So…

I jumped on the Eee PC Bandwagon about a week ago, and bought a black 701 series.

For those that have no idea what I am talking about, the Eee PC is, simply the smallest fully functioning laptop that I have ever laid my hands on. Let’s get the specs out of the way.

• 7″ WVGA Screen (800*480).
• 900hmz Intel Mobile Celeron Processor.
• Intel Mobile 915GM Video Card.
• Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter
• Attansic Technology Corp. L2 100 Mbit Ethernet Adapter
• 512mb DDR2 SDRAM.
• 4 GB Flash Disk.
• 2mp Digital Webcam.

Out of the box, the machine boots into a highly customized version of Xandros Linux, and everything just works. Literally. There are about 40 or so different applications, as well as some games that are installed onto the machine, many of which are Free Software solutions (Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, OO.org and of course, Frozen Bubble and Tuxracer).

The default GUI is incredibly easy to use, and very stable. Everything is very point and click, and really just works. Which was great, but, well boring.

After playing with it for a couple of hours, I decided to wipe the disk, and install a more power user friendly Linux distribution. After doing a bit of research, I settled on xubuntu for a few reasons. First being, it’s ubuntu, which I have been using for about a year, since I got my last lap top, so there is already a level of comfort and familiarity. Second? let’s face it, by current standards the machine is hardly a power house. Xubuntu is optimized for low power machines, so why not give it a try?

What works?

Everything, at least to a certain extent.

• The only real issues that I have had are all related to ACPI, and I haven’t taken the time to even bother to get them to work.
• Wireless worked after about 30 seconds of google work, and compiling the drivers (forget about ndiswrapper, just roll your own. I am allergic to gcc, and it still only took 3 minutes or so)
• Amarok works flawlessly with my 80 gig iPod Classic. I haven’t played with it much, but so far so good.
• VLC Plays my DVD Rips just perfectly. Throw an 8 gig SD card into the integrated card reader, and you have a great little portable media box.
• The screen is far better than I thought it would be. Everything is crisp and clear.

Dislikes?

• The right Shift key is in a very unfortunate location. I always hit the up arrow by mistake when I am trying to touch type.
• The keyboard is a little on the small side, but I am getting used to that, and understand why it is so small.
• I have to admit that a 10″ screen, would be the absolute cats ass. I’ve see a mod online that does this, and I will admit that I am curious. I’ll let you know.
• The little bugger sure gets hot.
• I need to find a carrying case for it, that does not look like a womans purse.

All in all, I am very happy with the device. It’s perfect for the tasks that I had wanted to use it for (email, web, portable movies, and some work related spread sheets).

Highly recommended for anyone who wants a super tiny laptop to play around with. Just don’t expect the worlds greatest multitasking machine.