Product Diaries

I am here in Taipei at the ASUS Eee PC press event. Like we have all been waiting for, ASUS has pulled the sheet off the new Eee PC 901 and 1000. Here is the low down on the newest additions to the Eee PC family.

The Eee PC 901 will sport Intel’s Atom processor. Similar to both offerings of the Eee PC 900, the Windows XP version will be available with a 12GB SSD and the Linux version with a 20 GB SSD. ASUS claims the system will get 7.5 hours of battery life.

The Eee PC 1000, sporting a 10-inch screen, will be available with Xandros Linux, a 40GB SSD, Intel Atom, 802.11n, Bluetooth and with up to 2GB of RAM. The system on a whole, though I can’t see much of it from my seat, looks more swanky than the original system. We couldn’t be any more excited about the almost 92 percent keyboard.

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For the most part, I’ve been very content with the way the Xandros Eee PC 900 runs on the original specs. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to upgrade the 1GB of memory to 2GB.

The Eee PC, like its 701 predecessor, has only one DIMM slot, so if your system comes with less than 2GB and you want to upgrade, you’ll need to throw out the factory-installed RAM. The RAM replacement process is pretty painless, at least compared with that of the HP Mini-Note. However, I will confess it took me a long time to find the second screw to take off the back of the system. For some odd reason, ASUS decided to put an Eee PC sticker over the second screw on the back. Why? Most likely to make me feel like an idiot.

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I am a big fan of Xandros on the Eee PC, but I’ve always said it has its limitations, especially when it doesn’t give me access to my favorite Windows programs. But when my editor told me earlier this week about Wine HQ, I nearly freaked. Wine HQ enables a compatibility layer that allows Windows programs to run on a Linux OS.

Wine isn’t the easiest to configure, but I figured it out with the help of the ever-informed Eee PC forum members. Check out my step-by-step instructions here.

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I am a fan of ASUS’ Xandros tab-based desktop, but for everyday advanced users, it just isn’t cut out to do the dirty work. I much prefer working in the more Windows-reminiscent Xandros full-KDE Mode with a Start Launch button and easier access to utilities and programs.

I figured enabling the advanced desktop mode on the Eee PC 900 would be a cinch if I just followed the step-by-step directions for the 700. But there’s the rub. I followed our instructions for the 700 extremely closely; however, when I got to the step to type in “apt-get update” in the terminal, an error message popped up saying the files could not be located.

Thanks to some helpful EeeUser.com forum members I was able to solve the problem by following these steps.

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Last week the long-awaited Eee PC 900 arrived at our office. After it underwent the Ellis Island sign-in process—okay, rather our laptop tracking database—it was greeted by some eager onlookers. Like a great big bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, we passed the system around, and I think many of us licked our fingers clean. After we were done pawing at the new system and making comparisons to its older, inferior brother, I sat down to review it.

My initial impression of the system was that, though minimally different from its predecessor, it had come a long way. The 8.9-inch screen is so much easier on my eyes; I don’t think twice about storage space when it comes to downloading files or applications, and a multi-glide touchpad adds a touch of class to a budget system. Sure I had my reservations: two hours of battery is less than ideal and the system goes into a power-saving mode that affects performance. But overall, I was damn pleased.

Will my high regard for the system live on? Can the Eee PC 900 make me forget about all the other notebooks in the world and be the one I promise to love and cherish? I intend to find out over the next few days. Join mEee on the ride.

HP should begin selling XP versions of the Mini-Note any day now, but some of us eager beavers couldn’t deal with Vista any longer and “downgraded” to Windows XP ourselves. If you have been following my Mini-Note tales, you know that installing XP is simple, however the issues begin after XP is up and running and you discover all the missing drivers.

HP has finally updated its Web site with the needed drivers for XP, including the all-important Broadcom Wireless LAN Driver. My Mini-Note was without any wireless access for a few days and I have been tethered to an Ethernet cord. Not anymore. I simply downloaded the driver to the notebook from this site and the wireless network tool popped up in my system tray.

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