Asus EEE PC now available...
 

It isn't the magical $199 price point, but $399 for a sub notebook like this ain't bad...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220244

I just got mine yesterday. It's fantastic. I've moved it from the easy "Fisher Price" mode it comes with to the KDE full desktop mode and that turns it into a "real computer" pretty quickly. I'm a complete Linux novice (the Eee can run Windows, but you have to get a) an external CD drive, b) an external hard drive, and c) Windows to install it) so I'm just now learning how to install software.

Comes with OpenOffice, Skype, Pidgin messenger, and a bunch of other stuff installed. Out of the package, the webcam won't work with Skype or Pidgin, but I'm told it will work with amsn (MSN Messenger clone for Linux) and am working on installing that now. I used Skype last night to talk to my BF in the UK and was able to talk without a handset or headphones and we heard each other very clearly. The microphone and speakers are quite good.

The Eee PC is just a little bigger than a DVD case and I am totally amazed at how light it is. I'm totally excited about taking it to London in a couple of weeks. Eee!

:)
GG

Cool ... I want to wait for the next one and hope to rely on that for most of my mobile needs once it's available. Good to know that a novice can handle the system pretty easily

Totally- the trick is getting it out of the easy mode so you can actually treat it like a real computer. I found step-by-step instructions in the wiki at http://www.eeeuser.com/.

The keyboard is REALLY small and will take some getting used to, and I haven't installed any development tools or other software yet (e.g. I don't have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iTunes etc.) but I think with Windows installed and an external drive to house all the apps, it would work pretty well, and I think you could easily play DVDs if you had an external drive. My mobile needs are pretty simple- I need e-mail and web access and for any work needs, I think OpenOffice will work sufficiently well and still work with my files at home.

GG

Does this come with any kind of mail client that works with Exchange? Im running Evolution on a much beefier CPU machine (Dell Optiplex 740 maxed out on RAM) and it is not great speed wise. Anyone have any experience with this yet? Thanks.

I saw that it was back in stock at Newegg, too bad that they don't ship overseas. Expansys wants about 500 usd for it and has 12-days delivery time.

Assuming Expansys ships when they say they will. I've stopped ordering from them entirely. It was always more a "Maybe it'll ship someday" proposition than "it'll be here on X day". Most egregious delay ever; I ordered a bluetooth headset from them. It shipped SIX MONTHS later. I bounced it straight back at them.

It comes with Thunderbird. I assume that works with Exchange but have no personal experience.

Thunderbird will work if your Exchange admin has enabled IMAP/POP. Some admins, though, don't allow IMAP and POP to pass through the external firewall, so you can't use them to connect to Exchange when you are outside the corporate network and not on a VPN.

Steve

Yes, I think it is active, at least it was. We also have the Outlook Web Access active and I think that might allow Thunderbird access.

Asus Eee PC Tweak Guide
 

Easy to disassemble, easy to upgrade, and easy to create warranty headaches is probably the slogan many advanced users will be thinking soon after they get their hands on an Asus Eee PC. During our initial review we realized that this device had so much more potential than what we had first expected. Not counting the storage limitation, this little machine was as powerful as notebooks four to five times its price. The Xandros Linux environment could be expanded with more traditional programs, and better yet this device could fully support Windows XP out of the box. We also wanted to touch on upgrading the Eee PC, since its stock configuration doesn’t really have as much ram as what you would want for more stressing software.

Some users will probably enjoy the minimalistic Linux environment included on the Eee PC out of the box, and not want to drastically change anything ... just add a few programs. Jerry, our site editor, fell into this crowd and found that one program lacking from the Eee PC out of the box was Gimp, a photo editor. You could see mentioning of this program if you tried to open image files, but it was a dead link that would introduce you to a helpful error stating “Could not find the program 'The'”. Needless to say it got our hopes up, but left us wanting more.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=184267

How is firewall/virus protection handled on the machine?

It seems to have a modem slot - but does it have an internal modem?

modem? You're still using a modem? :eek: wow! :)

Try posting your questions on notebookreview's Asus EEE Owners lounge forum...they are a great bunch of guys ^


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=184313