[Discuss] Asus eee

[Patrick]

On Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:27:14 -0800
"Daniel M German" wrote:

> Tesseract has one in a prominent place. Hard to miss.
> 
> I played with it for a little while. I think it looks like a great
> little machine.  My only complain is that the touchpad button was very
> stiff.
> 
> It is a very interesting competition to the Nokia 800 series. They are
> very similar in specs, but huge difference in size, CPU power, and
> keyboard.

As far as specs, maybe Asus and Nokia both chose components known
to work well with Linux, without too much hassle?

I'm really glad a hardware manufacturer is selling something,
anything with Linux pre-installed, and visibly so.  Yes, it's more
common than some would think -- mini-Linuxes embedded in
cellphones and whatnot -- but that falls far below the social
radar; no penguin logos when the thing starts up.

This, and a few more machines like it could draw some attention
from Joe Average users who just want to check their email and
Google the odd factoid.  A lot of people don't even know they
have a choice, and while Linux is perceived as a Serious
Power-Tool for hardcore geeks, they probably won't find out [yes,
I liked the flash animation on the Asus site, very slick and
inviting.  Very commercial.  Just wish it said more about what
kind of Linux is installed...  Does anyone know what flavour it
is?  Maybe I should go and ask the folks at Tesseract on
Tuesday...].

And when hardware manufacturers get into it, there may be more
emphasis on ease of use from the development side, since they're
in the business of selling stuff to people, technically clueful
or otherwise.  [Although tinkering and tweaking and scripting to
make things work a certain way is a lot of fun, I think it
should be *optional*, not mandatory].  It has gotten easier to
use, but a lot of people don't know that yet.  Some marketing and
commercial-grade PR might help that.

If it takes off, manufacturers of peripherals, wireless cards
and other [currently] hard-to-drive items might notice that
releasing their hardware specs and/or open-source drivers can
work to their benefit; actually increase their sales.  And as
more gagetry becomes usable under Linux, its user base [and
market share] may increase.

Picture a very small snowball at the top of a high hill.  Just
one little push...



Sorry about the tangent there.  Been following a few links from
the `Bad Vista' pages, so I'm feeling maybe a little *too*
idealistic right now.

Preaching to the choir isn't productive either.  I should go
hassle my sister about this instead.  [Hmm, no, not much more
productive, really.  I'll go hassle my brother-in-law.  He's
a bit more geekish than she is anyway.  ;-) ]

> 
> I think it would be the perfect laptop for traveling (it uses solid
> state memory). The fact that it runs open office 2.0 (which the N800
> does not) is a big plus.
> 
> I think it will also be a perfect gift for a grandparent or a child
> this Christmas.

Or my Mom, on her birthday.  [I'll need time to save up for this.]

> 
> Imagine (as a child) getting your first laptop, and one you can tinker
> with. Priceless.

Ladies and gentlemen, and children of all ages.  I want one
too.  :-)

That's kind of how I got started with this.  The aforementioned
brother-in-law gave me an old laptop he wasn't using much anymore
[yes, gave, for free].  So I tried using Windows XP for a couple
of months, and that was long enough -- long enough to find out
what all those people who didn't like computers were complaining
about.  I honestly had no idea what they meant, before.

It's been a lot of fun to tinker with since then.  Priceless.  :-)


> 
> --dmg

Patrick.

-- 
Question: Is it better to abide by the rules until they're
changed or help speed the change by breaking them?