EEE PC 900A - nice

[Zerix01]

I just got an Asus EEE 900 at target. I think it is the A revision but it doesn't say on the box or anywhere you would expect to have a model number.

$300 - 4GB SSD and 512Mb RAM 8.9" screen

The default OS was craptastic. It worked but I couldn't install much of anything with their package manger. I know Xandros now has CNR for a manager but it was nowhere to be found and the updater that was installed kept saying that an update needs to be installed to fix problems with the updater. When I selected to install it, it gave me an error saying it could not update. So there was a fix for a problem that you needed to download that fixes the problem with downloading the fix ???

Wi-Fi took a horrible amount of time to connect to a new connection but was pretty good about quickly connecting to my normal home network after it got past that first hump.

So anyway I nuked the OS and put Kubuntu 8.10 on it. Word to the wise, make sure your USB drive is formatted to Fat16 or it won't want to boot from it.

Then I followed these instructions with the EEE connected to a wired network connection. http://array.org/ubuntu/setup-intrepid.html After a reboot Wi-Fi works and so does a few EEE specific features.

With Kubuntu installed this thing is usable and I'm very happy with it (boots surprisingly fast too). I even created my own quasi netbook interface with creative use of KDE4's folder view plasmoid (Not my screen shot) with Alt+F12 being used to bring the desktop plasmoids to the front makes for quick launching of apps without using the cumbersome touch pad.

This just sucks that Xandros with its netbook interface is a big Linux representative to the general non techie public. No wonder I keep reading that so many people are returning the Linux models. I bet if they went with Ubuntu then they would not have had so many people asking for Windows.

 

[ihrsetrdr]

I just got an Asus EEE 900 at target....

This just sucks that Xandros with its netbook interface is a big Linux representative to the general non techie public. No wonder I keep reading that so many people are returning the Linux models. I bet if they went with Ubuntu then they would not have had so many people asking for Windows.

I've enjoyed using my eeepc 701; Xandros was gross, but didn't stay too long on my eee. The bugs have pretty much been resolved in
the custom Debian eeepc installer.

The eeeuser forum has been of enormous benefit; a lot of talented folks posting there.

 

[FudgeNuggets]

I messed with 2 yesterday because I'm getting my wife one for Christmas. The one with the 10" screen and XP was nice but the one with the 9" screen and linux was horrid. I've never seen a worse OS in my life than whatever they put on that thing. It kept crashing just trying to launch firefox which was not even listed as firefox but just a folder called internet.... ewww gross. Both had 1GB RAM and the same ATOM processor but the nasty linux one had a SSD while the other had a 120GB. The good one ran nice and fast but the linux one ran sloooooooooooooow. I hope the thing was just fubarred due to being a display......

 

[ihrsetrdr]

The good one ran nice and fast but the linux one ran sloooooooooooooow. I hope the thing was just fubarred due to being a display......

It's mainly due to Xandros being a sucky O/S; Ubuntu and Debian run waaay better.

 

[Zerix01]

It's mainly due to Xandros being a sucky O/S; Ubuntu and Debian run waaay better.

It was due to Xandros. Firefox was version 2.x and did crash on me a few times. Kubuntu with the eee kernel installed and with many of the special effects on runs faster than Xandros did. Even that bubble game that came pre-installed ran slow, installed it on Kubuntu and it runs it as fast as my desktop computer does. I do think it needs more RAM with Kubuntu but 512MB will have to do for now. The SSD isn't bad but it is a mlc SSD so it is not as fast as one would expect. I'm still finding a good way to set the power policy since down clocking to 333MHz and hardly ever bumping back up to 900MHz while on battery kills me. I think I need to set it to run in "Performance mode" all the time, battery or power cord. I also read some where that the Celeron-M in this EEE doesn't use significantly less energy in the under clocked mode so might as well get the speed out of the chip.

The one with the 10" screen and XP was nice but the one with the 9" screen and linux was horrid.

Isn't the bigger model in the $500 range? You can get a smaller normal laptop with a dual core processor in it for less. Really for me anything above $300 for this form factor would have been a deal breaker. The hardware is good, just you need to run the right software.

 

[FudgeNuggets]

It was due to Xandros. Firefox was version 2.x and did crash on me a few times. Kubuntu with the eee kernel installed and with many of the special effects on runs faster than Xandros did. Even that bubble game that came pre-installed ran slow, installed it on Kubuntu and it runs it as fast as my desktop computer does. I do think it needs more RAM with Kubuntu but 512MB will have to do for now. The SSD isn't bad but it is a mlc SSD so it is not as fast as one would expect. I'm still finding a good way to set the power policy since down clocking to 333MHz and hardly ever bumping back up to 900MHz while on battery kills me. I think I need to set it to run in "Performance mode" all the time, battery or power cord. I also read some where that the Celeron-M in this EEE doesn't use significantly less energy in the under clocked mode so might as well get the speed out of the chip.

Isn't the bigger model in the $500 range? You can get a smaller normal laptop with a dual core processor in it for less. Really for me anything above $300 for this form factor would have been a deal breaker. The hardware is good, just you need to run the right software.

No, it was only $349