My OperaNew toy: why wait till Xmas
Saturday, December 8, 2007 8:42:42 PM
Well, after some tribulations with an online retailer who (eventually, after much messing about) couldn't supply one until January, I am now the proud owner of an Asus EeePC. Bought in the end from our local Toys'r'us, of all places! Who seemed to have plenty in stock, for anyone who's looking for one. Needless to say, I'll be cancelling the online order.
The EeePC itself is a thing of beauty: a miniature laptop with a 7" screen, Linux and a whole bunch of installed apps, including Firefox, Thunderbird, Skype, Pidgin (multi-messenger client) and the OpenOffice.org office suite. No Opera, though apparently it's possible to install it if you jump through some hoops. Might be worth Opera making it available via Asus's repository for really easy installation: just a thought.
Browser politics aside, the EeePC is a very neat concept. It's not meant to be all-purpose, it's meant to do most things the average person wants to do with a minimum of fuss and fiddling. So it has a simplified interface/launcher and software to do the commonest jobs: a little browsing, chat and email, some word processing/spreadsheet/presentation work and a few basic games. Plus a media player, photo manager, and basic photo editing software. No hard drive, it's all flash discs/SD memory cards, but it has 3 USB ports so you can plug in any extra storage you might want. Boots up and shuts down in a few seconds, too.
If you're mad enough, you can install WinXP on it, but why would you bother unless you had very specialised needs? It's just plug and play as it stands. You just have to set up your wireless connection and email accounts - not even that if you use web mail. How simple is that?
The real killer is that the thing only costs just over £200, all-in.PC, slip case, mains adaptor. Asus is apparently having problems making them fast enough to meet demand, and is flogging them by the million. Apparently Microsoft is working on trying to supply a cut-down installation of XP for pre-installation - Vista has no chance - because this little beauty is a) not making them a bean and b) going to convince a whole lot more people that Linux is perfectly viable for general use.
Check one out: I think you'll be impressed, even if the only place you can get one in shops is currently Toys'r'us!
The EeePC itself is a thing of beauty: a miniature laptop with a 7" screen, Linux and a whole bunch of installed apps, including Firefox, Thunderbird, Skype, Pidgin (multi-messenger client) and the OpenOffice.org office suite. No Opera, though apparently it's possible to install it if you jump through some hoops. Might be worth Opera making it available via Asus's repository for really easy installation: just a thought.
Browser politics aside, the EeePC is a very neat concept. It's not meant to be all-purpose, it's meant to do most things the average person wants to do with a minimum of fuss and fiddling. So it has a simplified interface/launcher and software to do the commonest jobs: a little browsing, chat and email, some word processing/spreadsheet/presentation work and a few basic games. Plus a media player, photo manager, and basic photo editing software. No hard drive, it's all flash discs/SD memory cards, but it has 3 USB ports so you can plug in any extra storage you might want. Boots up and shuts down in a few seconds, too.
If you're mad enough, you can install WinXP on it, but why would you bother unless you had very specialised needs? It's just plug and play as it stands. You just have to set up your wireless connection and email accounts - not even that if you use web mail. How simple is that?
The real killer is that the thing only costs just over £200, all-in.PC, slip case, mains adaptor. Asus is apparently having problems making them fast enough to meet demand, and is flogging them by the million. Apparently Microsoft is working on trying to supply a cut-down installation of XP for pre-installation - Vista has no chance - because this little beauty is a) not making them a bean and b) going to convince a whole lot more people that Linux is perfectly viable for general use.
Check one out: I think you'll be impressed, even if the only place you can get one in shops is currently Toys'r'us!
kose fernando sandoval # Saturday, December 8, 2007 9:28:23 PM