The new eeePC looks nice :)

[miggols99]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/ASUS-Gets-Official-With-Eee-PC-901-and-1000-87104.shtml


One of the most highly expected releases at this year's Computex show was Asus' new Eee PC lineup. And it seems the Taiwanese company has decided to no longer keep its fans waiting and has just officially unveiled its new Eee PC 1000 and Eee PC 901. The 10-inch and 8.9-inch subnotebooks are now in the spotlight.


With the new lineup Eee PC fans will be able to choose the color as well as the display size that will best fit their requirements. The available models come in a range of colors that include Sakura, Sweet Pea, Urban Metropolis, White Peony, Pearl White, and Fine Ebony. Both 1000 and 901 series will be based on Intel's Atom processor, which will replace the current Intel Celeron M CPU and will sport an integrated 1.3 M web camera.

Apparently, the new Eee PC will have a battery life of 7.5 hours, which actually translates into a better working environment for Eee PC fans. The 8.9-inch Eee PC 901 will receive a 12GB SSD hard drive, for the Windows XP version, while the Linux version will be shipped with a 20GB SSD.

With the 10-inch Eee PC 1000 Asus will offer its users a Xandros Linux operating system, running on a 40GB SSD hard drive. Other technical specs include wireless connectivity through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11n and 2GB RAM. Unlike the first Eee PC, this 10-inch actually brings a larger keyboard, much to the joy of some users. The Eee PC 1000 will also bring a better mouse pad and buttons.

Asus plans to release an Eee PC 1000H that will be available in both Windows XP and Xandros versions, but will be the first of its kind to provide a storage space of 80GB. This version will also feature an Intel Atom CPU and wireless connectivity.

One "not so surprising" surprise was the release of the Eee Stick, which Asus' CEO, Jerry Shen, displayed

I like that it now has an Intel Atom processor and bigger keyboard. :) Makes me want to buy one even more!

[wdaniels]

If that's true about the 7.5 hours battery life then I wish I'd waited for this new model - for me that's the main issue with the 701, I can live with the other limitations (screen size, storage) but it just doesn't last long enough to take out for a whole day somewhere...

[red_Marvin]

Nnngh! I really need to come up with a reason to get one of those!

[mivo]

I pre-ordered the 900er version (not available in Germany yet) since a 20 GB disk is sufficient for me. The 7" display was too small for me, so I skipped the first line, but the 8.9" should work. But now that I read about the 10" version, I'm almost tempted to wait for that model. Hrmph. At this rate I'll never get an Eee. :P I wonder how much the 10" version will be in Europe.

[jrharvey]

WOW!! these are really nice. I really wish i had one of these :(

[tigrezno]

eeepc can be killed by msi wind, more battery hours (tested), 10" LED screen, 80gb HD, normal size keyboard, and so on, for only 399$ (linux version) and 499$ winxp version.

[AnonCat]

I hope the drivers are easily obtained and work well with other distros. One thing that terrifies me about the rise of these Linux machines is that their OSes will be so specialized and proprietary that they're not very compatible with other distros.

[mivo]

The 10" version will be $399? That means they'll ask 400 Euro ;), but that's still a good price.

[tigrezno]

my advice is not to buy anything till september, since there are new models each day.

wait for dell, amd, gigabyte, via, and others, they are on their way with their designs.

I think buying an eeepc at 600$ is just crazy.

my 2 cents.

[mivo]

Stuff in Europe is generally more expensive. I have a "normal" laptop, but what I'm looking for is something smaller, quieter, cooler and lighter. The Eee is the closest to what I have in mind, at least in an affordable price range. There are some beautiful sub-notebooks from HP and others, but just not affordable for me. :)

[zachtib]

when is this going to be available? I really like the eee 1000

[risby]

Does anyone know what colours sakura and urban metropolis are? I'm assuming swee'pea is light green and the other colours are white and black in normal lingo.

[mivo]

I actually changed my mind and ordered an Acer Aspire One instead. :) Just better performance and higher quality for less money. See the link in the signature for a discussion on this.

[ELMIT]

Comparing 900/901/1000/1000H I find that the 901 would be the best choice, because:


smaller than a notebook (1000 is already nealry a notebook)
+ solid state hard disk, usable also on a bumpy bus ride
- needs to be upgraded to more RAM, I guess the max is 2 G
I will use for intensive RAM need a micro drive as swap drive
long battery life time, last sure for the trip to the office
HSPDA allows Internet access
Skype phone to reduce the mobile phone cost


Now I have just to find out if Ubuntu 8.04 will run on it, since it is another processor than in the 900. Or can I dualboot? or boot from SD card?

Has anybody installed Ubuntu on 901 already?

bye

R.

[mivo]

- needs to be upgraded to more RAM, I guess the max is 2 G

Why?

[Jordanwb]

I tried one at Staples the other day. For some reason I felt claustrophobic.

[ELMIT]

mivo: ... because it has a solid state, which should NOT be used for swap.
To minimize the write to the "hard disk" is therefore necessary and so more swap would be needed, ... to overcome that you need more RAM!

Swap you can also add via a real hard disk, e.g., a microdrive.

I would use it just if I am on a desk, while at a bumpy bus ride I would not use the swap - microdrive. In a bus I would not really do work needing much ram.

[zachtib]

Has anybody installed Ubuntu on 901 already?


Ubuntu Netbook Remix should be pretty cool on it.





I still want to know when I'll be able to order one of these!

[mivo]

mivo: ... because it has a solid state, which should NOT be used for swap. To minimize the write to the "hard disk" is therefore necessary and so more swap would be needed, ... to overcome that you need more RAM!

Well, you can use a SD card if that is the concern, but I'm actually curious if there are any actual tests/numbers about the SSD's lifetime vs. a regular HHD's. It's not quite the same as an USB drive. On the EeeUser wiki, I read a vague comment about the lifetime being reduced by having a swap partition or swap file on the SSD, but no actual numbers were provided. What is the average lifespan of a SSD? How many write/read cycles? If we are talking about 10 years, I'd not worry if increased writing activity would reduce it to, say, 8 years.

[aysiu]

Well, you can use a SD card if that is the concern, but I'm actually curious if there are any actual tests/numbers about the SSD's lifetime vs. a regular HHD's. It's not quite the same as an USB drive. On the EeeUser wiki, I read a vague comment about the lifetime being reduced by having a swap partition or swap file on the SSD, but no actual numbers were provided. What is the average lifespan of a SSD? How many write/read cycles? If we are talking about 10 years, I'd not worry if increased writing activity would reduce it to, say, 8 years.
Read this:
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ssd_write_limit

Apparently, six hours a day will give you about 25 years in a worst-case scenario.

[mivo]

Apparently, six hours a day will give you about 25 years in a worst-case scenario.

Thanks. :) I had a feeling that the lifespan was so long that a swap partition/file won't make a practical difference for most users. Even with only 512 MB RAM, there's unlikely to be much swapping going on for the tasks that most people probably use the device for.

[ELMIT]

You must be kidding!!!

I read a report that a CF card was worn out in 6 hours !!!!! by just using it as a swap drive and make a great graphic conversion during that time!

We are not talking about writing a single file on the SD, we are using it as a swap, means in replacement of RAM, and that is speed, small amounts and often.

[gn2]

You must be kidding!!!

I read a report that a CF card was worn out in 6 hours !!!!! by just using it as a swap drive and make a great graphic conversion during that time!

But a CF card is not an SSD and does not work in the same way that an SSD does.

[starcannon]

I'd like one of each please :)

I have the entire 700 series but I'm not sure I could convince the wife that the entire family needs upgraded hehe.

2g is fun with Puppeee linux and a 16gb sdhc card, amazing for what it is actually.

4g 701 was the best bang for the buck imo.

8g was just not worth the extra cash, at least not until ssd drives that fit in it become more available, and more reasonably priced, a 32gb ssd if I could find one that would fit, would cost more than I payed for the laptop.

[EdThaSlayer]

Once these come out I guess the big computer companies will be releasing some of their own "newer and better", "clones". :)

[ELMIT]

As I see it, the CF and SSD is just a different packaging, but they are the same and work the same. Or do you have other documents on hand?

[wdaniels]

I read a report that a CF card was worn out in 6 hours !!!!! by just using it as a swap drive and make a great graphic conversion during that time!

It's important to make the distinction between CF/SD and the built-in SSD. Real SSDs usually do much better wear levelling than CF. I don't know anything about the specific case of the test you refer to, but I would regard that as a somewhat exceptional result and I very much doubt you could reproduce that on an SSD with proper wear levelling.


As I see it, the CF and SSD is just a different packaging, but they are the same and work the same. Or do you have other documents on hand?

The "packaging" in this case is important, because it involves a controller to count the number of writes to each cell and level it across the whole space. CF manufacturers sometimes advertise wear levelling also, but it is typically a much cruder and less effective mechanism (as I understand it).


We are not talking about writing a single file on the SD, we are using it as a swap, means in replacement of RAM, and that is speed, small amounts and often.

It's not directly in replacement of RAM - the reads/writes would normally be much fewer than that and also much fewer than something like the log in a journaled filesystem I would think...

You're quite correct in advising to avoid swap files and minimise writes generally, but you're overstating it quite a bit!

Anyway, for what it's worth, I use my Eee with 512MB RAM, no swap and it copes fine. I'm usually running Gnome, Compiz, Emerald, Apache2, MySQL5, FireFox, Rhythmbox, gedit and a terminal. I feel that it does struggle a little a points, but not too much or too often - it was always my intention to upgrade it to 2GB, but I've put that off since there doesn't appear to be any pressing need for it - probably I will still buy 2GB but put it in a different laptop in exchange for a 1GB for the Eee - I really don't think it needs that much for the kinds of stuff you can use it for.

[gn2]

wdaniels has explained perfectly the difference between CF and SSD, so thanks for that. :)

As for swap, the typical use an Eee901 will be put to, swap will not be necessary, neither will more than 512mb of RAM.

If you want an all-singing all-dancing multi-tasking video-editing beast, don't buy an Eee.

[tetrafuran]

According to my investigations at the moment there are three genuine competitors: HP mini note, MSI wind and Asus eeePC. All of them are fairly small and have all basic features most people need.

According to some reviews HP mini-note isn't very fast nor is it cheap. Also the battery life doesn't seem to compare well with the rest of the group. Typical HP style once again. They made the laptop too much like a desktop. It has some decent hardware, but that kind of processing power and power consumption just isn't needed unless you are planning to run vista. HP just seems to be very good at producing cameras, laptops and PDA:s that use way too much power.

That leaves MSI wind and Asus eee. The first eeePCs were feeble attempts to push just anything to the markets impatient consumers. They ripped a few bucks and euros out of that, however now there's a new breed of eees. IMO eee 901 is the first reasonable eee to buy. eee 900 had a larger screen than the previous 4G and 8G 700 models. That little tiny screen of the 701 is just ridiculous. They could have fitted a much larger screen onto a machine of that size. It's like purchasing a 19" plasma screen, that has the external size of a 40". "What's with the colossal frames" people would ask and decide not to by it. For some mysterious reason people thought differently about the 701 series anyway. Perhaps that was because there was nothing even close to that at the time.

Of course there were several other reasons besides the screen, why 901 is the first eee people should buy. in 900 most of the mistakes had been fixed, but still one remained; the processor. Finally in the 901 they included the power shy Intel Atom.

MSI wind on the other hand skipped all these crazy practice laptops of Asus and went straight for the real thing. Large screen in a small body, enough disk space, a proper processor, a proper OS and so on. Perhaps the only downside is the HDD. SSD would have made faster boot up times. This will matter a lot to some people.

Currenlty asus is planning to publish the eee 1000 series as if 901 wasn't already a serious competitor to MSI wind. I think MSI wind could be a good option for the hasty hacker, since it has pretty much everything most people would demand from a small laptop. After a few years solid state disks will probably get cheaper so eventually you should be able to buy an 80 GB SSD to replae the good old fashioned 80 GB HDD of the Wind.

However if you bought one of the asus semi laptops (eee 700 - eee 900) there's very little you can do besides hoping that someone will buy that obsolete notepad from you.

[wdaniels]

IMO eee 901 is the first reasonable eee to buy. eee 900 had a larger screen than the previous 4G and 8G 700 models. That little tiny screen of the 701 is just ridiculous. They could have fitted a much larger screen onto a machine of that size.

A smaller screen has an impact on both price and power consumption, so it's not necessarily ridiculous, it all depends on what you need from it. I find the only real problem with the screen size is that a lot of GUI stuff is simply not designed with that kind of resolution in mind. But actually most apps are absolutely fine at that resolution and I find it easy enough to just alter the GUI of whichever ones are problematic so that they are suitable for a smaller screen (yet another example of the advantages of Linux, everything is configurable with "apt-get source" as a last resort).

That's not what everybody wants to do (or can do) of course, but like I said it all depends on what you want it for, and perhaps with there being so many of these devices around now it will help to prompt GUI designers to think more about better use of screen space, which would not be a bad thing.

In any case, the screen size and resolution of the 701 is good enough for most purposes, and certainly if (like me) you do 90% of your work in either a terminal or a simple text editor such as gedit, the level of portability at that price point is hard to beat. I can develop very comfortably on my 701, which since the clamshell PDAs went out of fashion has been a difficult requirement to meet other than with those very expensive ultra-portable laptops, which are still much bigger than I would like. Although I would obviously still prefer a larger screen, I find the longer battery life to be a much more appealing feature of the newer 901 model.

[happy-and-lost]

Given the Eee900 costs £350 here, I'd imagine the 901 to be at least £400. Why buy one when you could have an Advent Netbook for £280 which has:

* Intel Atom Processor N270
* (1.6 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 512 KB Cache)
* Genuine Windows(R) XP Home (Easily fixed!)
* 80 GB Hard Drive & 1GB Memory
* 10" Widescreen Display

Asus are going to need to sort their prices out pretty fast.

[wdaniels]

* Genuine Windows(R) XP Home (Easily fixed!)


Not in all respects. For me that's one of the most attractive features of the Eee - I don't have to pay any money to MS. I won't buy any device that comes with a proprietary OS if I intend to change it (especially not a Microsoft one).

Not saying that everyone should think that way, just pointing it out.

[gn2]

Given the Eee900 costs £350 here, I'd imagine the 901 to be at least £400. Why buy one when you could have an Advent Netbook for £280 which has:

* Intel Atom Processor N270
* (1.6 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 512 KB Cache)
* Genuine Windows(R) XP Home (Easily fixed!)
* 80 GB Hard Drive & 1GB Memory
* 10" Widescreen Display

Asus are going to need to sort their prices out pretty fast.

IN THE UK:
The Eee 901 is currently being sold for £319, it has an SSD and a massive 6600mah battery.
The Eee 900 can be found for £275

The Advent is an MSI Wind re-brand. (As is the Medion Akoya Mini)
Linux versions of the Wind are available starting from £239.

The Asus Eee901 has massively better battery life than the MSI Wind.

If long battery life isn't too much of a deal, then seriously consider the £219 Acer Aspire One.
No doubt better replacement batteries for the Acer Aspire One will become available after a while.

[Tom Mann]

I don't think I'd have any other eeePC but my 701, it's cheap and cheerful, and all I can see with the later laptops are price points above Dell's cheapest laptop (with Linux) (in the UK).

Just need a fully-eeePC-compatible specific distro that is not Xandros...

[Mateo]

When is the Eeebox going to finally come out?

[ftpaddict]

With all the latest offerings from Intel, MSI and Acer, I'm not so sure the Eee is looking so nice anymore. Will wait and see. Thankfully I work in IT and I get to try out the latest goodies.

[Onyros]

I don't think I'd have any other eeePC but my 701, it's cheap and cheerful, and all I can see with the later laptops are price points above Dell's cheapest laptop (with Linux) (in the UK).

Just need a fully-eeePC-compatible specific distro that is not Xandros...You should really, really consider Arch for your eeePC.

I'm running Arch in mine, and it's working flawlessly: even CPU scaling - all the way up to 900MHz, instead of the default underclocked frequency - with p4-clockmod.

It boots in around 15 seconds and is a joy to use with Arch instead of that horrible default Xandros.

[mister_pink]

Given the Eee900 costs £350 here, I'd imagine the 901 to be at least £400. Why buy one when you could have an Advent Netbook for £280 which has:

* Intel Atom Processor N270
* (1.6 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 512 KB Cache)
* Genuine Windows(R) XP Home (Easily fixed!)
* 80 GB Hard Drive & 1GB Memory
* 10" Widescreen Display

Asus are going to need to sort their prices out pretty fast.

I looked into this a bit, and I'm temped. It's really just a rebranded MSI wind. What I'd love to know is which battery it comes with? I'm guessing the smaller one, but I can always hope. Also, anyone know if 6 cell wind batterys are available? And how much?

I really want a 901, but I'd really like to get it before I go away for a month, which is looking quite unlikely at the moment. Why don't more companies do Apple style releases, at least then you know its really coming out on that day!

[gn2]

I would rather get an MSI Wind from here (http://www.cclonline.com/product-categories.asp?category_id=706) than get an Advent re-badge from PCWorld...

Better yet, get an Acer Aspire One.

EDIT: According to this thread (http://forums.msiwind.net/general-discussion/msi-wind-rebadged-the-t707.html) it looks like the Advent Wind has a three cell battery

[The Merovingian]

Hi there,

I have just swapped to linux through buying an Eee pc and have as a result installed Ubuntu on my sony vaio at home too.

I have the 20GB White 900 which I got at Heathrow for £280 in Dixon's tax free, I have banged a 2gb ram chip in it and got a Asus finger mouse to go with it. I have a 16GB class 6 SDHC Card for data on the move and a 8GB class 6 SDHC card with Ubuntu 8.04 running directly off it. all in all I'm really pleased with it and whilst there is the 901 and 1000 ranges being readied this will tide me over till the end of the year when all the major players will have released their take on UMPC's and I may upgrade then.

Why wait forever, jump in and get your feet wet...!!!

I'm currently in a hotel in Dubai logged in on my Eee PC and its much better in portability than my 3.5kg work laptop running windows..

Cheers

:guitar:

[wdaniels]

Why wait forever, jump in and get your feet wet...!!!

My sentiments exactly. There will always be a better model just around the corner, such is the nature of the industry. I jumped straight in with the 701 4G model, which seems quite puny now by comparison, but despite it's limitations, it does the job I bought it for, and does it perfectly well.

Welcome to Linux btw :)

[Mateo]

I have the original Eee. I was wondering if its possible to buy the 8gb hard drive. Will it fit into the 4gb model? Are there any places that sell the 8gb drive?

[ELMIT]

I got a 901 and when I try to install Ubuntu I read:


The following things work automatically on the 901 with Ubuntu 8.04.1:
Multitouch scrolling on the trackpad
Graphics
CPU Scaling
Audio
Webcam
Bluetooth

The following things don't work:
Ethernet
WiFi
Standby
Shutdown
Microphone*
New Buttons above the keyboard*
Buttons Activated by the FN key (F2, F5-F9)*

*fix not yet available.


Well, that makes me not happy, because I need that thing for:
1. Skype on the go with a 3G Internet connection
Without a microphone it is not useful!!!!!
2. to project my work within a meeting, but would need FN keys.

When do I need it? on 8th of August 2008.

What is the problem with it? Why EEEPC community cannot look at the Xandros code for that part?

bye

R.

[wdaniels]

What is the problem with it? Why EEEPC community cannot look at the Xandros code for that part?

It's not a matter of not having the right code (except in the case of the wireless driver), it's the configuration. The Xandros distribution is preconfigured (and preloaded) specifically for the Eee, whereas Ubuntu has to try to work out how to support and configure every conceivable device generically.

You can make the necessary configurations (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC/Fixes) in Ubuntu to get everything working, but you will have to do it manually for now.

[ELMIT]

The mentioned web site deals apparently only up to 900 and not 901, which is a totally different machine type.


I wiped out my desktop (Xandros) by accident and also the ability to use the Network. Since I have the 901 just a few hours, I brought it back to the shop and they made a recovery installation and I have it working again.

While waiting I had an idea and would like to get some comments on that:

1. I read about LiveCd on a flash drive. How can I make an installation on a SD card?

2. Since the machine is identically for Windows/Linux (the only difference is the drive size, and maybe that is the cost of the Windows license fee).
Would it be possible to use a 16GB SD card, as first bootable drive, with Grub installed on it, where I can decide to use internal Xandros, newly installed Ubuntu Linux AND also on the SD card installed XP ?????

Any more detail hints and thoughts are very welcome.


bye

R.