Thread: Asus Eee Notebook

Wow , what Timing Garry I was looking at Asus EEEPC 901 this afternoon, it's ideal for running my Mapping software on it , apparently this one has "Solid state Memory" , perfect.

It also comes with Bluetooth so you can run a "Bluetooth Mouse" instead of USB , so this will free up 1 of your USB ports to use for something else.

Sorry , that's my 2 cents worth for today

On a very well known member on this site suggestion we bought one....I am in fact using it as we type...have still got to get the mapping prog on it and have been advised to use a external cd drive to do so..

mine came with windows XP....skype and a few others I will prob not use....it has a camea and mic built in...mines is a 900A which has less memory than the others but I run an external 40gb hard drive with all my mapping programs

so next trip I will see how it goes


Mrs ho har

I've looked into this simply because I run Linux on my laptops


you'll find this interesting/useful
Running OziExplorer under LINUX

The biggest problem you'll have is if you have USB gps linux may not have drivers.

You could download a linux live cd for free (Doesn't install or change anying on the hd) and see if the gps is detect before getting a linux pc

The bios has an option to boot from network or usb which is how you get around the no CD drive, for installing software you may have to make an image of the CD and store it on a portable hard drive and then use a program to load the cd from the harddrive

I have the 901. Very happy with it.

The 901 comes in two memory flavours.
The Windows XP version comes with a built-in 4GB memory "drive", and a secondary 8GB memory "drive" giving 12GB total.

I have the Linux version which has the same 4GB "drive" and a 16GB which give a total of 20GB worth of storage.

Both sell for the same price.

Both versions allow an sd card, whatever size you want to pay for, to be be plugged in. Increasing the available memory. Plus you can always plug an external drive in of course.

I put Windows XP with service pack 2 on.
There are plenty of places that tell you how to do this. Let your Google do the working for you.

I used two memory sticks.
You can download, for free, a copy of Windows 98 which will go on one stick. This you boot from. You put the Windows XP on the other stick.

Easy to do. You can also use a lite version of XP of course which will save you extra space.

I bought a 10" EeePc XP model for $498 from CatchoftheDay a while back. I have Oziexplorer running on it with a Bluetooth GPS receiver. Its just for playing though as I much prefer paper maps.
It is easy to copy software to it. Just copy to a flash drive or over the network to the desktop and instal from there.

Ian

Answered your questions below

Originally Posted by garrycol

The Asus Eee Notebook is now down to $300. I normally use my 15" Toshiba Laptop for navigation in the car with Oziexplorer. This works fine but the small size of the Asus and is simple construction would be better.

So some questions on the Asus.

1. The salesman says this smallest Asus will only run Lunix and not any version of windows. Is this true?? If it is - will Oziexplorer work with Lunix? Other options?

There are different models of the Eee PC, some ship with Linux, others with XP. Check on the Oziexplorer site if it runs on Linux but my guess is no

2. Without a CD drive - how do you load software? Copy it to a zip drive? What about software that looks for its files on CD.

You can buy an external DVD/CD ROM drive or if you have another PC/Laptop at home copy files onto an SD card (like what you put into a digital camera then stick into the SD slot in the EeePC. Alternatively network share a DVD/CD ROM drive on another PC/Laptop

3. The ASUS looks like it has 3 USB ports - I need one for a mouse/cursor controller, one for the GPS, and one for the LCD touch screen controller (although the Asus is small enough to use without a screen) - ideally I would need a fourth USB for additional drive space. Can you use two usb devices on on usb port via a sharing usb hub.

They have an internal USB socket which you could use for the touch screen controller. If you are game enough to pull it apart to fit the touchscreen then you should have the nouse to hook it up to the 4th USB socket. Failing that, use a USB hub as you've suggested. Do a search on the Internet, you'll find a few people have fitted touchscreens and have done other hacks.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Garry

Thanks for the comments - the $300 version I saw today only has Lunix and will not operate windows - the models most of you are have or are talking about are bigger models - these do operate with windows.

The one I was looking at does not does not have bluetooth and does not have a model number like 901. It is just called Asus Eee Notebook.

It has 8gb internal flash drive.

Cheers

Garry

Thanks Hoadie - that was very helpful.

Cheers

Garry