I have already mentioned that ASUS EEE PC was of high interest to me, as a “super card reader” as well as a “carry with you all the time” PC. I was so keen to get one that I tested a 800×480 resolution on my laptop to see if it was useable at all.
To cut a long story short, I found a nice opportunity to get a second-hand EEE 701 and I am having great fun installing and using it. I went for the Debian derivative and installed most of the system I tested on my (reduced screen) laptop: XFCE4, Gimp, Ristretto, Abiword, Gnumeric, Conky etc. I picked the Clearlooks Compact GTK theme, Prelude 4 for xfwm4. I installed Brightside (active screen corners) as well as the Hide Menu and Page Zoom Firefox extentions. I also added Splashy which I have customized (as well as xdm) to use my (highly artistic) wall paper:
The idea is to have a system as complete as possible without the whole of Gnome and indeed, the EEE is a very useable and likeable little machine – although it is so tiny that you need a bit of time to get used to the keyboard and you sometimes don’t quite know how to handle it.
There is even a (very simple) wiki entry about how to use it for (RAW) photography and Mark Shuttleworth just blogged to give more precision about the (Gnome based) Ubuntu version designed for Netbooks.
Of course, my first RAW file developped with the EEE and RawStudio:
Linux Photography 
I like that term, “super card reader”. I think I’ll use that term from now on, if that’s ok with you.;) I don’t have an EEE; I use an SH6 Kohjinsha. Pretty ok, way more expensive but has bigger drive and touchscreen. Check it out at if you can: http://geekmadness.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/say-hello-to-koji/
Oui, je crois que tu l’aimes bien ton nouveau joujou. 😉
You’re not supposed to blog about toys. It gets my drool factory going and I don’t like it. My wife doesn’t like it either!
Does that thing fit in your camera bag? It looks pretty cool. If I did a lot of travelling, I’d consider getting one. It looks like it could come in very handy. Thanks for sharing your experience. I look forward to hearing more as you use it more.
Hi there,
@ Punongbisyonaryo: it is your lucky day, I haven’t registered the trademark. The reasons I got an EEE are mobility and price. Cramped screen and keyboard are the price to pay.
@ John: it is a lot cheaper than a lens… It is very small for a computer but still it weights almost 1kg. You have to check you bag size against the EEE.
Take care.
Joel