 11:33 am
I think we should all start calling it the E³
It’s much Sexier. I think I’ll work on a logo for case mods.
-Josh
October 26th, 2007 at 11:46 am
The first thing i would do is add the virtual terminals back in by using a text editor on /etc/inittab. Then, once you reboot you should have a terminal at your disposal by hitting CNTL-ALT-F2 and so on.
October 26th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I have seen those “Nestle Cruch”. Is it the same size as “Snickers”? Or “Snickers Super”? Or “Chocolate bar by Krupskaya confectionary plant”? I always get mad when I see some photos of things compared in the size to coins I never had in my hand.
And now these Nestles. Big macs coming soon?
October 26th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Perhaps this will help:
# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/usr/sbin/launcher tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
October 26th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I think we should all start calling it the E³
It’s much Sexier. I think I’ll work on a logo for case mods.
E³ Doesn’t really work because that would be like EEEE unless E is equal to 1.
October 26th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
E³/E may work though
October 26th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
JBrown - Awesome idea…let me know how that modding goes. kadave@gmail.com
October 26th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
You mean (E/E)^3
October 26th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
hey Ant, can we get some shots of each tab screen? I am interested in seeing the system tab.
Also, its not clear on any of the reviews I have read if you can just create your own shortcuts.
Congrats on getting one!
October 26th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Ok! I made a picture of a logo design printed onto the case. I’m working with a company in the states and Taiwan to see about the possibility of these Logo’s being rub on transfers or stickers. If people are interested, I’ll probably hold a poll of some sort to see if people want rub on’s or stick on’s and what logo people like.
In any case, here’s my rough draft: http://www.honeypothack.com/images/eee-mod.jpg
-Josh
October 26th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Well the idea is that Eee Pc has three E’s in it. and E³ is essetially (E*E*E)… Am I wrong?
-Josh
October 26th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Just incase anyone is interested, I moved the topic of the case mod to:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=7773#p7773
-Josh
October 26th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
i realllly hope black will be available before jan. like the second or third release oh i believe E3 would be E*E*E*E
October 26th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I think math hasn’t changed since my old times at school…
E, or E¹ means E
E² means E*E
E³ means E*E*E
October 26th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
This math makes me crazy its been to long since high school
if 2³=8 not 6 which means there it quadruples, but then again 3³=27 so thats like 9 times that original amount. So its pretty much exponentially, so i guess it would be three eee’s seeing as it has no specific number because its (e*e)e.
REally i was wrong i guess EEEE only really makes sense if e=2. But there is no assigned value so. EEE is right im wrong. Unless e=cube root of $399 which would be 7.36(rounded)
October 26th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Nice review Ant. maybe I buy sooner than later.
Pcfy2
October 26th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
oops my bad i was getting confused
but i still want a black 8g real bad i cant wait im gonna explode…
I’M CRAZY!
October 26th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
what?? you’ve only used `~ “once or twice” in all your years computing?? i guess you don’t play any quake/doom games or code any php or write any sql statements? i think i use that key pretty much everyday!
October 26th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
ah, groklaw reader I missed your post:
“”And so, all this Flash stuff in the link above, is why I have been talking for a while that the Eee PC needs a Tech Service Dept or user servicable, replacable, or upgradable Flash Storage and not to have it a permanent feature that is impossible to replace on the main board of the device.
If the warrantee is 1 year (?), and you have Flash Problems after that, what do you do? Can’t just take out a screw driver, and unplug the bad part and plug in a new one can you?
This reading (all of it) should give you some answers, or maybe some more questions.”"
I work with flash devices also.
Were I work they’ll write and rewrite flash drives dozens times a day. They’ve been doing this for years. They have been nothing except reliable.
And frankly.. saying your from the ‘military’ does not mean much. He doesn’t even know that these devices have wear leveling built into the hardware.
Like I said before.. do the math yourself. If you do not max out the capacity of the drive so the wear levelling can work then you can use this drive for 24/7 use and it’ll last for years.
These things have been used all over the place. Flash used to be crap.. but that’s like comparing current SATA drives versus the old stepper motor-based harddrives from the 1980’s that would blow if you tried ot mount them sideways.
Anyways Sandisk is a good company and are generally trustworthy. Also Intel has always produced high-quality products (in relation to their price point).
If you want to watch out for a company look out for beware of Kingston..
October 26th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Oh and I forgot.
I see people throwing out numbers with flash bits wearing out after 100,000’s of writes.
This is incorrect. Modern flash has lifetimes measured in 1,000,000’s of writes.
October 27th, 2007 at 12:37 am
thehbcrew, please tell me that was supposed to be a joke…
October 27th, 2007 at 4:54 am
I see something for the first time in these forums. It was the pictures that did it. What do I see? - HOPE. The TripleE is finally in sight. We are so emotionally invested I don’t care anymore. $300, $400 or $500 I don’t care I gotta have one. I’ll take it in white, black, or even those funky green and blue colors… Just not pink. Sorry, homie don’t play that. Drool… gotta get one. Can’t wait.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:26 am
nate - You should visit Groklaw’s OT section and post your comments about this refering to the link that I gave you to fully read. Anyway, My guess is that the white papers - listed in one of those posts on Flash (from many companies) are of value. One does wonder about marketing… Of course, the ideal situation with Flash Storage is to have the most RAM you can, and to not have to use SWAP at all, as one of the problems with Windows, just one problem with Windows, is that Windows it seems hits the Cache or SWAP too frequently and eats into your write cycles very quickly… (so I am wondering if using and Eee PC with Windows is a wise idea). Of course, with Linux, as you might have read in that Groklaw comment in my original post that you are replying to, with Linux you can partition in many creative ways, such that SWAP is taken care of, and Home is in some partition on it’s own (not with the OS install) a better place (for dual booting and using the same HOME folder, so can be used once many times, with various Linux OS installs on the same system), etc. You just have more control with Linux vs Windows (= happier). Now, what I would like to see is a multi-OS bootable Eee PC, with the Maemo OS for the Nokia ported to the 2GB Eee PC… just to use all those light weight Maemo.org applications to extend the useds of the cheapest Eee PC (of course using Grub to Dual boot then back as well to Xubuntu, Ubuntu, or the original Eee PC installed OS (of course might need the 8GB model for too much of this, or you could boot from external USB Flash, etc). Don’t forget to visit Groklaw and stir up some experts there to refute what was posted about Flash before. Anyway, it would be better if the Flash was not permanent on the Mother Board of the system, and was easily tech or user serviceable.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:43 am
SWAP isn’t a problem if you don’t use it. Just install Linux without swap. It’s not hard. The default install from ASUS doesn’t have one. With 512MB to 1GB RAM a small machine without swap is just fine.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:09 am
I just ordered one in Taiwan. It should arrive in about 4 to 6 days! I will let you know what I think as soon as I get the OS into English… Thanks for the support in the tricks & tipps section it should not be a problem!
October 27th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I got eeepc from this seller in Taiwan.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200167305216
Ya. This is nice ,tiny machine.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Thank you for the generous amount of information and the photos.
October 27th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
you should be able to access console by pressing ctrl+alt+f1 (and alt+f7 to get back)
October 27th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I am so excited for this thing, but I’m gonna have to wait for the 8GB version..
I feel like I would regret not getting the best model when its still under 400 dollars
Also if I ever decide to run XP it would take up too much of the hard drive and 512MB RAM wont cut it with a 900mHz processor
October 27th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
On the plus side, the screen looks very nice.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I sincerely hope Asus reads this blog because the truth is the EEE price (299 dollars and up) is pitched way too high for a machine with this spec. Maybe Asus is hoping the novelty value will make people buy it in droves but the chances are they won’t. A little less corporate greed and a bit more realism about the utility value of this device could do wonders. I won’t be buying one at this price, that’s for sure.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
[...] ИÑточник: http://www.eeeuser.com/2007/10/25/its-worth-the-wait-eee-pc-first-impressions/ [...]
October 27th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
I’ve been following this forum for a while now and it’s been extremely helpful in understanding the capabilities of the Asus Eee. I’m looking forward to the release of the 8GB.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
The specs of this machine are only one small part of the equation that determines its price. A machines this size is positively a bargain at $399, and the specs are very respectable for its class.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Is Gary C serious $299 pitched way too high!!! I think he needs a reality check. The Archos 400 series which run linux and had a touch screen cost over $600. Plenty of the sub notebooks cost over $1500 or more. Hey if he won’t buy it someone else will. Sure you can get a fully blown laptop for $400-500 low spec but it weighs a ton, which is why I never carry mine around with me. The eeepc will do the job for me, I wont be modding it or sticking windows XP on it. I just want to use it out of the box knowing that everything works.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
My apologies to Gary C, it was docprego, who I was talking about
Sorry Gary C
October 28th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Price points seem ok, IF there is truth to the demand on the LCD screens that results in their price going up. FYI - The Nokia N810 is very expensive compared to it’s specs vs Eee PC, and Nokia really need to come down to ASUS’s price point, or else risk the N810 selling as poorly as the N800. Of course, behind ASUS is QUANTA (their competition), with QUANTA announcing their $200 OLPC derived commercial OLPC version of a laptop, that was announced this past spring…! So, with two heavy weights in this game, we are seeing this price and competition from the OLPC price as well (also Intel has announced something to be out in 2008 as well). So? Price, is ok, I just want better battery life and wished they licensed the OLPC screen tech for this device).
October 28th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Is the screen glossy or matte?
This is my only concern before I buy one. I will not buy it if it’s glossy.
October 28th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
How much space is the OS taking up on this machine? I’m wondering how full the 2GB model is going to be when its released
October 28th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
[...] collegues d’outre-atlantique d’EEEUSER.COM viennent de poster leur test du EEE 701. Des photos détaillées et originales, des confirmations [...]
October 29th, 2007 at 4:56 am
It’s odd that they’ve misplaced the ~ key since “~” means home directory in Linux… to think it runs on Linux…
October 29th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I have just one word: Jeal. Ous!
October 29th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
I will be adding companies selling Eee PC to my Linux Vendor List.
http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/23168/
Database
http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14
November 3rd, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Is Eee power adapter 110 and 230V capable or only 110?
November 6th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Hi,
thanks for this news.
I’m leaving in France and want to use the eee has a small server.
Do you have any measure about noise on it ?
Regards
November 12th, 2007 at 7:30 am
this is a great review that help me a lot to more understand about eee pc. i am going to buy one and will let you konw the result. many thanks to web master agian.
November 13th, 2007 at 8:39 am
I tried to order a EEE at qbitonline. All worked nicelly until I got the paypal statement asking for 120 dollars more for the laptop then was on my bill. Be carefull before you order with this online shop in Taiwan.
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Can I surf the internet using my cellphone as a modem? How do I set it up? My installers are for XP.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Tylenol maker….
Dosage for tylenol sinus and congestion….
January 14th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I can’t find eeepc anywhere in uk…
everywhere is sold out…
http://www.geekfreak.co.uk/wordpress/?p=82
January 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Try this UK stock checker. 2Gb and 4Gb in stock and a few places.
http://eeestock.cpjackson.co.uk/
February 13th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
[...] Eeeuser [...]
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