MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Docking the Asus EEE for use as a desktop machine

mogui · 05-18-2008, 10:24 AM

Well Bob, I have watched the Damn Small Linux people for a few years putting DSL on a thumb drive and booting it on tiny tiny desktop machines. I have always meant to pick up or build something like that. I love the idea of a lot of computing power in a very small space.

Remember when we had XT PCs? Before the AT PCs? Maybe you are not that old. In the mid 80s there was a credit card sized board that had all the components necessary to be the mainboard of a compete XT. Wipe your chin!

Over the years I have bought various machines that were smaller than average. Lexmark had a small monochrome laptop that didn't work very well. Then there was the Atari Portfolio. The ThinkN|C was small by desktop standards of its time.

Now I am writing this on a little wafer of a laptop that sits partially folded so I can see the external LCD behind it. I am typing on an external keyboard and using an external mouse. But the really cool thing is that I can disconnect all of those devices and still have the complete functionality of the PC at the cost of a little inconvenience (cramped screen, futsy keyboard). But it is a glorious Linux toy -- by far the easiest Linux implementation I have ever used. All of the old difficulties of former distributions have disappeared. The file manager does more than its Windows counterpart. Everything Just Works.

I like the DSL distribution because they (like Knoppix before them) had gotten the hardware detection right. But it had always struck me that if there were a popular machine that would serve as a standard base for Linux, much more could be done with it because the need to adapt to varied architectures would be obviated.

Now the EEE is cheap enough that everyone can afford it. They will learn that it is not CPU speed that makes a computer snappy. They will learn that an alternative OS can deliver the performance of Goliath. They will discover a machine that can go in the glove box of the car or in a jacket pocket or a pouch of a back pack. And it is more usable than a UMPC or a PDA.

What was your question? Oh yes. Do we like them because they are smaller or because they are cheaper? For me the prime factor was size. If I wanted to spend less money for a laptop, and size was immaterial, I could buy a refurb. But now that I have it, I realize the Linux is a real treat. I hadn't expected that it would be so much fun. I hadn't expected to find it so responsive.

The clincher: I have been struggling to get Skype to work well lately on my desktop XP machine. I connected the other day from the EEE to my daughter's Macbook a continent away. I was expecting to forego the video to get acceptable audio performance, but she popped right up in a window in front of me and said, "Start your video Dad!" So I did. The video chat is the best I have experienced from China. How would you like to have that in your backpack?

05-18-2008, 10:24 AM	#4
mogui eNigma Posts: 503 Karma: 1335 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: The Philippines Device: HTC G1 Android FBReader	Well Bob, I have watched the Damn Small Linux people for a few years putting DSL on a thumb drive and booting it on tiny tiny desktop machines. I have always meant to pick up or build something like that. I love the idea of a lot of computing power in a very small space. Remember when we had XT PCs? Before the AT PCs? Maybe you are not that old. In the mid 80s there was a credit card sized board that had all the components necessary to be the mainboard of a compete XT. Wipe your chin! Over the years I have bought various machines that were smaller than average. Lexmark had a small monochrome laptop that didn't work very well. Then there was the Atari Portfolio. The ThinkN\|C was small by desktop standards of its time. Now I am writing this on a little wafer of a laptop that sits partially folded so I can see the external LCD behind it. I am typing on an external keyboard and using an external mouse. But the really cool thing is that I can disconnect all of those devices and still have the complete functionality of the PC at the cost of a little inconvenience (cramped screen, futsy keyboard). But it is a glorious Linux toy -- by far the easiest Linux implementation I have ever used. All of the old difficulties of former distributions have disappeared. The file manager does more than its Windows counterpart. Everything Just Works. I like the DSL distribution because they (like Knoppix before them) had gotten the hardware detection right. But it had always struck me that if there were a popular machine that would serve as a standard base for Linux, much more could be done with it because the need to adapt to varied architectures would be obviated. Now the EEE is cheap enough that everyone can afford it. They will learn that it is not CPU speed that makes a computer snappy. They will learn that an alternative OS can deliver the performance of Goliath. They will discover a machine that can go in the glove box of the car or in a jacket pocket or a pouch of a back pack. And it is more usable than a UMPC or a PDA. What was your question? Oh yes. Do we like them because they are smaller or because they are cheaper? For me the prime factor was size. If I wanted to spend less money for a laptop, and size was immaterial, I could buy a refurb. But now that I have it, I realize the Linux is a real treat. I hadn't expected that it would be so much fun. I hadn't expected to find it so responsive. The clincher: I have been struggling to get Skype to work well lately on my desktop XP machine. I connected the other day from the EEE to my daughter's Macbook a continent away. I was expecting to forego the video to get acceptable audio performance, but she popped right up in a window in front of me and said, "Start your video Dad!" So I did. The video chat is the best I have experienced from China. How would you like to have that in your backpack?