Hands-On With the Windows XP-Based Asus Eee PC 229
MojoKid writes "Though the Asus Eee PC Windows XP variant isn't due out until sometime in April, HotHardware was able to get their hands on a full retail bundle before they hit store shelves in the US. The standard assortment of accoutrements is included in the bundle, along with a couple of notable upgrades. Asus took the initiative to provide an additional 4GB SD card from Adata, a healthy storage expansion for the system. In addition, an Asus-branded optical mouse was thrown in for good measure. Microsoft's Windows Live messenger, photo gallery and email suite are pre-installed on the the machine for collaborative and social networking capability, in addition to Microsoft Works for word processing, spreadsheets, and calendar functionality."
Re:Hands on ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:XP (Score:5, Insightful)
A slap in the face to the marketing and software development departments, perhaps
Re:Windows XP? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Windows XP? (Score:5, Insightful)
*Freshen up XP a bit with some new theme and some gadgets.
*Give it a new flashy name.
*Then practically give it away to the manufacturers of these machines.
Rather that, then to let linux machines get a foothold in the consumer market.
Re:XP (Score:2, Insightful)
Laughing? A market leader is (finally) offering consumers a choice between windows & linux & you think the leaderes of one of the most predatory & unethical businesses in the software word are laughing?
Sure, they're making money on these things - but for the first time since the early 90s, they're not in the drivers seat - Asus has managed to wrangle a XP deal with its use of linux.
OFFTOPIC: Your sig - please point us all to an example of someone with a +5 insightful for saying all Americans suck because of $reason. Personally, I think you're full of shit.
Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
*- at least for some people who are looking for just a laptop, not specifically an ultraportable.
Good, I hope they don't sell well. (Score:1, Insightful)
These devices work better with GNU/Linux, so I hope the Windows version flops. Asus is unable to supply the GNU/Linux version as it is, so they must have lost their minds to roll out the XP version on hardware that only works when you stuff up SD card with binary crap.
The full featured Xandros OS fits in about 200MB. It includes open office, flash, firefox, Google mail and chat links, Skype and other software that can use the webcam and a reasonable media player. This way, the 4GB model is a good convergence device providing movie playback, music, business software and a video phone. Movies? Yes, they play great off USB thumb drives and you might be able to stream them to yourself with kmplayer. In other words, it does everything the other thin laptops want to do and does it with 1/4 the hardware and power use. Sweet isn't it?
The upshot is that you can get the XP version and have a hard time keeping it working or the Linux version that works today, but the price will come down eventually. Right now Asus is having trouble delivering 1/3 of demand due to battery shortages. Other hardware makers are sure to rush into the gap and prices will fall. If you think Steve Ballmer is shitting bricks now, just imagine him when these devices hit the projected $200 mark. Xandros and Asus have handed him his ass.
Works? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:For those without adblock, patience... (Score:3, Insightful)
It couldn't have been designed just for kids (Score:2, Insightful)
One of their marketing photos has a blond woman with large breasts using it at the beach.
It's the "fine, have your Microsoft stuff" model (Score:3, Insightful)
ASUS doesn't need to make a smartly customized eeePC with a choice set of applications . . . that's called the eeePC. The XP version is for people who can't see past the lack of their comfort zone, or desperately require XP for some reason. Plus, for people who are in that interesting demographic that loves/needs XP but would prefer OpenOffice over works, well hey, it's "OpenOffice.org" for a reason
Plus, have you gotten the impression (ie. do you remember the quotes) that ASUS was never too keen on XP in the first place? Hell, this Xandros-based distro on the eeePC is their baby, I'd suspect that at least some members of the company are sneering at running XP but realize there's a market for it, and their reaction to that reality amplifies the points I've made above.
Re:Let's talk about price (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hmm. (Score:4, Insightful)
"But I would argue that 90% of the people who bought this machine would have been better served by buying a $399 Acer 14" notebook during a sale at Best Buy.
Argue away, but everyone that I know with an Eee PC already had a laptop, and wanted a small computer instead of a 5 to 7 pound brick to haul around.
Everyone of us is over 50 and we have no problem with the so called "tiny" screen.
Many young people today seem to think that bigger is better, when it's clearly not.
Re:For those without adblock, patience... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:For those without adblock, patience... (Score:5, Insightful)
I would need XP because it's an ultraportable that out of the box could run all my work applications, connect to my work's outlook, and I'd be able to move around more easily to troubleshoot stuff using company-standardized software. I get to use most of my existing windows programs (as far as it's possible because the processor) some of them I've paid-for because I liked them enough. So it really depends on what does any individual user intending to do with it.
Imagine a non-tech person wants to browse the web, use it as an ebook of sorts to read RSS feeds (which your average user can do with TOO much trouble), watch youtube and just haul it around the house more like an electronic magazine than a computer. S/he would probably pick something that already knows how to use so all they need to figure out is how to hook it to the net and get going. While not insurmountable, the Linux learning curve would be slightly higher for this type of users and they make up for a larger market than the computer-savvy.
Heck, I might even get the XP version just because of what I said above and then dual boot or run DSL on it :D
Re:df -h (Score:3, Insightful)
And well - it IS pretty much a standard debian with almost a complete KDE minus a little bloat (mostly the window manager as far as I can see). If you dig around you'll discover tons of stuff that is either not used or not accessible through the "easy gui". Examples are kontact/kmail/korganizer. The darn thing also got a complete java jre environment - that alone sucks up what - 50 - 80 MB or so.
If you want the true sizes you can mount the partitions of the flash manually and then do your df.
Re:For those without adblock, patience... (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought the Eee would be a flop too. But it hasn't been, and I think that represents a major shift in people's thinking. But then, if you think about it, people are becoming a lot more used to dealing with different OSes -- their phone probably runs Symbian, their mate's laptop might run MacOS, and they just keep hearing about this linux thing. And the other interesting thing is that something that's non-Windows is inherently cooler.
The world isn't Windows-only anymore, and nobody minds one bit.
Re:For those without adblock, patience... (Score:3, Insightful)
>Windows-equipped $499 laptops outsell the Linux-equipped $399
So to get XP I have to pay $100 extra _and_ I get a smaller drive.
An OEM version of XP costs over 100 dollars?
That can't be right.
Microsoft would never do something as moronic as that, they'd give XP away for a penny before they'd capitulate the ultra-low-end market to Linux!
Fundamental difference.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am sure other PC manufacturers are watching, and may try to market properly speced and functioning Linux offering even if only to get out of idiotic exclusivity agreements with MS (which they should not have signed in the first place).
Ladies and gents, maybe this time the year for Linux in the desktop has really arrived, thanks to a company that saw the bleeding obvious: the differential in price between Linux and Windows. This year of economic downturn will concentrate the minds of a lot of people that will wonder why they should keep paying for more expensive, buggier, standards shy software.
Let them give it away. (Score:3, Insightful)
It is not if but when.
The reason Ballmer was blabbering about patents is because they know their normal modus operandi of embrace and extend is simply not going to work. Patent litigation is is plan B, and even that may not be a plan at all if US courts finally see the light and strike down software patents for what they really are: the cave of the Ali Babas of the IT industry.