Eee PC - Blog

Engadget appears to have gotten their hands on the specs for the new HP UMPC 2133.  It’s coming powered with a VIA CM-7 Processor, either 1.2 or 1.6 GHz, a 8.9″ screen, 120 or 160 GB hard drive, and either 1024 or 2048 667 MHz DDR2.  The price of the 2133 will range from $549 to $849 (depending on the model), with the $549 version coming equipped with the SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (nice choice!) and the other models with Microsoft Windows Vista.  The more expensive models will even have Bluetooth capability.

It looks like HP has designed an UMPC that will offer some stiff competition for the upcoming 9″ Eee PC. 

Okay, so I have to confess that one of the things that bugs me about the pre-installed Linux environment on the Eee PC is that the native repositories (online resources of programs) are limited, and aren’t always compatible with Debian ones. In fact, I can say this from experience, because when I was first learning to use the Synaptec Package Manager, I accidentally nuked the OS by adding too many repositories.

Thankfully, that handy little disc that came with the system has a very simple program that can create a rescue usb drive.

But Ubuntu, of course, has many resources, which is why I’m rather intrigued that they’ve created an easy way to install Xubuntu on your Eee PC. It’s a custom package that includes all of the necessary drivers for the Eee, and it can be fully installed, or installed to a bootable usb.

Like anything Linux, this will require some tweaking and personalization, but that, in my experience, is the best part.  Everyone has their own particular needs and it doesn’t take much to learn how to turn your Asus Eee PC into your perfect laptop.  It’s totally free, and if you’re like me and you keep your personal files on an external usb key, there’s not much risk of doing permanent damage because you can always recover your original OS in a matter of minutes if something goes wrong.

This picture made me do a double-take - no, that’s not an Eee, it’s actually a Norhtec “Gecko” laptop. It runs a Linux build called “Linpus Linux Lite” which is custom made for this sort of ultra-portable laptop. Don’t worry though, the Gecko will still support other Linux distros and Windows.

It’s being built by Quanta (the company that built the OLPC XO-1 laptop that started this all) for the developing-country market
A few possible specs:

• 1GHz Via C7M ULV CPU
• an optional PATA hard disk
• a small display that appears to be around 7″
• a price tag that will retail under $300

For you Linux geeks out there: Linpus is based on Xorg, and uses GNOME desktop technologies. Visually, it uses tabbing that appears to look at lot like the Asus Eee desktop. The President of Norhtec actually compared it to the gOS, but I don’t personally see the resemblance (I always thought the gOS looked a lot like the Mac OS).

There’s supposed to be an official announcement about this soon.

Does anybody else think that “Linpus” is an incredibly unattractive name? Maybe it’s just me.

Asus issued a statement predicting that its soon to be released Windows XP powered Eee PC will break the sales record of its Linux counterpart. Asus plans to release two XP versions of the Eee PC with varying price tag.

The Eee PC surf with 4GB of flash storage and 512 MB RAM is priced at $408 while the other one is the Eee PC 4G XP with 4GB SD card that comes with a built-in 3-megapixel camera which is priced at $473.

While the Linux powered Eee PC sells for only $261, I don’t think Windows users would mind shelling out additional money to finally get their hands on the Eee PC with the Windows OS. The Eee PC is still a desktop machine, and what is a desktop without Windows OS?

Via [ZDnet]

Mandriva Linux 2008.1 is coming this April. One of the biggest new features is that it is 100% Eee-friendly. The Eee comes with a capable Linux distribution, but should you reach its limitations or prefer to install your favourite distribution instead, Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is ready. It supports all the Eee’s hardware out of the box, with no configuration required, and the Mandriva configuration tools and applications have been tweaked to be friendly to the Eee’s lower resolution screen. It’s easy to install Mandriva even without a CD or DVD drive. A manual on how to do that is located here.

Read about all new features here.