I was in Microcenter the other day, and they had some ASUS eee PCs sitting on the shelf. Very cheap, very small, very cool.
They come with Linux installed by default, but after playing it, I learned quickly that I would want to re-install with something like Ubuntu. Whatever custom version they have on there is extremely crippled compared to what I’m used to.
Another negative was the RAM — comes with 512MB, but is not upgradeable. Fail.
Still; it’s so small, and 512MB RAM is not that bad. It’s not as though I’d be playing Halflife2 on the little thing, after all.
Hey, HL2 can run on 512MB! Look, I got the system specs for you:
Official Half-Life 2 Box minimum specs:
Processor: 1.2 GHz Processor
OS: Windows, 2000/XP/Me/98
Graphic card: DirectX 7 level graphics card
Hard Drive: 4.5 GB
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Other: Internet Connection, DVD-ROM Drive
Not only does your puny PC meet the requirements, it exceeds them. And hey, that DX7 level graphics card should be no problem, either. :)
Now would Vista run on that machine? Um, no.
According to Gizmodo, you could run Vista on it… just not very well. ;-)
But anyways… yeah. Realistically, I think it would still need to have a little more RAM for me to want one. Also, I think I’d want to use one for a couple days before deciding to own one. It’s cool that it’s that small, but I’m not sure how I’d really like using/typing/web surfing on a laptop that tiny.
All the same, a very cool little machine.
I suspect the poster above me (”kevin”) is a spammer…..
I too would like an eeePC - there is a beefed up version due quite soon I believe. Plus, I reckon the black model looks cooler than the white ;)
Oh, and it’s running on a custom build of Xandros currently, but there are alternatives out there, including eeeXubuntu.
512MB RAM isn’t all that bad. I was running 512 on my -desktop- for -4- years before I bought a 1G stick - last month. And it’s running Winblows (switching to Ubuntu as soon as I can get all 320G of HD uploaded…) You can tell where my priorities are.
But as I was staring at that picture trying to figure out what the heck that CD was doing on the keyboard, I had a D’OH moment and immediately grabbed two nearby CDs and overlapped them a bit. WOW - that’s small!!
@mrben ahhh, Xandros. It’s very customized… and it is interesting, but not usable if you actually want to have, you know… a terminal. It’s possible there’s a way to enable that, though I didn’t see it when I looking…
@Trisha, I agree, 512 really is still enough for most tasks; if 1GB were available, though, I think I’d go for that instead.
Also, if you’re considering moving to Ubuntu as a main OS, check out Linux Mint also. Mint basically is Ubuntu, made even more user friendly, and enabling quite a few handy features by default.
The default shortcut for launching a terminal works fine on the eeepc - I can’t remember what it is at the moment, but I know it worked on an eeepc in our local Toys-R-Us. Ctrl-Alt-T maybe?
(edit - a quick google confirms that it is Ctrl-Alt-T)
That’s good to know… yes, sadly, I was looking for an actual icon, program, or option to open a terminal. But still… I think the first thing I would do is load Ubuntu (eeeUbuntu, as the case may be) on the little thing instead of its default. :-)
I bought an eeepc for my wife late last year. She loves it, as do the kids (lots of fun, cute games). While I was updating the default xandros install, I bricked the OS, and chose to re-install eeeXubuntu - it is awesome, highly recommended.