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| no - i'm dissapointed | 5% - 119 | |||||
| yes - it's what i expected | 32% - 712 | |||||
| yes+ better than i hoped | 62% - 1361 | |||||
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Just wondering if everyone is as smitten so far as I am. I expected a less standard distro, with more tivo type hacking required to add aditional software, expected it to feel cheaper etc. I'm so happy with what it really is. video skype today was a great surprise and the cherry on top.
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It is better than I expected in so many ways.
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I've really been impressed by the EeePC, I would just hope they start selling them in Walmarts or some other big box store to start getting computers into the hands of more people, and also Introducing Linux to those who might otherwise not have tried it.
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Both yes and no (and therefore I'm confused as to what to vote for on the poll).
As a piece of hardware, it has well exceeded my expectations. It's smaller than I could have possibly imagined, yet the keyboard presents no real difficulty to type on. The screen is quite readable, and the battery life is plenty for what I've needed so far. The charger is a dream come true, so much better than the one for my old laptop.
The operating system, however, falls so short of my expectations that it's not even funny. I got this computer for the sole purpose of programming in my classes, but I still haven't been able to figure out how to install java and C compilers (I don't want to install build-essential from the debian repos- I'm afraid that it will break my system eventually). It's missing a lot of things I expect from a linux OS- decent repositories, easy customization, certain command line utilities. IMO, they removed a lot of the coolest things in linux and copied the most annoying things from windows. I know I'm pretty far from the intended audience, but for a computer whose slogan is "easy to work, easy to learn, easy to play" it sure is hard to get it to do what you want if you color outside the lines.
On a side note, I've been using a live linux distro on an SD card that I like much better than the default Xandros, but I haven't got the wireless to work yet, so it's not a complete solution. I haven't given up on customizing Xandros to do what I want yet, but so far it's been pretty frustrating for me.
EDIT- I ended up installing compilers and such from the debian repos after all. Though the first time I installed build-essential it screwed up my system, but it worked fine the second time (I'm the only person I know of that had a problem with it). Lesson learned: if apt gives you a scary warning message and wants to remove a bunch of packages, don't do it. Also, use apt-pinning.
Last edited by Celegorm (2008-01-19 11:42:39 am)
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I had awfully high expectations - good screen, easy wireless connectivity, supreme portability, turns the heads of cute girls when I'm websurfing in the coffee shop. It's met all of them. My only beef with the system is that $#@&! right shift key.
I'm pretty happy with it. Best $400 I've spent on computing since a 486DX2/66 back in '93. 
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random.adam wrote:
I had awfully high expectations - good screen, easy wireless connectivity, supreme portability, turns the heads of cute girls when I'm websurfing in the coffee shop. It's met all of them. My only beef with the system is that $#@&! right shift key.
I'm pretty happy with it. Best $400 I've spent on computing since a 486DX2/66 back in '93.
HA! I do keep typing / instead of ? due the right shift key in chats. Somehow I hit the caps lock less often though which seems odd.
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Results so far:
no - i'm dissapointed 0% - 0
yes - it's what i expected 38% - 12
yes+ better than i hoped 61% - 19
Total: 31
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its hard to meet expectation
and i was a little hesitant to purchase
after all the delays and price increase
that being said i didn't need another laptop
i have a macbook pro
(best there is imho)
that being said, i'm really glad i bought thing
and i think it really represents a milestone
in price/performance/size/form factor etc...
its a nice size to carry in the backpack
and it does most of what i use a laptop for
and i can sit with it on my lap and it doesn't
burn my legs like most machines out there
i'l still do all my video and audio editing on
the macbook but my lap is cooler and my backpack lighter...
also with the whole open source thing we
haven't begun to scratch the surface of what
this can do i'm starting to babble on
lets just say this thing has gone way past my expectations and beats the **** out of the failed umpc and palm folio and maybe even the ipod touch
h
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It's better than I'd hoped. It's very responsive, and I didn't realise how much I'd appreciate the quick boot speed. I'm not keen on touchpads, but I find it to be very easy to use. The keyboard is also quite easy to use (but I did expect this being a strong typer). Xandros also offers great Windows compatibility too.
On the negative side - I wish it had better repo support so I could download more software. Also the keys for Up, right shift, '+" /+?, are difficult to get right without practice.
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Celegorm wrote:
Both yes and no (and therefore I'm confused as to what to vote for on the poll).
The operating system, however, falls so short of my expectations that it's not even funny. I got this computer for the sole purpose of programming in my classes, but I still haven't been able to figure out how to install java and C compilers (I don't want to install build-essential from the debian repos- I'm afraid that it will break my system eventually). It's missing a lot of things I expect from a linux OS- decent repositories, easy customization, certain command line utilities. IMO, they removed a lot of the coolest things in linux and copied the most annoying things from windows. I know I'm pretty far from the intended audience, but for a computer whose slogan is "easy to work, easy to learn, easy to play" it sure is hard to get it to do what you want if you color outside the lines.
I agree with everything but the "hard to get it to do what you want if you color outside the lines". That might be true of the OS, but not of the hardware. Which is why the default Xandros install lasted all of about 30 minutes on my machine. You can install a "real" distro assuming you're willing to put up with ndiswrapper for the wifi for now. Honestly, it has performed exceptionally well for me in that configuration (so much better than broadcoms I've had to fight with in the past). I'd suggest ubuntu gutsy as it has the wired ethernet driver bundled in. I'm presently using Xubuntu. I also know people are running gentoo (with a binhost presumably) and I've heard of slack and archlinux making runs. The wiki has some pretty good information on how to get this all together.
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Celegorm wrote:
It's missing a lot of things I expect from a linux OS- decent repositories, easy customization, certain command line utilities. IMO, they removed a lot of the coolest things in linux and copied the most annoying things from windows. I know I'm pretty far from the intended audience, but for a computer whose slogan is "easy to work, easy to learn, easy to play" it sure is hard to get it to do what you want if you color outside the lines.
As you said yourself, you're not the intended audience. It's not a "Linux laptop", it's a laptop that happens to be running a cut-down version of linux because it's a cheap alternative to Windows. I too wish it had more software available, but I don't blame Asus for not making it available.
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I'm more than happy with mine. Like Paul I love the boot speed. but I'm also hating the right shift key.
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Pretty darn happy.
Hardware:
Keyboard is fine (but I am the only one NOT complaining about the shift key, but complaining about the space bar haha). Video is faster than I expected, and no dead pixels. Best feature is the ultra portability. I have had people ask me if it is a PDA. They are surprised when I say it is a full blown PC. Theres already a guy I work with who is going to buy one. Battery life is OK for its size but I will be buying a larger battery when they come out.
OS:
I'm no linux guru, having been a windows admin for the last 8 years. But I am getting on OK. I love that it is debian based so we can use apt-get, and after adding some real sites for deb packages last night, getting what I want is now much easier. Build-essential is now installed and I was able to install some software with less trouble. Nags on the OS are: cut down app list - fixed by adding a mirror. Doesn't see my 2GB of RAM. Annoying but not a deal breaker.
Once a solid Ubuntu or other debian based distro is out there for this machine, I will be dropping the xandros and picking up something else. Unless somebody comes out with a kernel patch that allows the OS to see the additional RAM. If that is the case I will leave it alone and be happy.
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I'm quite happy. There are some shortfalls in the default OS, but I think almost anyone who knows linux enough to notice the shortcomings should be able to fix them, either by installing another distro or hacking the default one.
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PaulMdx wrote:
As you said yourself, you're not the intended audience. It's not a "Linux laptop", it's a laptop that happens to be running a cut-down version of linux because it's a cheap alternative to Windows. I too wish it had more software available, but I don't blame Asus for not making it available.
Good point. I was assuming it would be a linux laptop, so no wonder I was dissapointed. I don't blame Asus for the lack of software in the repositories either- it's not like they've had much time to work on it (and better community maintained repositories will probably pop up pretty soon).
@quagga
I have been trying to get another linux distro to work on this thing, though so far I've favored using a live distro. I'm having real trouble getting the wireless working with anything I've tried though. I have been considering putting Gutsy on it, but I haven't entirely given up on customizing the default Xandros; there's still a few things I want to try out, like installing an alternative window manager.
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i absolutely love mine, its been a few years, like 6, since ive really done anything with linux, if it wasnt for this forum, i dont think i would be as happy as i am with it, but with all the info and help ive gotten out of here im absolutely thrilled i bought this thing!!!
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Yes i am impressed, i have no plans to change the OS even as a newbie to linux, i have dragged a dropped avi files onto even a small 512mb card (just to test 10mins of video footage before i get a 4gb sdhc) and its amazing using the standard player. Ive installed a few apps for viewing images. Ill probably whack on a N64 Emulator once this has been tried and tested further. Banjo Kazooe on a train when wireless access isn;t an option would be cool.
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Yes, yes and yes. Just finished giving three days of presentations, 5/day, using a combination of .ppt and internet, and it was totally without problem. The projector worked the first try, and even the usb remote controller, which I thought might be a problem, worked. This was at a school, and it drew a lot of comments from both teachers and students. Three people came up to me to get the name and model of the Eee PC
I too would like a greater selection of programs, (especially GIMP). I feel pretty sure the open source community will sort this out in pretty short order.
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After about a week with the eee pc I can say it has surpassed all my expectations.
I'm already used to the keyboard and the speed is great.
I can connect anywhere with a usb 3g modem, I dabble in web dev and so far it supports xampp and gimp runs without a hitch, so that is also covered and the other communication options (skype/amsn etc) just make this the pocket rocket I was waiting for.
ps. Just finished migrating a website on the spot for a client using the eee pc, you should have seen his face..... it was the first time he was speechless for 15 minutes. He immediately ordered one online.
Great piece of kit!
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Pretty much exactly what I was expecting overall. Build and screen quality are better than I expected, the screen and keyboard are just what I thought they would be.
Overall stability is a bit off - it has had problems reliably connecting to my WPA2 wireless, shutting down and opening apps. It also gets a bit warmer than I thought it would - the fan kicks in even when it is just sitting on the desk doing light surfing. Powering the USB mouse, wireless adapter, full-brightness screen and charging the battery probably don't help with that though.
Very pleased with my purchase so far, I'm sure it will last me a good, long while.
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Well I am in the minority here but overall I was fairly disappointed with mine.
On the positive side, the size was amazing, overall build quality was excellent, and of course the weight and boot times.
On the negative side, the battery life was very poor for what is does..2 to 2.5 hrs? The screen resolution was ok but a bit grainy and washed out looking. The wireless would sometimes connect, other times it would not. The touch pad was also very poor (one of the worst I have used, except for a HP I bought last year, and sold for the same reason), sometimes it registers taps, other times it would take multiple taps, and varied quite a bit depending on where you tapped on the pad. Last but not least, the fan is quite noisy, and after the first 10 min or so really never turns off.
I ended up ordering many of these, planned on selling all but one for myself, and now that one is gone too. I know that in the UMPC market, this is a absolute steal but I will wait for round 2 of the eee pc after some of these problems have been addressed. If the price point would have stayed at 199.00, all of the above mentioned in the negative category would have never been considered. The problem I have is, at 400.00 I expect more, not a ton more, but a better screen, much better touch pad, battery life and so on. For now it is back to my 13" Toshiba that I bought a month or so before these came out to get me by, and a hacked ipod touch , which for now, serves me much better when I am on the go, and I do not have to turn down the brightness, turn off wifi and so on to get 6 to 8 hrs of internet surfing, email, im, and whatever.
Just my 2 cents....
Last edited by wolfgang23 (2007-11-08 9:48:47 pm)
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Exceeding my expectations. Especially after getting out of "easy" mode, which was interesting for about ten minutes.
The idiosyncratic keyboard takes a lot of getting used to (especially if you're 6'2" and have big hands), but the same could be said of Blackberries and the original version of Palm's Graffiti, not to mention the iPod Touch on-screen keyboard. (I'd be willing to bet that right shift key issue will be seen to in the next version.)
I might speculate that the price jump is as much about (arguably) comparable competing products as it is about how much it costs to build these things. For example, Palm's current lineup is about the same price (aside from the lowest-end unit) -- but in terms of bang-for-buck the eee is infinitely better. (Palm has virtually given up on updating their products, but that's another story.) And what with the way these things go, the price will probably fall to about $250 or so before too long.
Last edited by rikard (2007-11-08 11:37:19 pm)
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random.adam wrote:
(Snip...)
Best $400 I've spent on computing since a 486DX2/66 back in '93.
Wow, random.adam, that takes me back to the 386/25 I bought back in '89 to do CAD work for $3500......yipes..... ;-\
That makes the $400 for the eee a pretty good deal!!!
I'm very happy with my eee so far....
;-)
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I'm happy with it and love the advanced desktop. I'm not sure why anybody would bother installing WinXP. Everything you need is right there. Shrink the fonts, install Fullerscreen in Firefox, and it comes together pretty nicely.
BUT... as mentioned elsewhere, a little disappointed with the noise of the fan when it switches on. I'm on my second Eee now and both have had noisy fans, although no2 isn't as noisy as no1 was. But it's still a whirring noise, rather than a whisper.
Additionally, my Eee very occasionally emits a piercing whistle that I have to reboot a few times to get rid of. I think this might be caused by the battery because unplugging the power lead at one point stopped it.
Maybe these problems will be fixed by future BIOS updates, I don't know.
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I have been very happy with mine. I had really really high expectations. So far, it is meeting them. With the exception of missing bluetooth, everything else that I've seen that I would change is software based. The software problems will probably be fixed in the coming months, either by Asus or another distro maker will make their own distro geared towards the EEE.
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