ASUS Eee PC 1000H

[Madison Kelly]

Neil Watson wrote:
> Hi Madi,
> 
> Does this help:
> http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?comments_parentId=11503&forumId=1 
> 
> 
> Can we look forward to a review of your eeepc?
> 

That looks like it will do it, thanks.

As for the Eee, I can put something together. I fell ill before I 
finished this:

http://wiki.tle-bu.org/index.php/User:Digimer#Ubuntu_on_the_ASUS_Eee_PC_1000H

Though I hope to finish it up later this week when I will make it an 
"official" doc.

In the mean time...

I couldn't find a Linux version (grumble grumble) so I had to get the 
windows version. I was in a pickle as my Thinkpad died and I needed a 
new machine right away. That said, I now use the Eee as my "daily 
driver" and I love it.

I always tell people when looking at buying something to ask people who 
have it what they *don't* like first, so that is where I will start. 
There are two things I found difficult to get used to:

- The touch pad is the same as the one in the Apple Air. It uses 
gestures to accomplish certain things. For example, to scroll, you slide 
two fingers up or down together instead of using a dedicated side of the 
touch pad surface. To middle click, you tap the touchpad with two fingers.

- The right shift key is on the right side of the up arrow. This is 
wierd, to say the least, and the one thing I'm still trying to get used 
to. Along the same vein, the home/end and pg up up/pg down keys are 
accessed by pressing fn+an arror key. This though, I am actually getting 
used to quite quickly.

- Last, the screen's hight is still a little shy for some apps. This is 
an issue with the class of machine though, not the Eee itself.

Now with that said, I absolutely LOVE this thing. When my boss got the 
first version, the Eee 4G, I said that if they made they screen bigger 
and they keyboard a little better they'd have a winner, and that is 
exactly what they did.

Some key points I love;

- It's light. After years of trucking around Thinkpads, this thing feels 
like it's not even there.

- The screen is a dream. Even in sunlight I usually don't need full 
brightness. With the LED backlight, everything is easy to read. It 
honestly boggles my mind how crisp this screen is. I hear that's a 
benefit of LED backlight, mainly, but I love it.

- It can run warm, but not ridiculously so. yesterday I laid on the 
couch with my douvet over me and the Eee running on top of it, and it 
didn't complain. That's about the worse thing you can do, heat wise, so 
I was impressed.

- It's very reasonably fast. It's no speed deamon, to be sure, but I 
expected a much slower machine after using the 4G. This easily runs all 
my apps, and I can have a LOT going at times. Ripping a DVD (legal!), 
listening to OGG, running Apache2 and Postgres, running KDE apps in 
Gnome, all no problem.

- With the new kernel installed, wireless and wired network work great. 
I have no trouble grabbing connections at local hotspots.

- Battery life is decent, but not what is advertised. I suspect though 
this largely has to do with Linux not yet fully supporting the Atom CPU.

In short, I'd recommend it. However, I'd suggest you try typing on a 
demo unit first if you are serious about buying one, just to make sure 
you are happy with it.

Madi
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