Hardware

Not usually doing product reviews but I just got this new TINY eeePC and I already feel some kind of personal revolution. The small laptop is made by Asus and comes with 4GB of solid state memory, Linux pre-installed and a 7 inch monitor.

When I bought it here in Germany, it was in German! It was a bit hard for me but I manage to open the terminal and follow some instructions I found online to change the system and keyboard languages. I feel really cool about that because I have never even used terminal to control my computer before!

I have been a mac user since I was 6 years old and my macs always works so nicely. Also they are extremely expensive and therefore seem really precious and a bit overbearing. (I realized that calculating my mac purchases I spend $1000 every year to have a mac laptop). The eeePC cost me 299E and I changed the ram from 512mb-1GB which cost me another 27E... so in total 326E. It is cute, and small, cheap and not scary and its Linux so I guess it is pretty unavoidable to open the Terminal.

I took the tiny white laptop out of the box, immediately took a screw driver to it and changed the RAM and then got into the Terminal. I feel like this machine is like a really cool tool rather than some overpowering hi-tech monster. I look forward to learning finally about how a computer actually works and making fun things with the eee.

The computer is very tiny and the monitor is kind of silly but it's ok for a bit of writing, online, chatting and for running installations. I would not try to build a website, edit video or layout a poster with it, that would be torture. It looks like a pretty solid machine except for the track pad. The button is pretty bad and seems like it won't work for too long. The keyboard is tiny but still comfortable. Now mine is German, I might have to paint it with the right letters. And it is true, the computer does weigh less than 1kg, which makes my luggage very happy!

I think this mini machine is a really respectable computer. I have been working in and around Linux for a number of years but this is the first platform that I have felt immediately comfortable to use.

In Germany they only come in white but in other places you can find them in pink, blue, black, white....
I think this machine is changing the kind of computer user I am. I am just curious now about how I got so nerdy!