# ASUS eeePC



## the_hammer (Aug 26, 2005)

Hi Everyone,

I'm thinking of picking up one of the ASUS eeePCs. They seem like a great wordprocessing/surfing tool.

I have an iMac currently which i love, but would really like to have something small and mobile. 

I looked at all the cheap "regular" sized laptops out there and the Mac ones are far too $$ for what you get, (in the $300 price point the best it seems i could do would be a Pismo) and for $500-600 you can get a crappy 6lb Windows slab. 

Does anyone own one? Have any suggestions/recommendations? 

Cheers!


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

If you need a low cost sub-notebook for under $400 that does internet, e-mail, WiFi, word processing, images, music, video, really why look anywhere else? I think the eeePC will be an excellent mobile companion to your iMac. Compact, super easy to carry it around. It even does YouTube does it not?? *Envious of you*


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## retrocactus (Jun 17, 2003)

I've got one and it's great...although I did just preorder a MacBook Air so I'll probably be either giving the eeePC to my wife or selling it.

My only issue with it is that it doesn't (properly) run OSX...everything else is awesome.

I've written a bunch about it on my blog or feel free to ask anything about it here...I'll have it for at least 2-3 more weeks


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## the_hammer (Aug 26, 2005)

So I took the plunge and picked up an eeePC last night at Canada Computers on College St.

I ended up going with the cheapy model (Eee PC 2G Surf)

ASUS | Eee PC

It came to $338.99.

Pretty spartan in appearance which is what I would expect. 

Got it home and set it up on my Airport Express network. Took a few reboots but everything is up and running now. 

Not so fussy on the track pad, which I found a bit "fast" need to play around with settings, but I think a mini-mouse could be in the future for it. The keyboard takes some getting used to. I'm a touch typist but found myself hunting for keys. 

The actual OS isn't bad. It's snappy and I would think that out of the box would be perfect for most people. I see on your blog retrocactus that you installed a different OS, so I might give that a go eventually. 

I plan on using it to surf when on the couch and get writing done when I'm out and about. Any questions please feel free to post them up and I'll try to answer them.


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## Rob (Sep 14, 2002)

These sound really interesting.

Do they have a USB port?
Do they have a regular wired ethernet port?

Is the operating system on the drive or in ROM? If it's on the drive, how much space is left on the drive?


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

If it doesn't run Mac OS X, I have no interest.


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## martman (May 5, 2005)

Rob said:


> These sound really interesting.
> 
> Do they have a USB port?
> Do they have a regular wired ethernet port?
> ...


Yes and yes to Ethernet and usb. Not sure about the free space till my GF whips it out again.


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## the_hammer (Aug 26, 2005)

I have the 2gig model. The OS along with all the programs pre-loaded (Open Office suite, a few games, some other "learning programs") leave me with 375 megs of space. It has a slot for SD cards so I think I'll pick up a 1gig or 2gig card just to ensure I have lots of space. 

I also usually have my iPod with me, so I can use space on it, if necessary. 

I'm liking it so far, still getting used to typing on it though.


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## Rob (Sep 14, 2002)

Thanks for the answers guys, much appreciated.

This is a really tempting option for a portable unit at a low pricepoint. It does everything I'd want a small portable to do.

The eeeUnbuntu OS sounds neat too.

Did Canada Computers have any on display that you could try out?


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## martman (May 5, 2005)

Don't buy from them. Canada Computers will do anything to not honour their warranty. I had them build a PC for my mother and it took 6 months for them to fix it. Their "technician" refused to test for the problem I said it had. I had to call the head office and get them to send the machine there to get service because the store refused to admit it had a problem.


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## the_hammer (Aug 26, 2005)

Canada Computers did have a display model, they keep it locked up (well most of their stuff is locked up).

They have lots of pretty colours too. I went with black because I'm boring. 

Supercheap computers with linux builds seem to be really catching on. the gPC platform and I think there are a few other "cloud" pcs that are coming out. Sadly not all of us can afford a MacBook Air.....


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