I bought an Eee.
(For those of you who have been living on a different planet for the last six months, or are technologically-challenged, the EeePCs are Really Small Laptops That Are Really Cheap. And for those of you who know about the full range, I got the 701 4GB Black version)
Good points:
- Cost just over 200 quid;
- Very small, very light (less than 1kg);
- Very clear screen;
- Wireless;
- Very cute for showing off with;
- Runs Linux, although in its default incarnation that might not be obvious.
Bad points:
- Screen is quite small, but I didn’t buy this for the screen size;
- Keyboard is quite small: this would be a problem if I wanted to write a huge amount of text on it, but that’s not likely. It tends to be used for web browsing;
- Its Linux distro is Xandros, which is not ideal. However, other distros can be installed which I might investigate at some point;
- Its SSL installation is vulnerable to the previously mentioned SSL exploit and it hasn’t been properly patched yet. Changing distro would fix this, too;
When you consider that this is a almost-fits-in-your-pocket ‘proper’ laptop (unlike PDAs or mobile phones) that can do wireless, and cost a little as it did, this is rather nice. We were away last weekend and I connected it to the hotel’s wireless network, which was quite cool: didn’t do anything useful with it, of course, apart from updating my Facebook status with “Hey cool, getting free interwebs from the hotel!!”, but I believe that’s a traditional geek response.
I was torn between a 9″ nail^WEeePC and a Thinkpad when looking for a new laptop. I’d love an EeePC for going away to conferences, meetings etc. but the majority of my usage is going to be as a desktop replacement, so I’m going for the extra oomph and sensible keyboard size of the Stinky.
I’m vaguely tempted to pick up a second-hand EeePC for occasional use though.
PermalinkMr Page said: “I was torn between a 9″ nail^WEeePC and a Thinkpad”
I would absolutely not recommend the Eee as a “desktop replacement”: large amounts of typing would be a real problem and I suspect that even the larger 9″ screen size (mine’s the smaller screen) would give a headache after not much use.
I also have a Thinkpad (!) and would have thought it’s a better option by far for a desktop-like system.
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