How is Asus EeePC 1215N?

[tuahaa]

I am planning to buy this beautiful netbook and will be using it as my main computer (i.e. for work and play). I will be dual booting Jolicloud (Ubuntu Variant) and W7 on it. Does anyone have any experiences with it or any other powerful Asus Netbooks? It has dual core Intel Atom CPU, 512MB graphics card (Nvidia ION2), very slim, great space usage. Perfect for Dual Booting Linux.

So pretty much, I can game on it, I can browse on it, I can photo edit on it (trust me, I work on a dog of a laptop right now with pretty much half the specs this netbook has and I get all my editing done), I can work on it. Awesome.

Now I just have to wait -_-. So, anyone have an opinion on this? Are there better netbook available?

[Paqman]

You'll be fine. Ubuntu runs well on much less powerful netbooks than that. I suspect it's probably got a nasty 5400rpm hard drive in it though, i'd pull that out and replace it with one of the cheap Intel X-25V SSDs. It'll be a lot faster and shockproof.

[tuahaa]

Apparently there is a problem with the Graphics Card switching. 1215N has two gfx cards... I don't know if Ubuntu will be able to turn the 512MB one on when required, or turn it off when it's not needed. I read into it and there is a script that you have to enter to turn it on manually, but I would rather enjoy a seamless experience.

Can anyone shed some light onto this?

[ba0bab]

I plan on buying this as well - sounds discomforting about the GPU-problem, anybody now more about this?

Tuahaa: Could you post a link that says anything about that problem?

[giddyup306]

Asus products are JUNK! I've had three laptops. The first one was an eeePC900. It had a 900mhz processor that was underclocked to 633. It would lock up trying to play videos. Since that was a cheap $250 laptop I decided to give them another try. I bought a G73 which after tax and insurance was almost $1,800. The first one I got wouldn't boot off the hard drive or the CD drive right out of the box. They exchanged it with another unit. Every once in a while when I use 7 it crashes all the time. It has an Asus updater, but it doesn't work. I did some google searching, and I've found problems with it since '05. You'd think after 5 years they might fix their software... I tried to manually download the files, and the downloader is in Chinese. I just gave up.

[sandyd]

I am planning to buy this beautiful netbook and will be using it as my main computer (i.e. for work and play). I will be dual booting Jolicloud (Ubuntu Variant) and W7 on it. Does anyone have any experiences with it or any other powerful Asus Netbooks? It has dual core Intel Atom CPU, 512MB graphics card (Nvidia ION2), very slim, great space usage. Perfect for Dual Booting Linux.

So pretty much, I can game on it, I can browse on it, I can photo edit on it (trust me, I work on a dog of a laptop right now with pretty much half the specs this netbook has and I get all my editing done), I can work on it. Awesome.

Now I just have to wait -_-. So, anyone have an opinion on this? Are there better netbook available?graphics card switching should be done via the bios, however it **says** in the kernel that GPU switching support has been implemented for some time now. (check out screenshot).

However, im not so sure, because there was another user here a while ago who could only set it VIA the bios. And netbooks have crappy bios features.

EDIT: switchable graphics on netbooks (esp nvidia ion) not good -> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1616278

p.s. check out -> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1507698&page=2

[tuahaa]

damn... I was looking forward to this...

I want my Ubuntu to work flawlessly...

perhaps I'll have to do it manually... or I'll get another netbook...

On default, is the 512MB gfx card activated? Or both? I don't mind as long as it is either one. If the Nvidia graphics don't turn on, then that might be a problem for me.

[sandyd]

damn... I was looking forward to this...

I want my Ubuntu to work flawlessly...

perhaps I'll have to do it manually... or I'll get another netbook...

On default, is the 512MB gfx card activated? Or both? I don't mind as long as it is either one. If the Nvidia graphics don't turn on, then that might be a problem for me.

its only controlable in windows...

I havent tried, so Im not sure, but if the setting sticks after a poweroff, you can just boot into windows and set it to nvidia once...

[tuahaa]

Asus products are JUNK! I've had three laptops. The first one was an eeePC900. It had a 900mhz processor that was underclocked to 633. It would lock up trying to play videos. Since that was a cheap $250 laptop I decided to give them another try. I bought a G73 which after tax and insurance was almost $1,800. The first one I got wouldn't boot off the hard drive or the CD drive right out of the box. They exchanged it with another unit. Every once in a while when I use 7 it crashes all the time. It has an Asus updater, but it doesn't work. I did some google searching, and I've found problems with it since '05. You'd think after 5 years they might fix their software... I tried to manually download the files, and the downloader is in Chinese. I just gave up.

Well, the reviews for this one (1215N) are quite good and this netbook is quite powerful...

[tuahaa]

This may have solved my problem:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HybridGraphics

And this (given in wiki as well):

http://asusm51ta-with-linux.blogspot.com/

See post about the GUI for switching.

[ba0bab]

Sounds great! Are you buying it now tuahaa? I don't need to buy a new laptop right now, so I would like to hear from you when you get it :)