ASUS Eee

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

Any of you guys had a chance to play with it yet?

Saw one at Staples tonight. So cuuuuute. =P For $400, it's tempting.

[Scani]

One of my friends down in Toronto has one - I had the brief opportunity to play with it, and other than the keys being a little bit small (I have big hands ) I can't believe how effectively they've managed to get most of the features of a laptop into such a small machine for the price point. Obviously it's not going to replace anyone's desktop anytime soon, but it's a great supplement for those that are on the road often.

[Benjamin]

We've had them at the store that I work at. They're not too bad all considering. Very portable, of course. Great battery lifespan, reportedly. I'd only really use them for internet and word processing and little else, really. It's not generally recommended for anything more than that, to my knowledge.
 
Benjamin

[Okami]

*chuckles* The funny thing about the EEE PCs are that you can run modern games on them... just at tiny resolutions.

The next generation of the EEE PC seems much better though. Atom and a few other changes. Battery life is actually only mediocre for the EEE PC in my opinion. I have a 15.4" HP that can last up to eight hours (depending on how it's used) but the EEE PC seems to cap out around three hours on very light use - at least, from what I've been reading. Not sure but Atom should help at least. ^_^

Examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyLrs-4TAjw - Morrowind & Oblivion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UixLlpMgJqA - Half-Life 2

[Kesarra]

The only issue with gaming is the nonstandard screen size. Other than that, most games from around 2004-2006 on back are quite playable. Browsing and email and just writing in general is all good. What the Eee really needs is an instant on OS, which OSX and XP and most Linux distros are not. Splashtop is not ready yet, which is too bad. Asus should have thought of it earlier.

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

I think it'd be great to take on sails -- the lighter the shit I have to carry around, the better -- but the small screen size really worries me. I play Football Manager a lot and it likes screen real estate. We play old FPS a lot, too, but 640x400 will be quite enough for those.

I have $1,000 being held at the Halifax Mac Store for when I can give them another $500 for a MacBook. I might ask for it back and get the Eee instead. -ponder- At the very least I can use it to surf and watch TV upstairs at the same time. =P

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

So. Got the Eee.

Included kit: portable-sized opti mouse. Nice. 4gb SD card. VERY nice, since I bought an extra one not knowing that it was boxed with one. So I can return it or... I -think- I can boot an OS off of the SD card. Which would be very cool, since I can use one for media storage and one for like putting Windows on or something.

OS: It's Linux. I don't really like it. I like a command prompt Linux; I've never really grown comfortable with X for some reason. It's quite usable but I'm a power user damnit. =P I'm trying to muscle Windows onto it but so far we have:

4-in-1 Win2k disc: won't boot.
XP original: turned out to be too scratched to boot.
Vetted XP 'Performance' edition: won't boot.

I'm going to bring my USB IDE kit to class tomorrow and see what mayhem I can wreak.

Anyways.

Keyboard: honestly, I thought it'd be a nightmare, but it's only a -little- too small to feel normal. Some keys (backspace and tab, for starters) are much smaller than I'm used to. But it won't take that much adjustment.

Screen: apart from the oddball resolution (800x480) it's perfectly readable. A little too short for YouTube (which the base Linux install plays flawlessly).

Sound: Very impressive volume coming from such tiny speakers. No bass, of course, but loud all the same.

WLAN: variable. It picks up Boston Pizza wireless and the unsecure network upstairs just fine, but can't latch onto my secure network. I've read the stock wireless capabilities are somewhat lacking; I believe it. Wonder how it'll go under Windows.

In summary: it's a lot smaller than it feels. Whenever I get up to grab another beer or go to the can and come back I can't help but marvel at how damn small it is. And I sit down and start bashing away at it and it only feels slightly smaller than a budget laptop. (I'm not typing on it right now, btw, it's upstairs charging its little heart out.) I'm quite happy with it so far, apart from its refusal to boot a Windows install CD on an external CD drive. (I've booted the recovery DVD and restored the system, just for shits and giggles and proof-of-external-CD-drive-functionality.) But I'm using pirate and scratched copies, so who knows what may transpire tomorrow. This is going to be quite an interesting little machine to fuck around with.

[Alex]

OS: It's Linux. I don't really like it. I like a command prompt Linux; I've never really grown comfortable with X for some reason. It's quite usable but I'm a power user damnit.

You've still got Terminal.  And if I recall correctly you can switch from a GUI to command prompt as you describe. Don't quote me on that, though, as I'm not familiar at all with Xandros. I know you can do it in Ubuntu, Gentoo and Debian.

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

OS: It's Linux. I don't really like it. I like a command prompt Linux; I've never really grown comfortable with X for some reason. It's quite usable but I'm a power user damnit.

You've still got Terminal.  And if I recall correctly you can switch from a GUI to command prompt as you describe. Don't quote me on that, though, as I'm not familiar at all with Xandros. I know you can do it in Ubuntu, Gentoo and Debian.

Perhaps you can .

I've managed to find and install an nLite'd XP made especially for the Eee.

Working games so far, out of only a few tried:
GTA Vice City
Yoot Towers
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2
EVE-Online (slow, but it's possible to mine and sit in-station)
Counterstrike 1.6 (non-source, and it still insists on running at 800x600 instead of 800x480 -- but it's smooth)

Codename: Panzers is just too slow
Medieval: Total War just crashes every time

More to come. I have Panzer General 3 waiting on my class computer, I don't doubt it will work fine. I'm really disappointed Medieval doesn't work though, even though it's a 2002 game.

Xvid movies play fine off a USB stick (OCZ Rally 2 8gb), which is fantastic for my purposes =P

[PyroVulpes]

So, when are ya gonna try this?

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

So, when are ya gonna try this?

I don't have mad programming skillz, sadly.

[Aaeden]

Wow. I can't believe the little dinky things run GAMES.

I'd be scared to put something any later than Windows 98 on it, just because of the relative size of them.

I think it's awesome that you can do all that, though!

[Kesarra]

I'd be scared to put something any later than Windows 98 on it, just because of the relative size of them.

Windows 2k will run on anything. I've had it on a 200mhz pentium with 40MB of RAM. I'm not sure 98 would have run quite as well or even been useful. I'd expect driver issues.

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

I'd be scared to put something any later than Windows 98 on it, just because of the relative size of them.

Windows 2k will run on anything. I've had it on a 200mhz pentium with 40MB of RAM. I'm not sure 98 would have run quite as well or even been useful. I'd expect driver issues.

There are driver issues with 2k. Namely, ASUS chipset drivers won't install. =P XP runs acceptably well once you stick some more RAM in it. Also just discovered a lovely little tool to fake increased resolutions -- I'm runnin it at fake 900x540 and it's still quite readable. Panzer General 2 and 3 run on it now, and I'm going to try Medieval: Total War again and see if it doesn't crash this time. =)

[Aaeden]

*grins* I don't think I'll install a legitimate version of Windows 98 on anything other than an old school Pentium 1. I was more referring to the GAMES that I'd try to run (ie games designed for the system, which XP allows for (some) backwards computability to).

It's been a looooong time since I ever considered reinstalling Windows 98. :3

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

Wooooo! M:TW at 900x540! Football Manager 2008 at 1024x768 stretched! Hotsauce! -dances-

edit: oh... wait.. Medieval crashes after intro now. Guess I need to fart around with resolutions some more =P
edit: menu at 1000x600 =D seems to be running OK, except I'll have to tweak it to turn windows cursor off.
edit: laf, crashes again after country select. OK, I give up on it

[Drewdle]

The new Eee is up on ncix.com, with a 10" screen and 20Gb flash hard disk. Says it won't ship until mid June, but I sure as hell want one. It would make one excellent electronic notebook. $549 sounds reasonable to me. I don't need Windows to play nice. 

[Benjamin]

The new one looks pretty impressive. I'll have to give some feedback on it once we start selling them at our store here...
 
Benjamin

[Mobile Suit Bunny]

They're selling for $620 local (the 900s), but I don't think I can switch so soon from my wee black beastie =P