New $499 Linux Notebook a winner.

[digby dart]

Selling fast in the USA is the ASUS eee PC mini notebook.

It will begin selling in Myer Sydney on December 1st 2007 for AU$499. It should be in other Myer Stores around Australia the day after.

It comes comes with a version of the linux operating system by Xandros. Later versions will appear sporting Win xp.

The initial linux version of the 'Eee PC 4G' available in australia will come with:
7" display 800x480
Linux Operating System. Graphic user interface for simplicity and ease of use. Over 40 built-in applications. These include OpenOffice and Mozzilla. (The unit is also user installable WinXP compatible. Additional xp licence required.)
WiFi and LAN
4GB soldis state disk drive + Durable, shock-proof solid-state design.
VGA Camera
Hi-Definition audio, Stereo speakers and Microphone.
Battery 4 Cells: 5200 mAh, approx 3.5hrs.
Weight 0.92 kg
Memory card slot, 3 usb ports, ext monitor port, lan port, mic jack, headphone jack and ac adapter (included) jack.
Touchpad.I noted that Xandros have listed the Philips PCVC840K "ToUCam Pro II" as compatible with their operating system.

Linux compatable Astro software can be found at http://www.astrotips.com/
This includes linux versions of AstroStack 3, Field of View Calculator, Eyepiece Projection Calculator, QastroCam (for Philips webcams), GCX, AudeLA, Stellarium and others.

Whether the linux versions of these programs are compatable is yet to be seen. The same can be said for the Sky Chart / Cartes du Ciel program in its linux incarnation.

Anyway the Asus Eeee sounds very exciting for astronomy being a small lite inexpensive mini notebook.:)

[snowyskiesau]

I've been waiting to see what the price is for a model with 1GB memory and 8GB disk.
It might be on the Christmas pressie list if it's not too dear.

[citivolus]

Hmm, combined with an external drive enclosure, it might make a good capture/autoguiding device.

These would also make good serial terminals using a serial to USB converter.

The CPU would seem to be a 900MHz Celeron M.

The 8G version is anticipated to be 25% more in the US than the 4G, so in good old Aussie import fashion, expect $700.

Shots here show three versions:

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-14057-Asus+at+the+Computex+(Eee+inside).h tml (http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-14057-Asus+at+the+Computex+%28Eee+inside% 29.html)

Note the 10" screen on one model. However, rumour has it that model never made it past prototype. Some recent info disputes that, though:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/14/asus-confirms-the-8gb-10-inch-eee-pc/

Eric

[Lee]

It would be a very good portable autoguider - PHD has an OSX version - so surely a linux version wouldn't be too much to have ported..... :shrug:

[Omaroo]

Lee: From Craig Stark-

[digby dart]

"Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux (http://www.linux.org/), FreeBSD (http://www.freebsd.org/), Mac OS X (http://www.apple.com/macosx/), and Solaris (http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/)." source http://www.winehq.org/

Codeweaver CrossOver is an enhanced version. http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/

This German fellow has successfully run Google Sketchup on Linux. http://aksels.de/software.php#sketch

Some have even run PalmOS emulators on Linux.

If all else fails... run xp.:)

[Omaroo]

Agreed - as long as this lappy's distro comes with a decent implementation of Wine. I gave an affirmative discussion on the merits of Wine in another post here a little while back - and even run Photoshop & InDesign successfully on my RH8 box at home.

[dannat]

Would you be able to load osX onto such a device - I think in theory you should but in practice you can't? do any mac users out there know -

[GiveItAGoGavo]

OSx I dont think so, XP yes, though the reduced CPU power would be notable...

there was quite a chunky thread on it here...

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=756489

lots of info in there... hope you find what your looking for.

[turbo_pascale]

OS X will not run on anything but a Mac without a serious hack to remove all reference to their code that checks to see if it is running on a genuine Apple.

<OFF-TOPIC RANT ON>

Note also, that as much as everybody loves Apple's OS (I like the look of it a lot too), it's prime reason for stability is the fact that Apple knows, and tests all hardware that is going to run on their OS, and reliance on 3rd party drivers is minimal and controlled.

Imagine running Windows using ONLY WQHL approved drivers!
Why do you think that they don't make it "PC" compatible - not because of the hardware sales! It's because of the nightmare it would cause with drivers and system stability.

I am TRULY amazed that my Vista boxes can basically work with 98% of my legacy gear, out of the box, without having to dig up driver disks - I have lots of old bits plugged in to my new systems, and they just work. Don't get me wrong though! Lots of stuff DOESN'T work, but can I really blame Microsoft for not having OS drivers built in for 6 year old hardware?

OTOH, I can blame them for pandering to the unwashed masses of dumb users and requiring that they prompt for every action performed, being over-protective of user permissions etc (this drives me absolutely nuts, and even with all sorts of tweaks and registry settings, still can't quite get Vista's claws out of my files!) I am praying that Service Pack 1 will perform some miracles, as my hard drives are surely going to die premature deaths from the near constant thrashing they get at the hands of the "phantom who-knows-what-is-going-on" processes in vista.

</RANT OFF>

Turbo

[citivolus]

As anti Microsoft as I am, I will grant you your point about hardware stability and drivers. I can't imagine trying to create a stable product where its entire interface to the world is coded by third parties, and 80% of the drivers released by manufacturers are not run through official certification.


Of course, that 80% number is speculative, but it seems to be growing daily. I can't remember the last driver I installed that didn't prompt me to STOP.

[sejanus]

it's not just the limited amount of hardware support. it's more about the bsd underpinnings. I am a network/system engineer for an isp - our freebsd servers never crash. and I do literally mean we have never had one crash. uptimes are as long as the machine has been in service, which for a few servers is over 720 days at the moment.

Our windows servers, running on IBM X series servers, running win 2003 server with only approved drivers - need to be rebooted every few weeks. In addition every week we need to restart a app or service or some little glitch. The funny thing is the bsd servers are actually busier boxes.

[citivolus]

My personal records for *BSD are around 900 days, with 1200+ days on some Solaris systems (behind firewalls where they didn't need to be rebooted for kernel patches). The inevitable reboots actually happened when the UPS that they were behind tripped at the end of one of California's infamous rolling blackouts a few years back.

However, the important thing to remember in the case of BSD is that the drivers do have a central controlling structure which dictates what changes make it to release and also requires some fairly thorough testing, unlike with Windows, where the hardware manufacturer may release some very questionable code.

[mrsnipey]

Apparently you can load OSX Leopard 10.5 onto the eee.
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2007/11/12654/

[h0ughy]

thought this was going to be ok but the battery life is far too short and there is not much system capacity and you cannot upgrade the ram. I think this model falls short because of the price - $200 cheaper then maybe ok

[jay019]

Um, just undo the ram cover in the back, put in new ram and your ram is upgraded.

Or have they significantly changed the specs?

[h0ughy]

there is a sticky security tab over one of the screws - undo that and you void your warranty, but I wondered as well whether or not you could just wack in a big 2 gig stick:shrug:

[ballaratdragons]

I finally got to see one of these 'little wee beasties' (as Scottie would say) at Officeworks a couple of days ago.

Man, it's tiny!!!!! Not much use for imaging! The screen is too small and it runs slow.

Good for a novelty, or to make the trendy's look good traveling on a train :lol:

[jay019]

The following link to ASUSTeK (http://usa.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=9223) goes into more detail, but I'm not sure if Australia is a coutry where those stickers are illegal or not. I know I dont have one on my Toshiba anywhere.

[acropolite]

I had a play with a mates Eee PC 900, 20Gb drive and 2Gb Ram with Linux and I was very impressed. I'd like to see what it runs like with XP.

[mrsnipey]

A girl at work bought the 12gb xp version the other day.
It ran quite well considering the cpu. I was very impressed with
the screen quality. She was running it in 1024x600.

[wasyoungonce]

Blahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

who would bother with one of these when the BigW Lenovo Lappys: 1.46Ghz Core 2's, T2310 (also capable of taking the T7XXX and T8XXX ...any of the fpga 6 CPUs) with 120Gb HDD, 1Gb RAM, 14 inch display and 4-5 hour batter DVD burner, wireless, motza USBs and a firewire blah blah for $598.

I took out the RAM stick and put in a 2Gb stick for $52. Thus a neat little flyer, fully fledged Lappy for $650....there is absolutely no comparison.

Pity all of those have sold out.

But, you may find it's replacement, $698 Lappy, with similar specs but 15 inch screen still on sale at a few BigWs. They finished sale on the 29th of May but a few store may have some left. Ring around their computer depts as they are not on display.

[RB]

I've heard that MS did a deal with Asus to bring out the next model running a stripped down version of XP.

[dannat]

I bought an eeePC last week, they have really restricted the linux OS, I am busy putting some build essentials so I can put any programs I want on - it comes with kstars but I have had some trouble loading stellarium.

I have just the 4gb version, and have another 4gb sd crd to slot in. I have found it actually runs reasonably quick, better than winXP on most systems.

I find it fun to muck around in the terminal - they have partitioned the drive so if you stuff up , you can reboot & reload the original software.

I will try & load gimp in the coming days to see how it performs.

I figure it's cheap to have outside at night, if i get dew/ drop it it doesn't matter. The kids work on it during the day and they have the small fingers to use the keyboard.

You can buy them with XP but apparently they are quite slow, you can easily upgrade the ram to 1gb, and there is a 3rd party selling touchscreen pack for $60 on ebay - that quite a few have installed via the eeeWiki

[hikerbob]

I picked up a Lenovo R61e Thinkpad with XP Pro installed for $599 earlier this week after my desktop PC died. Ordered on monday night and was at my front door tuesday.

http://www.pcsuperstore.com.au/product-details.php?g_ProductID=11603

Specs are as follows

Software Operating system provided Genuine (http://www.microsoft.com/genuine) Windows XP Professionalhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Operating System Operating System Title Genuine (http://www.microsoft.com/genuine) Windows XP Professionalhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Architecture Bus type/architecture PCI/PCI Express Bays Fixed Ultrabay Enhanced Form Factor Notebook Cover Material Magnesiumhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Display/Monitor Screen Type Description WXGA TFT Viewable Image Size (Diagonal) Inches 15.4 Screen Illumination Backlit Grey Shades or Colours Max Built in Screen 16777216 Maximum Resolution 1280x800http://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Graphics Subsystem Graphics Chipset Intel Graphics Chipset Video RAM type DVMT Max resolution (with max video RAM) 2048x1536 16777216 colours Maximum Simultaneous Colours 16777216 Graphics bus interface PCI Express Graphic Features DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3.0 Graphics Processing Unit, Dual independent display option, Dynamic Display Detect, Open GL 1.4 support Connectors VGAhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Processor BIOS type Flash ROM Processor Manufacturer Intel Processor Type Intel Celeron Processor 540 Processor internal clock speed[1 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(1))] 1.86 GHz Front side bus 533 MHzhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Memory Memory (RAM) std. / max.[8 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(8))] 1 GB / 4 GB RAM slots total 2 SODIMM RAM slots available 1 SODIMM RAM speed supported 667 MHz Memory Type DDR2 SDRAMhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Hard Disk Drives Hard disk size[4 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(4))] 120 GB Hard disk type Serial ATAhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Optical Devices Optical Drive Type DVD Recordable Interface Type EIDE Speed[5 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(5))] 24X Maxhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Audio Audio Chipset Intel High Definition Audio Data Width 24http://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Network Card Fax/modem 56K V.92 designed modem Fax/modem speed[3 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(3))] 56Kbps data/14.4Kbps fax Infrared port No Description Integrated Gigabit Ethernet Network Speed 1000Mbps, 100Mbps, 10Mbps Interface Gigabit Ethernet- Integratedhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Wireless Networking Components Wireless speed 11a:54Mbps, 11b:11Mbps, 11g:54Mbps *Wireless Speed 11a:54Mbps, 11b:11Mbps, 11g:54Mbps Wireless Standard[10 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(10))] Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Wireless Type LAN Antenna UltraConnect II Description Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Frequency 802.11:2.4 to 5 GHz Wireless Implementation (Form Factor) Mini-PCIehttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Accessories Worldwide A/C compatibility Yeshttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Standard features Pointing Device Type TrackPoint Keyboard Type[11 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(11))] Full size Keyboard light Yeshttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Expansion options Slots total (free) and type 1(1) PC Card, 1(0) Mini-PCIe, 1(0) Communication Daughter Card 2http://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Weight & dimensions Height 35.3 mm Depth 260 mm Width 358.5 mmhttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Security Security identification technology Nonehttp://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Warranty Type of service[13 (http://javascript<b></b>:HandleFootnote(13))] Customer Carry-in Repair Warranty Period One year parts and labour (system battery: one year)http://www.lenovo.com/i/c.gif Battery Battery Types 6 Cell Lithium-Ion Battery Voltage 14.4 V

Bob

[Omaroo]

Hey Daniel - I bought one of these to fool around with today as well as a new Toshiba Satellite laptop. DJ's also threw in an Olympus 8MP camera to boot! All for just over $1,200 - not bad.

What a great little unit the eeePC is. To those who have mentioned that the Lenovo laptop is a better bet - that isn't the point. This is A5 form factor (sub notebook), runs linux quite quickly and is a lot of fun.

I've just powered mine up and only find basic OpenOffice, a few games, internet-related stuff - but no terminal as such. Yours came with KStars? I see that its based on KDE, but can't see too many K-apps yet. Oh well - time to investigate :)

[acropolite]

FWIW Myer have the EeePC 900 XP version in the cat & dog for $599 or $649 with a 140G external mini drive.

[dannat]

yes, mine came with Kstras,
I have put build essentials pack on, & WINE - i tried to install DSS using wine, but have hit a snag with a couple on win components that aren't part of wine tricks - anyone want to build it for me feel free.

Extra SD is essential, have used uo the 4gb already, another 4gb on way

[Omaroo]

What was KStars under? Looks like yours came with a different install?

[Omaroo]

Ah - OK, scratch that - it was under Learn/Science.

Very cool little toy! :)

[acropolite]

OK guys, just to throw a stick in the spokes, MSI have released a 10 inch screen model with 80Gb Hdd and XP for around $500 US. Review Here (http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/msi-wind.aspx).