There are several things I like about this machine. Top of the list is the battery life. I have never had a machine before where I am happy going out for the day without the charger. The 1000HE also fits comfortably inside my favourite briefcase (see picture) whilst leaving room for a few papers.
The Windows 7 hype is in full swing. I am never quite sure whether all the computer mags are just obedient to what the majority of their advertisers want or whether they really believe the enthusiastic mush they are writing. Vista ended up as a mess. It was an attempt to (A) copy various features of OS X (mainly surface appearance), and (B) to tighten up on security.
The problem with the various Linux issues I encountered when installing Ubuntu is that they are hardware specific. The most serious seems to be the failure of the hibernating to work properly, so that the battery goes flat overnight if left hibernating. Hardware issues are basically driver issues. One has to chase around, consulting expert forums, until one finds the right drivers to install. The reason I say that is a problem, is that I am sending the machine back at the end of the week, so I have little incentive to acquire detailed and ephemeral expertise which will be of essentially zero benefit to me.
So the great moment has arrived. But how do I make the switch? I have horrible memories of struggling with new partitions, running into special bits of Microsoft code designed precisely to make it tough to switch to another operating system … Maybe there is a better way? Of course, you are supposed to be able to get EeePCs preloaded with Linux, indeed they are supposed to be cheaper that way, but the review machine is firmly preloaded with Windows XP.
One person disagreed with my complaint about the 600 pixel screen height, saying all I needed to do was press F11 to make the browser full screen. Maybe I am spoilt by a large iMac screen, but I really hate making apps full screen. I am often flipping between multiple apps and I find it much less convenient to tab between them or unmax, reselect, remax. It is not just desktops which have large screens. Plenty of laptops do too. But even going full screen, I don’t find 600px plenty. I am writing this on a screen with multiple windows open at a height of more than 1000px. It is not easy to get used to working with 600px.
The touchpad has an active area of about 2.6 inches wide x 1.5 inches high. It supports multi-finger gestures. There are also two metal button areas below it – to allow left and right mouse clicks.
I got back late on Tuesday from a long weekend in Juan-Les-Pins, staying with a friend who has rented a villa there for a month before the Parisians descend in July and August. Sunny beaches are not really my scene. I moaned about the mosquitoes, the heat and the humidity. But it did provide an opportunity to try out the EeePC.
Summarizing: the keyboard is excellent – up to laptop standards; the battery life is excellent; it has a 160GB drive; the screen height is 600px which is low by laptop standards. So what is it good for? Or put more confusingly, is it a netbook (defined by Wikipedia, following Intel, as a small portable laptop designed for WiFi internet access)?