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EeePC:  My new main machine

2008.02.09

A posting of mine on OSnew:

"I purchased my EeePC on Halloween. I had purchased a Nokia N800 less than a month before, so initially didn't find the EeePC that compelling. However, over the last few months the EeePC has really grown on me. Despite owning a MacBook, the EeePC has pretty much taken over as my main PC. The size and weight, not to mention having a fully-supported Linux laptop, far outweigh any of the niggling "problems" like screen size for me.

Yes, I'd probably like it even more with a 9+" screen at 1024x600, but the EeePC is a fantastic little machine and the $400 price point is/was key to its success. If Asus had bumped the screen size, they probably would have had to bump the price as well.

With the size, I've given up on PDAs. The EeePC is small enough that I can tote it wherever and whenever I might have previously taken a Palm. Also, you can tell that Asus put a lot of thought into the design. It's a very sturdy, silent machine. Asus nailed the form-factor; the EeePC is incredibly easy to carry with you, they mostly nailed the UI, they nailed the price,

I was initially frustrated with Xandros and replaced it with eeexubuntu. It was only after using it for a week or two that I realized how much effort Asus put in to the UI and design of the EeePC interface. For the most part, I think they nailed that too and I'm back to the stock OS with the stock "Easy" interface.

So, with upgraded RAM, a new IceWM theme and extra repositories, the EeePC is now my main machine. Plugged into an external monitor at 1280x1024, I've done web development, image manipulation and no-compromise browsing. It's certainly slower than my MacBook when running multiple apps simultaneously, but the speed in launching apps is pretty much the same with the EeePC as it is with my 2GHz Core Duo/2GB RAM MacBook.

A late-model 12" PowerBook had been my favourite computer purchase. In fact, despite the speed improvements, I hadn't been terribly pleased with the MacBook as a replacement laptop. Yes, it is a good machine, but it's much larger than the 12" PB and is positively huge compared to the EeePC. The EeePC hits a very interesting niche and it's great to see Asus breaking new ground here. It's much closer to what I had hoped the MacBook Air to have been."