low power, low cost computing

[Martin]

finally put my money where my mouth is, and invested in one of these........
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_Eee ... ersion.asp
- with which I'm posting this!
It wouldn't suit everyone, but as a replacement for my wife's laptop that my daughter disappeared with ages ago, it's perfect! -Even when charging the battery pack, it's consuming a whole 20w!
For anyone wanting a cheap computer, well worth a look at around 200 quid!
I'm also happy to plug the above company - ordered it at 4pm yesterday - it arrived at 10 this morning!
It also has the decency to be running Linux!

[mrsflibble]

looks great... and i dont want to tinkle on your conrnflakes or anything but the hard drive is a solid state flash according to the write up... this type of memory can become very unstable so please please keep good separate backups of any important data. mind you, with a 2gb hard drive AND usb ports, that shouldn't be hard.
it will be good for around 100,000 read/write operations which seems like a lot... but be warned that flash memory is quite unstable. Try and find out if any "wear levelling" dvices have been installed just to ensure it will be a little more stable.
bu-hu-hut then again, if all you are using it for it surfing the web I can't see a problem lol!

[Martin]

I've had it for some 24 hours now, and I'm still getting used to it - owing to the lack of inbuilt cd drive, and fairly limited storage (I've added a 2gb SD card I had kicking about), it's going to be a matter of having a different mindset to using a conventional laptop - I'm going to get an external usb drive for storage, and I've already got a cd burner, so it'll be a case of only using it for short-term storage, and dumping it.......
For surfing, emailing etc it's brilliant, remarkably swift in operation - and not a sulphurous whiff of Windoze!

[mrsflibble]

I can recommend iomega's ext hard drives. mine is excellent, never had a problem with it *touches wooden desk*.

[JustinFun]

finally put my money where my mouth is, and invested in one of these........
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_Eee ... ersion.asp

I just opened this section of the forum for the first time, thinking, I must tell everyone about my eeepc, to find someone else had already done it!



I've had mine for about 3 months now and it's the best bit of kit I've ever bought - stupidly cheap, it 'just works', and it's really really cute!

Mrs Fibble - there's been a lot of debate on the stability of these drives on the unofficial forum (eeeuser.com - Martin, you should check it out if you haven't already) and general opinion seems to be that because the Linux doesn't use swap files / virtual memory, it has vastly fewer writes than XP, so lifespan should be good.

I've installed the advanced desktop (XP style interface) and added a few new programs, including WINE, which means I can run windows progs within Linux - all working fine. Even if you 'break' it, all the system files are protected and you can restore it instantly to factory settings at the touch of a button (you'd lose your files though, which is why I save things to an SDCard in the internal drive).

[Martin]

mine's still "bog standard", and none the worse for it - I find it so refreshing to have a totally Microsoft-free zone (I'm really glad to see the back of Windoze), and as you've said "it just works".........so well!

[johnM]

A couple of questions for anyone to answer on the eee:

Are there any compatibility issues between Open office and MS software?

Anyone tried to use an external hard-drive wirelessly to backup data?

[Martin]

I've had no compatability issues - as to hard drive backup, I use a 30gb usb hard drive (or a card in the provided port) - I presume you could do it wirelessly!

[johnM]

Thanks for the reply Martin, I suppose the compatibility thing would be the bigger issue.

No need for a new computer just yet but will bare it in mind for the future.

Thanks

John

[Martin]

I suppose it's like being a reformed alcoholic or junkie.........having got off the Microsoft poison, I don't need it any more!
I now use the Open Office "native formats" like "odt" instead of "docs" etc., but do accept that loads of people are lumbered with working with the dreadful Microsoft formats because of work etc. - you have a "doc" to read - "open office!" opens it perfectly, you can then alter it any way you like, and save it as any flavour of "doc" you fancy - same for database and powerpoint files too - there really is no problem!
I too worried about such things, I'd suggest downloading the Windoze version of "Open Office" and giving it a twirl first - it should prove how capable it is!
"The Gimp" is superb as a superior substitute for Photoshop (again available as a Windoze programme)