The Most Hated Company In the PC Industry

Earthweb ^ | 1/4/2008 | Mike Elgan

[MarkL]

I tried to use various linux, and I like what I could use. But I could never get/figure out the tweaks you had to do to get wifi, or a printer going. I tried the forums but spent so much time saving a buck that I could of worked at a gas station and just bought Vista.

That shouldn't be an issue on these systems, since everything is integrated. You won't be dealing with hardware from multiple vendors, just like the way everything seems to work seamlessly with an Apple. Since the hardware and software all come from one vendor, incompatibilities will be rare. You may still have problems getting certain printers to work, especially any "WinPrinters," which reguire the Windows GDI to actually render the page. But I don't know if those printers still exist any more. It's out of my area of specialty.

Mark

[dennisw]

Will this run MS Office programs, etc.? I know nothing about these things other then my son will need a laptop for college next year and seeing how he has lost/damaged/destroyed just about everything else we have ever bought for him or he bought himself, $300 seems reasonable to try as opposed to $700 or $1000

It will run Open Office which is MSOffice compatible and will run MS Office if you buy a more expensive model that has XP on it
Will your son put up with a small keyboard?

On the very bright side this laptop is very cool and happening and portable. Your son will take better care of it if he can show it off to friends

[goldstategop]

Pre-loaded Linux is the solution. With the eeePC you just turn it on and it works. It will detect and run any device you attach to it. No further configuration needed - unless you want to install a different OS system on it.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Petronski]

What could be worse than Zune Brown?

Pea-soup green:

[DesertSapper]

I agree that Asus makes a great motherboard but these mini-laptops are not for me.

* Much too small a screen and keyboard.

* CPU and GPU are weak.

* Lots of bloatware installed (very 'Dell-like')

I want my laptop to be very powerful, easy to use/read, and able to run most demanding apps (design apps/games/video editing). I currently have a high-end HP (17"/2gb RAM/Centrino Duo/WinXP/Quadro FX 1500m/DVD burner/120gb hdd . . . ) and it will run even CAD apps and demanding games. If I want a small, super-portable, capability-limited, web-surfing device I'll try an iPhone.

These new mini-laptops fit somewhere between a true "laptop PC" and a handheld "device" - maybe this niche will work for them. More power to them if other consumers want these, but I'll pass.

[dennisw]

The new Ubuntu is eerily compatible and good

[Petronski]

dl.tv did a quick look at one of these babies and there’s a video here:

http://dl.tv/2007/12/dltv_episode_207_power_inverte_1.php

It’s a chance to see it in motion video rather than stills, and get a better sense of the scale of it.

[goldstategop]

Its not meant for power users. If you need a full size laptop, that's fine. But if you want to type or surf the Internet on the go, it could be the ticket. For basic tasks, its easier than chugging around a full size laptop. So the mini or ultra portable laptop has a definite market - as long as you're not bothered by the limitations and accept them as a trade-off for what you're getting - reduced size and true portability.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[djf]

Ditto re: Motherboards

I get stuff from a PC recycling place, used boards and power supplies, etc.
The ASUS stuff I’ve tried is very solid - I have an old P2L97 dual slot SMP board that I put a matched pair of Klamath core Celerons in. These are processors designed to run at 300 MHZ. But they have no “lock” on them. I’ve overclocked that board to around 525mhz, it’s got 512meg of RAM on it, for a ten year old piece of equipment, that’s pretty dm good.

I just got an ASUS CUR-DLS with dual PIII’s each running at a Gig. That one has 2.5 gig RAM, it’s rock solid.

Over the years, I’ve found their stuff to be very, very good.

[dennisw]

By that post I could almost faultlessly predict you were in Seattle area. Not that I am.

[Capt. Tom]

OK computer guys 2 questions.

1. Why don't companies these days tell what the cpu speed is?

2. I give PowerPoint presentations to various fishing groups,and usually borrow a laptop, install my disk , and connect to a PP projector.

I don't think this machine has a disk slot -so could I somehow put a copy of the the PP presentation in the machine, and run the PP show directly from this computer to the projector? - Tom

[djf]

You are correct. And I’m curious what made you think that. Not that it’s bad or anything.

[djf]

Get a USB disk. Or large card.

[SauronOfMordor]

With only 2GB of (flash) disk and no CD/DVD drive, it seems to fill a niche of “big PDA” more than laptop. Still, quite useful in that niche if most of what you’re using it for is web surfing and taking notes

[Lurkus Maximus]

No moving parts is a matter of perspective. Admittedly, it has no fan, but it has a keyboard, and last time I checked, the keys had to move in order to register keystrokes.

[IronJack]

Anyone Microslop hates has to be doing something right.

[Petronski]

CPU speeds expressed on MHz/GHz used to be reliable in simpler times. But now complex architectures—including dual, quad and soon octal cores—mean clock speed is only one factor.

A 1.6GHz quad core is going to be much faster than a 1.6GHz Athlon or P4.

[twntaipan]

Linux of one sort or another will run great on all those machines. Some versions of Linux can be more system heavy (Ubuntu would work, but be slow on the 128mb ram machines—try Xubuntu for a snappier experience or gOS, which is an Ubuntu derivative).

[twntaipan]

The real question is “When did you try Linux?”. The most recent version of Ubuntu (7.10) got everything on my Asus W3J working (where as when I first bought this notebook in April 06 I had to build the wifi and ethernet drivers from source).

Download and try any new live CD to see how your wifi and printer work...all it costs you is a blank cd.

[reg45]

That’s just what I was thinking - a big PDA. Attach a GPS device and some map software. A nice tool, not much bigger than a book.