Ah, the Asus eee pc - lusted after by many, even if we aren't quite sure why. I knew after a few started turning up in the office (and especially after seeing ads for them plastered all over Paris) that I had to have one.
And wasn't it a joyous day when the small box arrived! It is, of course, quite tiny. Even my Macbook Air-toting boss marveled at its form-factor. The main reason I got it (besides the obvious geek-chic aspect) was the fact that I needed something light to take to meetings and even conferences that would let me do email, browse, edit text offline and use a shell. I don't need to be lugging around my 15 Macbook Pro for that!
The eee I got comes with Xandros Linux installed. Although in its "easy" mode, its basically a "beginner" linux GUI, I found it was pretty good at everything I needed to do. I had originally decided that I would probably put Ubuntu on it (since everyone seems to love it and they make a distro specifically for the eee pc) but I asked around. Most people at work seemed to believe that they didn't really gain that much by switching to Ubuntu. Plus, the startup time for Xandros is pretty fast.
However, if you want to customize anything, it's a giant pain in the ass. I did eventually decide to install Ubuntu because of one particular deal-breaker. NYU's wireless network uses WPA(2) Enterprise, and Xandros doesn't support Enterprise (and the authentication it enables) OOTB. Ubuntu does.
I have to also say that the eee's battery life is fantastic - when wireless is off. With it on, its pretty much what you'd expect for something this size and price. Thoughts on the eee?
