[SOLVED] Which Asus eee PC?

[mthakur2006]

Hi,
I am considering making a switch to the Asus EEE PC but I have a few questions in mind and I would like some input from you on this.

1. Can I run Ubuntu on it?
2. Which version should I go for (I have a limited budget
3. Anything else I should keep in consideration?

Thanks.
P.S. I have been using ubuntu for the last year and a half on my personal laptop (no dual boot).

[bufsabre666]

there eeexubuntu out there now

i say go with whatever version the black one is cause the others look ugly

and keep in mind its not that great a computer it doesnt run as fast as a normal laptop but its not designed to be a normal laptop anyways

[mthakur2006]

i thought it was pretty fast ~ 15 seconds boot up time and 8 seconds to open oOo writer!
this is from laptop reviews.

[Steve1961]

Hi,
I am considering making a switch to the Asus EEE PC but I have a few questions in mind and I would like some input from you on this.

1. Can I run Ubuntu on it?
2. Which version should I go for (I have a limited budget
3. Anything else I should keep in consideration?

Thanks.
P.S. I have been using ubuntu for the last year and a half on my personal laptop (no dual boot).

I'm not sure I'd 'switch' to the eee entirely because, whilst it's great for mobile web browsing, email, etc, I prefer a larger screen and keyboard for ordinary use. That said, I have the 4G black model for mobile use and it runs Xubuntu (eeeXubuntu) brilliantly (I upgraded the ram to 1Gb before installing). See the eeeuser forums and wiki for all the information you need:

http://www.eeeuser.com/

[Nekiruhs]

i thought it was pretty fast ~ 15 seconds boot up time and 8 seconds to open oOo writer!
this is from laptop reviews.

The EEE is not designed to be a main PC. With only a 700Mhz processor and 512 MB ram its not going to handle much more than OpenOffice.org and Firefox, and forget multitasking. The fast start up times are not because of ram or CPU but rather the hard drive. It is not a disk drive as is the norm at the moment, but an SSD, flash memory just like a flash drive.

[mthakur2006]

Well, I am not exactly "switching" to it as we have a rather powerful desktop PC; but if I can run normal ubuntu on it, i will be happy because at present, i usually scale my laptop frequency down to 537 Mhz when working and I used to have 256 MB RAM not so long ago and I managed perfectly fine, so that shouldn't be a problem tbh. (I also had (and still use) a monitor with 640x480 resolution and Win 95 lol)
I don't quite like xfce tho' tbh
Which version should I go for-the 2GB one for GBP 199.99 or the 4GB one for GBP 219.99 from PCWORLD?
Thanks.

[getaboat]

These do look interesting and probably the beginning of the end for the hard drive. I'd go for the 4Gb every time - I'm sure plenty of the 2Gb is OS and apps.

[maniacmusician]

Get whichever one you can best afford. I think the main difference between them is the storage space provided by the SSD inside, which may not matter depending on your situation; it's easily expandable with SD cards, which come in sufficiently large capacities nowadays, especially with mobile computing in mind.

You should also remember that the Eee isn't really a full-blown laptop; it's meant to be a really small, super portable thing that you can use to browse the internet and type notes/documents while on the go. It's not going to be great for watching movies, doing artistic work, or storing/downloading large files.

And to be honest, I would just use whatever version of Linux comes with it...I understand that it's optimized for the Eee and comes with an interface that's condusive to it being an ultra-portable machine. The screen is really too small to effectively use screen space in a full desktop environment.

Also, I believe there are more versions of the Eee coming out with more built-in storage. I know there will be an 8GB, possibly a 16GB. But like I said, if you use it mainly for documents and internet browsing, you shouldn't need that much space, and if you do, you can just buy another SD card to put in it. It has a lot of slots for them.

[jbonll05]

THANKS GUYS for the discussion;
I plan on buying an eee for travel and knocking around. Took 600 architecture images last weekend. They did not fill up a 1g SD card. What a twist if the SD card could be slipped into the add on slot and the image files read!
Will use the Ubuntu adapted version OS provided. A 4g drive on board and an 4 or 8 added should cover my needs. Thanks again for the discussion.
JB

[Presto123]

I'm sure you all have your reasons for the EE, but I just cannot see it as a great idea. (Keep in mind this is only my opinion, too. I like more power, so...) These mini computers will be great when they can run full speed and I think someone is right about it being the end of the hard drives.

Here's the point I'm getting at: I bought a decent laptop brand new for $500 that is a dual-core Intel (~1.7 ghz), 1 gig RAM, 60 gig HD, wide screen, and DVD burner. I just don't see these minis as practical or enjoyable, YET. (Aside from their small size, but I don't mind the size of my lappy. It makes me happy now that it runs Ubu.)