Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: asus, eee, linux | Themes: Laptops and Notebooks, Business
4. Easy Desktop Really Is Easy
The Internet tab includes standard applications like Skype and Firefox; online apps like Google Docs and handy options, such as the link to Wikipedia.
Forget standard Linux distribution and the command line. The Easy Desktop interface that the comes with uses tabs to arrange the 40 applications and utilities it comes with into Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings and Favorites. Internet includes Firefox, Skype and Google Docs. Thunderbird email is on the Work tab, with icons for the various OpenOffice apps, a PDF reader and file manager; the Accessories icon here links to a PIM, calendar and screen capture tool.
Learn has a small selection of educational software. Play has a sound recorder, a media player, a music manager utility that works with iPods and photo and video views of the file manager. The Settings menu includes anti-virus software and a simple voice command for launching applications, although we couldn’t get this to work reliably. You can see status icons and switch between open applications at the bottom of the screen or click the Home icon to go back to the tabbed Easy Desktop interface.
Asus includes a selection of utilities, including anti-virus software.
The Eee copes with a wide range of peripherals and connects to any standard network; an optional 3G card will put you online anywhere (but data charges could rival the cost of the hardware).
The keyboard will limit the documents you want to work with more than OpenOffice does; it’s a competent alternative to older versions of Microsoft Office.
Underneath the friendly but limiting interface is Xandros Linux, so more experienced Linux users can open a shell from the file manager, which allows you to use the apt-get command to install new applications. You can also use this to unlock the Full Desktop interface, which has a Launch menu and taskbar plus access to an RSS reader, remote desktop client and the Synaptic package Manager interface to apt-get for installing further applications. You can swap between the two interfaces or set the system to boot into the Full Desktop automatically.
Press the power button for shutdown options; if you add the Full Desktop interface the icon will appear here, too.
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The Asus Eee (701P PC is a shrunken laptop in a sturdy case - but the screen is
Tiny Asus Eee Runs Linux & Windows ($399) : Read more
Great info on future gen of affordable laptops, but the problem of laptop is actually battery life. I own asus laptop myself (A3HF) but the battery life is very short (about 2-3 hours tops). But if this small & cheap laptop have non power hungry hardware it could really push the envelop. Another problem perhaps the availability of this product on such country as mine, Indonesia. I really hope this product will be available with the $300 price tag here, because usually the price being put double the standard price because of entry tax and transportation fee on the distributor side.
Wow.. another Indonesian,
Yup I think it's a good system..hope the price is reasonable when it reach here..
I'm still dumbfounded by how many people buy into these things. Can you not buy a laptop from HP or Dell for $400-500 with better specs in almost all areas AND with Windows XP already installed?
@ jephph1
You can and you can't. "Specs" does not give enough information. If by "specs" you mean CPU, RAM, Screen Size, etc... then yes, you can. But if you take into account that this is a laptop and for some size and weight is far more important than those other "Specs" then no you cannot buy something like this from Dell or HP for the same price. Just so you know, this thing easily fits into my girlfriend's purse.
I own one of these, so I can speak from first hand experience. The Eee should not be considered as a replacement for your main computer. However, if you would like a secondary device that is good for travel, or great for a student to take notes then the Eee is great.
Also, if anyone reading this goes ahead and gets an Eee, I would recommend you go to http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ for information of getting your Eee setup how you would like.
Yeah, that's the only reason I could think of to get one. I guess I just don't see the point in spending just as much to get a laptop that maybe be quite a bit more portable, but that really can't run much because of it's poor specs, especially in a year or two when a lot more software will be much too demanding for this specimen.
What is it with you people that put currency in pictures to give an idea on size? You are aware we don't all use whatever the hell that currency is? Geeze, would it kill you to put a freaking ruler in the pic. cm/inches version would be nice. Thanks.
I was under the impression from people in other forums that ASUS is not voiding the warranty for upgrading your ram an sps the most commonly used currency in the world is 6 inches