I had been trying to get a look at one of these for months, but no place around here seemed to carry them. I wasn’t too concerned, because I’d planned to wait for a later version of it before I took the plunge. Ah well, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry…” I’m writing this entry on one now. 🙂
This afternoon GoddessJ and I stopped at a nearby mall, and I was left to my own devices while GoddessJ did some shopping. I, of course, hit the two electronics shops in there… and what did I find, but that one of them carried it, and it was in stock! I was suitably impressed with the size, but I still managed to hold out, until I told GoddessJ about it, and she wanted to see it too. Then I just couldn’t put it off any longer… I walked out with one.
This thing is freakin’ TINY! Much smaller than the smallest notebook computer I’ve ever had, or even seen. The keyboard is fairly cramped (though I’m getting used to it already), but the screen is very readable, and quite adequate for a single full-screen program at a time. I’m updating the software on it as I’m typing this… I don’t see any option for a command-line window so far, but I’ll find a way to get one on there pretty soon, I’m sure.
(This is the Linux version, of course. I wasn’t interested in using it for games, and games are the only thing I use Windows for nowadays.)
I’m planning to use this as my carry-everywhere system, once I can get a few vital software packages on it — my password manager, and maybe the GCC compiler and Eclipse (I can’t tell if GCC is on here already or not, since I can’t get to a command line yet). It’s quite portable, and I’d be a lot less worried about having it stolen or lost than I am with its big brother, the Dell XPS M1210 laptop that is my main system right now.
More as I discover it.
Looks like I can get to a command line window very easily: Control-Alt-T. Nice!
Congratulations, you have a new small machine, and so do I. 🙂
May we both be very happy with them. 🙂
Congrats! I remember you talking about this a while back. What store did you find it in, and how much was it (if you don’t mind me asking). I can’t find it on either the FutureShop or the Best Buy websites.
Hmmm, at least the eee is easier to find than the wii. 😉
The Source, believe it or not. It’s one of the last places I would have thought to look for it. The guy there told me they were having a lot of trouble keeping it in stock though. And I read one article recently that said even Asus, the manufacturer, was only able to supply about a third of the demand for them — and that was before that recent battery plant fire, they’ll be getting even scarcer for the next little bit.
It was $399, which is the suggested retail price.
The next model, with a 1024×600 screen and 1G RAM, is already being reviewed. 🙂
http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/04/16/Asus-Eee-PC-900/p1
So I see. Not a big deal though, I’m happy with this one, for now. I’ve already upgraded the RAM to 2GB (to avoid a flash-memory-degrading swap-file), and installed Ubuntu (the Xandros kernel couldn’t recognize more than a gigabyte, and I wanted to run the same OS on that one as I do on my main system).
I’m also planning to order a really fast 8GB SDHC card; I’ll store my personal data on that, then I should be able to swap it between the main system and the Asus fairly easily.
Yeah, the Mini is due for a major upgrade too. I like the one that’s out now though, so why wait?
The iMac got a major upgrade today (blogged about on my website, caught it first thing this morning on apple.com – nearly scooped the big ‘sites) but no Mini upgrade. Rumor has it then that there will be a form-factor change too, because the old Mini changes always were in concert with the iMac. Probably in June with the big developer conference Jobs will give a keynote and woosh, a Mini Mac that should have been the one I bought. 😉
For at least the last decade, all computers have been obsolete by the time you got them out of the box. 🙂
Mac hardware is sometimes obsolete even before it’s released. <smirk>
Of course, I didn’t get the Mac Mini because it was the absolute best hardware for the money, it was the combination of software and hardware, and the fact that it was good enough hardware for my needs at a decent price; regardless of competition with the equivalent PC. (Half the time running Vista.)