88 replies to this topic

[halljames]

I wonder how many people will be buying it and taking linux off straight away, and putting windows xp on it.

I personaly might just leave Linux on it. I have always fancied a small linux based laptop, easy enought to carry around every where I go. As long as I can surf, communicate, watch, and write on it (web,email,audio/video and office) I will be more than happy. Just what I am looking for to start writing my novel.

I also imagine that it might perform better with linux on it than xp, but that might not be soo.

[ant]

I will be using the device to surf, communicate, watch, and write on it as well. Ultimately, I plan to mostly use Firefox, Thunderbird, and Open Office- all of course will probably be included by default with the Eee PC Linux distribution.

While I don't have a specific need for Windows XP to be installed, it would be a nice option to be able to dual boot if hard drive space allows. I'm trying to think of some of the reasons why people would make the switch: Outlook? Photoshop? Certain windows-only custom business applications? I assume it won't be for gaming- then again, classic games like Starcraft only require a Pentium 90. Only time will tell!

[Toni]

Ill leave linux on the EEEPC. I think the preinstalled linux will be enough for most people. There wont be a need of installing XP for people, and it wont be as easy to install it (via USB for example, most people doesnt know what this is). People use XP for "simplicity" (although Linux is as simple or even more than XP nowadays) and "compatibility" and because it comes installed in their PCs. I think people will just stay with what comes with the EEEPC (they wont ever mind what it is) for the same reasons.

[VivekG]

I wouldn't bother with XP. Linux is good enough for a computer like this, and XP will a) take up too much space on the hard drive, and b) probably run pretty slowly. B maybe a non-issue, with a 900MHz PenM ULV it should be pretty quick, but it may not be quite as fast as we are accustomed to in this age of 3GHz dual and quad cores, so I still think Linux would run faster.

[croquet9]

How would you go about installing XP via usb? I'm pretty sure you could use an external USB CD/DVD drive but what if none is available? Could you install XP from an .iso on an external HD? I am interested in the Eee PC and certainly want the compatibility of XP.

[Romashka]

I would switch built-in distro to my favourite one.
I think it has support for booting from USB drive (flash, external CD drive or HDD).

[croquet9]

What distro would you run? I imagine Linux would run much smoother/quicker than XP. XP can be a resource hog. I also imagine that the standard, built-in linux OS is perfect for novice users. From the pics, it looks very clean and simple.

[Romashka]

Same as on my home desktop and job server - Arch Linux.
It's lightweight and easily customizable. I like to have control over every part of my system.
Slackware or other distros based on it should be OK too.
The most important reason for selecting distro here is its modularity and possibility of customization without restrictions.

From what I've seen on screenshots - built-in distro uses KDE but has Gnome libraries installed too (i.e. to run packages like Gnumeric which requires a lot of them). There is OpenOffice and at least part of KOffice installed.
Also there is CrossOver Office on one screenshot, which costs some money AFAIK.

Sticking to one DE and libraries set only would allow to save more space (as it enlarges the percent of the shared code). Also, using "one task - one application" principle you can get a very lean system.
For example, is there a real need to have AbiWord and OpenOffice Writer, Gnumeric and OpenOffice Calc, Firefox and Konqueror installed at the same time?
Also, that unknown antivirus is absolutely unneeded on Linux system, because of no need. :)

Even 4GB version is more than enought for full-featured Linux system.
For example, full-featured Gnome setup + a bunch of Gtk/Gnome software + OpenOffice take ~1.5GB on my desktop. Full KDE+KOffice install should result in similar size. (All that include kernel, additional drivers, base packages, daemons, system libraries and Xorg, of course).

You can get more lightweight environment with Xfce or something like fbpanel + compiz... + Gtk-only apps, which wuold be as useable as full-featured Gnome or KDE setup.

It is hard to get such configurability with Windows XP.

Besides, with Linux you can get much greater control over power saving, with many solutions available. The new Intel's PowerTop project helps to get idea where the powersaving bottlenecks are even provides patches to eliminate them.

Edited by Romashka, 22 June 2007 - 09:29 PM.

[Nightwing]

Hi!

There may be one good reason why you may not want to put XP on it.. Could be wrong but here goes.

It has to do with a constant writing out to a hard drive that Windows loves to do. Flash memory only has x life cycles. And that could shorten the MTBF of the unit.

Along with the bloat of XP. A user can probably do what the unit is capable of with the included Linux OS.

[beechdriver]

Does anyone know how Linux (Xandros I think) reacts to NTFS files these days? I would get myself a portable hard drive for this thing, and just want to know if I can make it compatible with my PC.

[Romashka]

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Does anyone know how Linux (Xandros I think) reacts to NTFS files these days? I would get myself a portable hard drive for this thing, and just want to know if I can make it compatible with my PC.

I don't know about Xandros, but now there is ntfs-3g driver (not yet included in mainstream kernel) that offers full read-write support for NTFS (standard ntfs driver is useable for read-only access).

[adriantry]

Hi beechdriver

Quote

Does anyone know how Linux (Xandros I think) reacts to NTFS files these days? I would get myself a portable hard drive for this thing, and just want to know if I can make it compatible with my PC.

Xandros can read NTFS (see http://www.desktopli...292016620.html).

But the external hard drives I've purchased usually come formatted as FAT32.

It's great to learn about this new device (just last night), and this great community that has formed so quickly! There seems to be quite a few similar machines being worked on at the moment. And at the price point they are talking about for the Eee, I think that it will really take off. I'm looking forward to it!

Adrian

[GoatsAndMonkeys]

The problem with windows is that It takes up way too nmuch hard drive space. You need to install anti virus software and anti malware software that will tie up the processor and fill up ther minimal storage space. On top of that windows programs are bloated compared to files designed for linux.

I will use the provided xandros. Eventualy I hope someone creates a specilized ubuntu for the Eee. I bet someone will do it before january.

[9a3eedi]

So far the only reason I would want to install XP on any computer is for gaming. Only a fool would consider the EEE as a gaming computer

Linux it is. If it was some wierd distro, I'll install some other distro, maybe xubuntu. Gentoo would be a pain to install on the <900MHz laptop :P

[tulcod]

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So far the only reason I would want to install XP on any computer is for gaming. Only a fool would consider the EEE as a gaming computer

Linux it is. If it was some wierd distro, I'll install some other distro, maybe xubuntu. Gentoo would be a pain to install on the <900MHz laptop :P

DIE!!!
;)

[9a3eedi]

Quote

DIE!!!
;)

Well, I'm not saying that it's bad, but it's not for me. It's a slow laptop with a slow CPU. I'm not going to wait 2 weeks to get it work, but if you got patience, then go ahead! I'm sure that the results is going to be satisfying ^__^

[AgentEntropy]

I'd been considering purchasing a normal laptop just so I could have a dedicated Linux machine with which I could finally learn Linux. Once I saw the Eee I was sold. Don't know if I'll keep the included distro, but I might just to play around with it and see what they've done with it.

[croquet9]

How difficult would it be to install ubuntu? I have an old hp pavillion with less than 128mb ram and ubuntu won't install from live CD-- I think it needs 256mb ram to install. I've heard negative things about Xandros.

[Carld]

Quote

How difficult would it be to install ubuntu? I have an old hp pavillion with less than 128mb ram and ubuntu won't install from live CD-- I think it needs 256mb ram to install. I've heard negative things about Xandros.

I don't know what you've heard negative about Xandros but I've found it to be a very useable system. It's been my favored distro for years. There's been some recent controversy over the Xnadros/Microsoft patent deal thing, but I couldn't really care less about that. The problem with ubuntu is that, I think, you're just going to overload a small slow system like the ASUS. I'd at least pick something like Xubuntu since it's lightweight and disgined for slower systems.

[Romashka]

Quote

Quote

If it was some wierd distro, I'll install some other distro, maybe xubuntu. Gentoo would be a pain to install on the <900MHz laptop :P

DIE!!!
;)

See, I've told you! :P

On a serious note though, I am not familiar with Xandros, I don't like "desktop-oriented" distros :P
But I guess Asus and Xandros did some work to optimize it for Eee (including UI for such display).
But as I said in my long post above - the software collection they've included is inconsistent, redundant and something even useless.
So I'm sure many users will make them systems cleaner and better than preinstalled one, assuming they know what they are doing.