Comments on: More Information on the Japanese Eee PC 4G-X

By: Masaru

Masaru — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:57:12 +0000

Karen, it should be too late for you that I provide this information now in October. EEEPC non-Japanese versions are still rate in the Japanese market. I recently bought a 2G surf (en-US locale) via the last resort, Internet auction.

I found that the preinstalled xadros is amazingly good. So I gave up the idea of using any other OS. There are quite a few web pages by pioneers in hacking and customizing xandros. I benefited from them with thanks in my heart to install Japanese input method (while keeping the English speaking environment), Japanese fonts, etc. Knowing that the window manager is IceWM, why not to add the IceQua theme? My 2G surf now looks like a half-sized white MacBook. I even wonder if the mouse button, which looks like a single button, is intended for this “purpose!” I am very happy.

By: karen

karen — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:24:13 +0000

Bit of a dilemma about whether to get my eee in Japan or the UK. I’m in the UK at the moment and heading to Japan in about a week. They’re pretty much sold out over here, so priced over the odds and I’m wondering if it might be worth waiting til I get to Japan. I wasnt too keen on the idea of windows preinstalled especially with a Japanese OS. Linux seems a better option. Has anyone in Japan seen them in the shops recently there? Or are they sold out there too?
Cheers, Karen

By: Masaru

Masaru — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:00:22 +0000

Made in DNA, thanks for your idea. All my friends in the US would not understand why I am crazy about the US version. I try to buy one with the US keyboard on my business trip.

BTW, I failed to notice the perfect software solution for my purpose. DebianEeePC seems to help me construct a customized environment including the Japanese FEP quite easily.

By: Made in DNA

Made in DNA — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:40:23 +0000

When you can get 8GB SDHC cards for $30, I don’t see the big advantage. Still if you guys are happy, that’s all good.

Jag67, you can just load English XP on yourself, and you don’t have to get the machine in Japan. If you are already in Japan, just have one shipped from your home country.

Masaru, the Japanese ONLY have the 4GB versions in XP (which I am sure you already know by now), and from what two different clerks told me, they won’t get Linux versions or stock the 2 or 8GB versions. Not sure why this is. If you want a Linux version Masaru, ship to a person in the US, and then have them ship it to you. It only cost $60 USD to ship it express.

Personally I went for a 2GB Surf (Linux) I had shipped from the States. Love it.

By: Jag67

Jag67 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:29:34 +0000

Thanks Tim, I might wait until the next OS release then!

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:27:22 +0000

Jag67, if it ships with XP home edition then you cant change the language to English as you can only do that in XP professional. you can still type in English but all the windows menus are in Japanese. I have the same problem with my sony pcg-srx3 which i bought in Japan last year.

Tim

By: Jag67

Jag67 — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:05:26 +0000

I stopped by Yodabashi Camera today and it was nice to finally see the EEE PC.

However, we tried (with the sales rep) to change the language of Windows to English, but we couldn’t and the sales rep told me that this is actually a limitation of the version of XP that ships with the machine. Can someone confirm?
Thanks!

By: Kajii

Kajii — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 05:31:51 +0000

Bought my EEE PC in Canada but use it here in Tokyo. What is the best (and easiest) way to get a “Language Bar” (IME) for typing in Japanese on my ASUS?

By: Masaru

Masaru — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 08:10:02 +0000

It is really hard here in Japan to get a “genuine” eeepc with linux preinstalled. The US shops do not ship electronics to Japan. I am not skilled enough to build the whole linux system from the source. I thought I could have an eee pc replace my 8 year old Casio fiva MPC-102 running Redhat linux of which install took me two weeks.

By: dvm

dvm — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:49:02 +0000

> The price of the 4G-X is just £15 ($30) more than our Eee’s cost. We went and added
> 4GB SDHC cards each too. That brought ours up to £235 ($470) each. Having XP
> thrown in and installed fo an extra £0 ($0) would’ve been a huge bonus…

It really depends on where you buy the SDHC card. In my place a 4GB card is less than 20 euros or 30 usd.

And I wonder how this preinstalled XP perform compared to the much customized (and trimmed down) way as what many users apply out there…

> rather than buyers should factor in the heavy maintenance, buyers should factor
> in the headaches they would get assuming that the programs they use in windows
> are available in linux.

I think most linux users would disagree…
A huge choice of programs as a bonus? It’s probably a matter of using pirateware in WIndows vs. truly opensource and free programs in Linux.