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I bought a Netbook

After a year of hype I caved in and bought a Netbook. I picked up a bargain off ebay, the ASUS EEE PC 701 with 1GB of RAM. The unit has 4gb of flash memory and has a 4gb SD card, it came with Linux which I was very impressed with.  The built in apps like Firefox and Skype worked well and fast to boot up and use and I think I could have kept it running Linux if it wasn’t for curiosity to try XP and that fact I couldn’t get Linux to pair up with my Windows Mobile device to use as a Modem. ASUS supplies the XP drivers on a CD so I installed XP and it works like a charm, I did install Media Center edition but so far I haven’t been able to get Media Center to work, I will keep working on that.

As a small device for connecting to the web it’s pretty good, with Live Mesh taking care of syncing data and Firefox for the web it’s working great. Even Skype works well on video calls. It is a bit strange going back to Windows XP I miss things like Vista’s search box but overall I am happy with the EEE PC, the trouble is my wife now wants one

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Posted Sep 12 2008, 02:25 PM by Ian Dixon
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Comments

pablo_paul wrote re: I bought a Netbook
on 09-12-2008 3:23 PM

hi Ian,

Just bought an aspire one 120Gb for the girlfriend the linux distro lasted about two hours before it got replaced with a stripped down version of xp.  The thing just does anything you can throw at it, Itunes cover flow, streaming to vlc from the HTPC,  I've even tried adobe lightroom nothing phases it. I've had many computers over the years but nothing has impressed me as much as this little device.  Your still not getting the Dragon back though!

The only thing that would be better would be a tablet version costing about £400  

Ian Dixon wrote re: I bought a Netbook
on 09-12-2008 4:26 PM

how much did you pay for the Aspire?

Ross Snowden wrote re: I bought a Netbook
on 09-12-2008 4:37 PM

I'm really looking at the Aspire One as a possibility.  I'll perhaps wait until the second generation comes along.  It looks like a solid-build machine.

I think Microsoft should really have made a version of Vista that is compatible with netbooks (which would be included along with the normal version of Vista ... a sort of Vista-Light, if you will).

mark wrote re: I bought a Netbook
on 09-12-2008 5:03 PM

Sounds like fun Ian. I've been mulling over this one. My son needs a small portable for school. So I'm considering either a refurbished Thinkpad x41 with a Pentium Mobile for 400-500 USD or a netbook. The more I here about them the MSI Wind seems like the best, but they're fairly expensive. The size of the keyboard seems to be an issue, what do you think about the keyboard on the Asus?

Cheers

Mark

Ian's Digital Lifestyle wrote This Week on The Digital Lifestyle
on 09-14-2008 9:39 AM

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This Week on The Digital Lifestyle | Windows Home Theater wrote This Week on The Digital Lifestyle | Windows Home Theater
on 09-14-2008 10:46 AM

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