anyone else here play with the EEEPC?

[Gaelen]

I have xp in my home computer. Can I do the same things with Linux?

Pretty much, yes--see notes about specific programs below. Also...all of these programs come already installed and set up on the Linux eeePC, whatever model you get, so once the battery is charged, it's ready to run right out of the box.

Email: it comes with Thunderbird email program. However, I use yahoo! mail as my personal mail program, and it has a hotlink to yahoo, google and aol mail...so I've never set up Thunderbird.

word: it comes with Open Office, which is a parallel version of MS Office. OpenOffice has a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation component that parallel the capabilities of Word, Excel and PowerPoint in MS Office. I liked it so much that I downloaded it to my other home machine and now use OpenOffice on all of my personal machines. It reads/writes my office machine's files with no issues.

surf: It comes with a version of Firefox browser.

with out having to learn a lot of new stuff: learning curve is pretty flat, Dan. It only took me a couple of minutes to mentally 'switch' to the programs installed on the Linux version. These systems were designed to be very easy to use without having to wade through a lot of instructions. Hope this helps.

[zen]

Gaelen, thanks for the help.
It seems like the Linux version has more memory. Is that true and what does that mean. Can I store more photos,document ex.. in the Linux version than the xp?
Also Amazon has a 8g. memory card that can be bought. Does that make a 16g. a 24g. or am I thinking wrong.
The one I bought and am waiting for has 1g. ram and 16g. ssd?

Also I saw one at Target that has 512 ram and 4g. ssd. That seems to me to be not enough to store anything.
Dan

[Gaelen]

Dan, my eeePC isn't my primary computer, so I only 'store' on it what I'm currently working on, and some reference stuff. When I'm traveling, I offload my camera's SD card so that I can keep taking pictures. But with SD cards and USB flash drives very cheap, I have a couple of each dedicated to the eeePC. That way, I can easily move files from one machine to another.

I think mine has 1 MB of RAM (I'd have to check, it's been awhile), and it has a 4GB primary SSD and a 16GB secondary SSD. I know that 20GB of storage and a single MB of RAM doesn't sound like much, but Linux needs less RAM than Windows, and 20GB is bigger than either of my iPods. I keep some music and some pictures on mine all the time, and regularly work on a cookbook which is about a GB or so and getting larger. My primary SSD has 34% space available, my secondary SSD has 95% space available. Mileage will vary, but I've got plenty of room.

Then again, I haven't filled up my iPod either.

[Mike B]

I have the original EEE PC and it came with 512MB of memory. I bought a 2GB stick and installed it in place of the 512MB, but the Xandros Linux that comes with the computer is set up to only recognize 1GB.

I had Ubuntu Linux on the box for a while, and it used all the memory, but the dialogs were all set up for a larger screen, so I went back to Xandros. I'm very happy with the machine.

Mike
Hayden Lake, ID

[mikeschn]

I use my eeepc pretty much the way I received it from the store. The only thing I did was enable the advanced desktop.

When I go camping (like I did this past weekend) I plug in a Verizon Broadband modem, and run a pppd script, and I can check my email, and the forum.

Here's a shot of my computer setup over the weekend...



Mike...

[Geron]

Great setup.

I've been looking at the 904hd hands on videos' on you tube. Full size keyboard and 80 g hard drive. Might talk the wife into it if I gave the granddaughter this one

g

[mikeschn]

I've not been following the EEEPC developements, and I missed the 904HD completely. After looking at it briefly, I like the size, and I'll bet I'd like that keyboard, but I sure wish they'd build a screen big enough to fill up the top half of the clamshell...





If they did that, I'd have a 900 for sale!



Mike...

[Geron]

Hey, same size screen but at least they moved the speakers from the bottom up to the top on each side of the screen. Tradeoff I guess or they had a bunch of the 8.9 screens left over.

g

[zen]

Mike,
What is plugged in on the left side of your Eee. It looks like a memory stick? I know I know I'm one hundred years behind the times. But I'm trying.
Thanks
Dan

[mikeschn]

Mike,
What is plugged in on the left side of your Eee. It looks like a memory stick? I know I know I'm one hundred years behind the times. But I'm trying.
Thanks
Dan

Dan,

That's the Verizon Broadband modem!

Mike...

[zen]

So it works through your cell phone?
I dont have Verizon cell so will the wireless on the Eee work for me. I also have a modem at the house for my wife's lap top. I was planning on using that for home and the Eees wireless for out and about. Will it work for me?
Tks
Dan

[MrBuzz]

Anyone here running Skype on their netbook?
I rolled my O/S back to the factory Linpus Linux. The Ubuntu Re-mix was really nice but it was just to big and slow. Not really that slow, but just not as nice as the original version.
Yesterday I installed Skype and it worked perfect right away. Even does video conferencing...plenty fast video and very good voice quality.

[zen]

I got my Eee yesterday. I like it so far. Mike and Gaelen thanks for the help. I may have more questions after I get going on this thing. I am glad I went with the Linux like you suggested. It works fine for what I want it for.
I am going to get a mouse for it as I think it will be great with just that one addition. Any suggestions on a mouse for it??

Anyway thanks again, Dan

[mikeschn]

I just use a simple corded MS Mouse... it works great... and it's cheap too!



Mike...

[Carter]

Mike,
Thanks, you just made my day. The wife just got up, walked in for her morning hello, and asked me what I was looking at. I said it was perfect, a thread about teardrops and computers. She looked at the screen, moaned and said "and they're talking about Linux, oh god" then groaned and walked out" I've been tormenting her with those three subjects for weeks. I started running Ubuntu within Windows on this desktop. Lots to learn = lots of fun. I just have to find an acceptable CAD program to use with it. I found a nice links page for Linux Cad at http://www.tech-edv.co.at/lunix/CADlinks.html

I finally finished up my homemade TD frame and plan on storing it for the winter so I can park indoors. Time to snuggle in for the winter with my puters.

Jim