After two years with my 770, and an unhealthy amount of time daydreaming about the N810, I made a decision. I bought a white (they were out of black) 4GB ASUS EEE PC w/webcam and an additional 8GB SDHC card. At $399 CDN the price point blows the N810 out of the water - - they're around $480 up here, more than what I paid after 13% taxes. Another prime motivator for my decision was that the niche the 770 filled for me was primarily about form factor. I already have a pocket internet device, why spend $500 on another one because... it does Flash?

I realize there are other EEE threads here but my purpose with this one is to do a walkthrough of my experiences and how I set it up. I want to compare it directly with my 770 experience. You see, when I bought this, it was never destined to run the default Xandros install. Rather, it's going to get a flavour of Ubuntu on it.

My general first impressions.
- Opening the box, it was pretty sparse inside. Getting Started manual, power adapter, EEE PC, battery, stretchy case/protective cover, and a CD (Windows only, boo!)

- It charged 70% in 40 mins. Battery life expectation is 3.5 hrs on this model.

- Bootup and configuration were a snap and slightly reminiscent of the internet tablets

- The interface strikes me as one meant for a PDA, though it's concise and well laid out (grouped into 4 main application groups/tabs), it seems meant for kids.

- I got online in no time and it offered a similar browsing experience as the internet tablets offer... except I was in full blown firefox.

- Pidgin comes installed by default, and again, was easy to get going.

- The webcam wasn't too bad.

- There's software that will activate applications by voice. Coworkers probably wondered why I was saying "Computer web!" or "Computer Camera!" a lot.

- Bigger screen, same resolution. Really a matter of preference as to which is better, I'd say it depends on the situation.

Overall, the EEE comes with a lot more out of the box and my experiences have been very similar to the tablet thus far. The main difference has been, again, the mini laptop form factor vs the tablet.

If you ever open it up, would you check if yours came with the spare PCI-express slot? Apparently, the "7A or 7B" on the serial # isn't a guarantee for either.

What, the cover on the bottom? I'll check right now.

My serial number begins with 7C.

I see a stick of 512MB DDR RAM on the bottom and a big gaping hole above it with no discernable slots, connectors, ports, etc.

Cheers for having me void my warranty tho! (heheheheheh)

recently asus said in a press release that this doesn't void the warranty cos users are free to upgrade the memory of eee

Nice work, Hedgecore - I might also get an Eee, especially if the Nokia Developer Discount program (aka Waiting For Godot) continues its nasty ways. I checked out a friend's Eee, and it's amazing what you get for the money.

As for the simple desktop layout, check out JK's simple fix on his blog called "Asus Eee PC: Full Desktop Mode and Easy Mode, your choice" at: http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkonther...-full-des.html

I look forward to hearing more info as you learn more about the Eee.

Sweet! Thx!

I'm following this tutorial:
http://www.sampletheweb.com/2007/12/...f-a-usb-drive/

I've copied Ubuntu 710 to my USB key per instructions at:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09...ibbon-install/

I ran into problems booting the first time but realized this was because I didn't 'safely eject my USB device'. The files were open and disappeared when I yanked the key out.

I hit ESC when booting my EEE per the instructions and was greeted with the familiar Ubuntu install menu text. As I set the USB key up for a persistent install, that's the option I chose. (I still want to show my girlfriend the original Xandros install in case the webcam takes some tinkering to get working again, and she's home soon anyway.)

Linux Kernel loaded 100%...

The orange bar below the Ubuntu logo is doing the Knight Ryder effect...

Success! The wallpaper popped up, followed by a usable mouse pointer, and the usual icons of an Ubuntu Live CD boot. Sound worked too. Curiously a notice popped up saying my battery (which is full) is at 1% and may be broken. After it was closed the actual battery icon showed 100%.

Per the instructions, I'm going to make the windows dragable and get get WiFi going since this is a persistent image.

Window dragging via the alt key was simple enough to enable in gconf-editor. I hope I won't have to use this much in the actual install - - if it's just for errant windows that pop up half off screen that'd be fine with me.

For some reason it's not grabbing an IP address via ethernet. I'll have to look into this in a bit. Need to take a break.

*Edit: Thanks TenSpeed! I'm going to boot back into Xandros to show her my new toy (so she can pretend she cares) and I'll go into full mode. If it works then I may hold off on Ubuntu until after my trip to Ottawa this weekend.

As someone who just got an N800 in Dec, its a little worrying that so many of the veterans here (Hedgecore, Thoughtfix, among others) appear to be moving on to the Eee. I guess I the cheapness of the N800 convinced me, but now I wonder if I would have been better off spending a little more to get a more powerful machine.

Oh well, unless I throw it up on eBay, the N800 is mine now and I have to be happy with it. I figure that maybe next holiday season I'll pick up the Eee or whatever the competing device ends up being.

Hope you vets stick around and continue to be involved in this community, too.

Eh, you can't stick an Eee in your pocket.

I didn't say I was going anywhere (yet). The EEE seems to be a nice compliment to the 770 so far. I didn't hop into the N800 game because like every Nokia tablet, they're a.) a pain in the #*$&# to get in Canada, and b.) ridiculously expensive. That and I barely had my shiny 770 for a year when the N800 was randomly released.

The tablets are amazing for tinkering on. There's so much new unexplored terrain on them for me... when push comes to shove, this EEE is just gonna be another PC (which is somewhat refreshing). But here's the thing, I'm going to get left by the wayside soon, 770 in hand. I'm doubtful I'll ever see another OS upgrade on that thing. (Which reminds me, I need to burn a copy of the latest image for when Nokia finally dumps it and leaves me in the cold a scant 24 months after buying my tablet.)

If I didn't have a tablet yet, I'd have dove onto the N800 at it's cheap price these days... but really, for me it's what. A grainy webcam and flash support. And that's not worth $250 to me. (The 770 does what I want it to and I'm cool with that).

Back to the EEE PC: TenSpeed - - worked like a charm! I'm now sitting in a full fledged Xandros desktop. Hint for new EEE users: Ctrl-Alt T brings up the terminal.

The Eee will fit in some pockets. I don't try it, though. It has replaced my desktop and HP laptop, becoming my full-time computer. It's easy to pick it up and move anyplace, and it boots in a fraction of the time of a Windows machine. The other morning, just for grins, I hit the power button on my Eee and my HP at the same time. I had checked the email with my Eee and browsed Brighthand forums before the HP was ready to work. I don't plan on ever going back to a huge laptop, and probably not a desktop. This thing is perfect.

My N800 isn't getting much use. No PIMS, so I still carry my Palm, thus no room for the N800 in my pockets most of the time. Until I get decent PIMS and a password manager which can import all my passwords, it's just a toy.