Computer Question $299 Laptop (Eee-ASUA)Feedback??

Me (I was shopping at Target) | 10/22/08 | don@vb

[Don@VB]

Inexpensive laptop computer called Eee ( Manufactured by ASUS?) $299 looked pretty cool. Saw it in target today. Does any body have any experience with it?

[Don@VB]

It is for for light work; going online & email, its wi-fy ready, has no hard drive (only flash memory) and has Linux operating system. (I hope thats how you spell "Linux") I'm a sucker for cheap stuff, so share any experiences about this gizmo

[anniegetyourgun]

I have an ASUS laptop - love it - reliable, great price, durable.

[mgstarr]

You might want to check out the CNET reviews on all the various netbooks out there.

http://www.cnet.com/1770-5_1-0.html?query=netbook&tag=srch

[tomkat]

Clickable link to Target's Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee page.

[txroadkill]

I saw that too, thought it would be great for taking notes at school.

[Chet 99]

I love mine. I used to use a full sized laptop with the bells and whistles. No longer.

[RedPriest73]

I’m actually typing this on an ASUS eee right now... I just got the windows version instead of the Linux version... thought it would be easier to play some of my games on it... I just add some storage with an SD card and use a thumb drive for programs, music, pictures, and video... I love it, it’s very portable and small, I use it at my work and all over my home and stream music and video to it... I bought it when it was $400 and I don’t regret a single penny.

[tacticalogic]

I’m getting my son one of these for Christmas. He’s a glow-worm bubblehead (nuke submariner), so the quite operation (no fan) and small size are important considerations.

[paudio]

I have the Asus eee PC 701, 4GB, 800MHz Windows XP, 512MB, 2.2 lb. If you simply need it for daily use, such as writing papers, browse the internet, etc., it's more than enough. Mine is with XP, so I could install old Office 2000. You can use the free openoffice for the Linux version. I enjoy it very much since I got it April this year. Even today, whenever I spend time in a coffee shop, people ask me what it is. Because it's small, it may not be comfortable for those who have big fingers, but it's not an issue for me. If you want to know more about eee, check out the users forum below: Asus Forum

[Rational Thought]

I got one for my daughter. It is a solid build, fairly quick (with Linux) and good for basic operations. Good battery life too.

The only drawback is the smaller screen size does take some getting used too.

[Domandred]

My dad was going to buy one a few months ago, but they were back ordered something like 8 to 12 weeks, so he dropped more money and got an HP(?) palmtop instead.

[Krankor]

It’s a great machine but you need to buy an abacus to go with it.

[NYC Republican]

Ping

[Nateman]

The Asus I saw at Target had 8 gigabytes of solid state memory , no hard drive or cd player. The least expensive version comes with Linux. Linux comes in lots of different flavors or distros. Asus ships with a version of Linux called Xandros.

Ubuntu is the favorite Linux desktop and a special version of it exists for the Asus. I mention that only because I've been using Ubuntu for over a year now.

I've heard they actually have the Linux loaded on a chip so it boots up incredibly fast.

[NYC Republican]

Any idea how to download files? I need to download a file, for a plug-in... It downloads, but when I click on the downloaded file, it goes nowhere. Any thoughts?

[Clinging Bitterly]

The ASUS is very popular. I checked out all of the “netbook” reviews and decided on the Acer Aspire One. It has the Atom processor like most of them, the current model has Win XP, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD, and a 6 cell battery pack that will run it for around 6 hours on a charge.

The features that made me decide on the Acer:
$399 price - best for the offered specs.
HD instead of solid state - HD performance is much better and so is capacity.
Windows OS, Linux doesn't offer everything I need for business.
Keyboard - 89% of “full size” laptop keyboard size, and also has white keys on the white model, easier for me to see and use at my age than black keys.
Battery life - the standard pack is, I think, 5400 mAH & advertises max runtime of about 7 hours, should easily do better than the 2 or 2-1/2 hours of most of the netbook class base battery packs.
Good range from onboard 802.11g card, Acer uses a proprietary antenna design that works very well.
Experience with Acer - my other laptop is an Acer and I have been very happy with it.

I have had it a couple weeks now and I just love it. The only con to me is that the BIOS is still sort of a work in progress and it often loses sync with connected USB devices when coming on from hibernate mode.

Weight of the Aspire One is 1.1 KG and it is thicker than the eee because of the 2.5" hard drive - but hey you can still toss it in a briefcase and have room for about five more.

Oh - one other thing, the Windows software package comes with McAfee internet security (just 90 day subscription) & while experimenting with the apps setup I'll use on the computer I found it very difficult to configure it to work with some of those apps that interact with the network. After nuking my connectivity a couple times I completely uninstalled the McAfee package and went to AVG, which I had been using for years, and the Aspire One works much better without McAfee IMHO. And the Office 2007 trialware, junk IMO even if it were free.

[DataDink]

If you can find a Wind from MSI, that is actually a much better computer for $100 dollars more. The details on it are here. The link goes to Newegg.com. Recently, I saw that model at a local Best Buy (Fredericksburg, VA) where it was $399 but could not find it on their website.

[Chet 99]

Sorry, no. Never downloaded files. I use mine to web surf and word processing, nothing more.

[Mr. Know It All]

My wife has one with Linux and she’s really happy with it.

It’s perfect for basic web stuff (Freeping, email, etc.) and basic office work (Open Office Office Suite). It’s very portable and convenient.

[Nateman]

Any idea how to download files? I need to download a file, for a plug-in... It downloads, but when I click on the downloaded file, it goes nowhere. Any thoughts?

The various Linux versions (distros) have ways that make programs easy to install but these don't all work with each other. Most Linux distros have lots of free stuff ready to go , enough to satisfy most needs but...

I hate to be the one to tell you this but loading programs in Linux can be rather cumbersome. Most distros have what is called a "program manager" . It lists all the free stuff out that which will self load. If you have some other program you'd like to install the process to do that is here.