Home > Consumer Reviews > ASUS Eee PC 2G Surf (7-Inch Display, Intel Mobile Processor, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) Pure White

Im gonna give you a simple rundown on this little baby to I hope it helps you out and gives you some starter info for buying(you know you are) and tweaking your eeePC, or E(for short).

This is a great little system, especially for newcommers to the Linux Community who want to get away from Windows based systems.

I originally got one of these portables for travel purposes,and to throw in my backpack to use at my girlfriends, and hotspots, but its also alot of fun to tinker with, as I will describe in a nutshell.

The E does everything it claims. I have played a variety of media formats which include music files and video without any problems(at least the formats that I mostly use) It has many applications included to roundout the system, as well as any of my other PC's. The sound quality via the E itself is somewhat lacking but will be just fine for the traveler. I have hooked it up to my home system while streaming online and it sounds alot better, and works well with my Skullcandy headphones.

I was very surprised at how clear the picture was with video playback. Its actually quit clear to be honest, but with the screen so small you might find it a bit uncomfortable over an extended period of time. About the same I guess with watching video on your mp3 player.

Configuring it to work on the net was a no brainer. I was up and running in less than 2 minutes with ho hassles from the Atheros Netware that Asus has integrated into the E. A 5 year old can run the wizard its that easy and fast.

As aforementioned, I bought it for a traveler mostly. Is it something to use as a primary system. I don't think so, its not like you can use this at a LAN party. And if its your first wanted notebook, save your money and spend an extra 200usd on a fairly good full fledged notebook. I am a gadget person, so I had to get one of these. I nicknamed mine the eeeMp3 due to the size. Its literally slightly larger than a DVD or Playstation case. The manual is almost the size of it. I was in tears for hours due to laughter on how cool this thing is, but I digress, lets get back to how nice this little baby is.

If your afraid to buy one due to the fact that it has Xandros Linux installed, don't be. Its easy to learn and the E Community is huge, and many take this machine seriously. It looks like a toy, but its not. Its a full working system.

Now for some fun:

When you first boot it up(after the registration process) you are going to see this absolutly chaotic display of a so-called "desktop" set in eeeasy mode. You gotta get rid of that really fast. It makes the E look cheap and like Leapster from the toy store, and most of the applications installed are NOT visible in this mode. You have to:

1. customise the X11 manager called IceWM. This can be done by opening the terminal. It takes about 1.5 hours to tweak. A little longer for extra enteries. I spent about 2 hours. Even so The IceWM menu has that Windows look. Gotta dump that next and hit up a repository for a new theme.

2. not all of the KDE is loaded. So connect the E to the net and download packeges for kicker and ksmserver.

All this will load the Advanced mode of the E. Now the E looks the way a Linux machine should with a KDE desktop. All information for doing this can be found on wiki....Hit up the forums and read before you do this. Google will be your best friend for a bit. Google howto:kde for wiki bringing you to the eeeuser forums.

ok, we all had to learn the DOS commands at some point. Its no different if your new to Linux. How did you learn Windows?

Your gonna find a huge community hacking away at thier machines and offering info and tips, but be careful, you can easily make your E unstable or unbootable.

Now for more fun:

You can run a variety of alternative distros on this machine. After getting bored with Xandros, and you will. It took me 1 day. It might take you longer,but your gonna do it. You can boot of USB with ease. I have run several other distros on the E: Damn Small, Puppy(there are a few versions) with some strip downs like pupeee or Breezy to name a few. I would recommend anyone with some Linux experience to mount one of these, or any other Embed distro just in case your SSD fails for backup purposes. Stick with the ones customised for the E, since they are pretty much fail safe. Some distros might take a little tweaking and a little Linux familiarity. I plan on trying several other pendrive bootables just for grins, and its fun. Im just a gadget tweaking kinda dude.

Overall if your new to Linux or have difficulty following instructions, I would just keep it in the stock eeesy mode and use it that way. I would be a shame for anyone to wreck thier machine. Just hit up the forums, and proceed with caution, and dont over apt. Download from the top repositories like Xandros or Debian Sarge. Whatever you do, dont be cruel to your E and install XP. This is a Linux machine.

Well there are tons of other things you can do with this that I did not mention, like dual booting, mp3/iPODing, overclocking, other distros, and the list goes on, and on. wiki is your best friend for information. This is a great tool, and alot of fun. Happy Hacking on your new eeePC!

I have nothing negative to add to this review. It works just great.

EDIT__EDIT

OK I said I would give you all some sort of update on the Eee. All I am gona give is a distro update. So here goes. These are all the Linux distros that I have run on Eeee::::

Damn Small
Ubuntu 710 with QEMU/Kq
Ubuntu 804 also with QEMU/Kq
SLAX
safepup
Puppy
pupeee
MiNT 4 with boot hotfix
MiNT 5 B1-32 both Beta's will work with the v4 boot
MiNT 5 RC2-48

I am currently running pupeee/USB...SLAX/card....Ubuntu/USB-no QEMU

QEMU is a frontend for running Linux within Windows,just like DSL embed off flash operates . I am running many game modules and PETS. So overall. My suggestion as a 20+ geek,,,,dont waste 500USD on a Win version, buy a full fledged notebook. your not gonna do with a Eeee what you think you are regardless if your waste your money on a Galaxy. The Galaxy is GREAT! dont get me wrong, but its a traveler,aHotSpotter, or a machine for those interested in getting away from Micro$oft. Its a great start for new Linux users.

And thats the way it is CYA!

I already own an ulta-mobile laptop (a 4 pound toshiba) but I find myself grabbing my eee when I want to take something portable with me. I'm drinking deeply from the linux kool-aid and am enjoying it.

Most websites I visit have those ads and dancing silhouettes trying to get you to apply for another mortgage and such. I've found that due to the small screen all the banner ads and crap you don't want to see is what gets cut off on the side and the content you want is the only thing that shows on the screen. Yes you have to scroll down more than usual but that's a great trade off for a screen of content you want without tons of crap you don't. I rarely do any side to side scrolling.

The wireless is awesome. In comparison to my other laptop and all my friend's laptops the eee gets a stronger signal and connects way faster.

space wise--that isn't an issue either. You simply move the user partition to the SD card (you are getting an SD card, right?) and suddenly I have an additional 16GB of space. Might as well call this thing an eee 16G surf not an eee 2G surf.

the other criticism of the eee is typing. Well if you touch type prepare to be very frustrated unless you have child-sized hands. If you are like me and only use your index and middle finger to type, then typing is no issue either. I'm just as fast and accurate on the eee as I am on a full size keyboard.

I highly recommend this little machine. Battery life is great, just make sure you get that SD card and move the user partition. I also bought a portable DVD player carrying case to use for eee transport. The eee goes where the DVD player goes. Accessories go in the side pouch where DVDs would go. The eee is small, but it isn't going in your cargo pants pocket. At least it doesn't fit in my pocket and I'm 6'6".

The Asus is a sweet little second computer that allows one to Google answers when watching TV or type (if you have small hands) reports anywhere. However, when I first opened mine it would not work with my AirPort Extreme. When I called for support, the first two support persons had suggestions that were way off, and didn't make any sense. The third spent 20 minutes with me, deleting, reimporting, connecting and deconnecting until I could access the web at home. About a week later when I turned on the computer, I could not access the web again. I called and I got a Chinese person with limited English who, after one computer move (i.e. accessing "Network") literally screamed at me for an answer to how many things were listed under "Type". I mean, screamed and screamed. I visualized him standing on the desk and jumping up and down. When I asked if I could talk with someone else, he said "No, call back tomorrow." I did. The person didn't know what to do, and I finally figured it out myself.

It just shouldn't be that hard.

I received my Asus EEE yesterday. I only had a minute or two to play with it, so put in the battery, fired it up and tried to connect to my wireless network. It just hung at 'pending' and wouldnt' connect til I did a little reading and realized you should always connect via the "NETWORK" icon rather than "WIRELESS". Tried it that way and worked like a charm, haven't had an issue since. People are saying that it is difficult to type on. Well YEAH, it's frickin tiny! What do you expect? I actually found it a lot easier than expected to type on. Within a half an hour of getting used to it I was typing with hands on home row, around 40wpm. I also am astonished at the reviews about the touch pad. I think it is much easier to use than the one on my 15.4" laptop! It's very sensitive. Everything worked as it should out of the box. It's so small and light. It does get quite warm after longer periods of use, but I haven't had a laptop that hasn't. Battery life does go quick, if anyone has any recommendations of where I can find a better battery, please let me know. Mine probably lasted about 2 hours of constant use til I got the 'low battery' warning. In short, I wouldn't change a thing about this laptop other than a stronger battery. Excellent deal for $300.

I happen to be one of the best technicians on the east cost. So trust me on this: Yun is an idiot.

Now, on to the actual information regarding this unit. I've had the opportunity to play with these and I was floored at the flexibility and experience. For such a small and cheap package you can't beat this. I've used the OLPC's and I would much rather be using the Eee system.

Take it with a grain of salt, just don't think your getting a great windows powerhouse laptop.