Smaller model laptops in combination with Kubuntu - request for advise?

[Billie Walsh]

Bas Roufs wrote:
>  Dear everybody
>
>  A few weeks ago, a laptop from me has been stolen again. That's why I am
>  looking for a lighter/ smaller laptop model that is more easy to always
>  carry with me, but which can be combined with Kubuntu.
>
>  At present, I am considering "ASUS Eeee PC", version 901 or version
>  1000. Both new versions  seem to become available in September. 
>  Main technical specifications: 1,6 Ghz processor (both models), 1 GB RAM
>  (version 901) or 2 GB RAM
>  (version 1000),  20 GB 'solid state disk' (version 901) or 40 GB 
(version 1000).
>  More technical details:
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC
>
>  Both models are being sold along with the Linux distribution 'Xandros'
>  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xandros)
>
>  Does anybody have any experience at all with some version of 'ASUS Eeee
>  PC'? If you, did you already install Kubuntu on it? If so, how?
>
>  Are there any other smaller model laptops you could advise me in
>  combination with Kubuntu?

I have an EeePC 4G that just rocks. I changed out the kiddy desktop 
system for an xfce desktop. I like that much better. I can swap back and 
forth with just a couple clicks if I want to. Popped in an 8gig SD card 
for a second "hard drive" and a couple USB dongles and it's ready to go. 
Weighs two pounds and has about four hours of battery life. A standard 
DVD player case makes a dandy case for it [ Radio shack had a really 
nice one on sale for $19.00 ]. I also added a small USB mouse for 
convenience. The Asus software repository for it is quite limited. I put 
in a Debian repo to install a couple things and they worked out with no 
problem.

It does have a few silly idiosyncrasies though. The people at Asus put 
the system files [ root??? ] on one partition and everything else on a 
second one. I've been trying to mod it to accept 2gig ram without much 
success. At first glance it seems quite simple but ..........  Load a 
2gig enabled kernel into /boot/ and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to boot 
with the new kernel. I can't get the system to accept the changes to 
menu.lst for some stupid reason. Also doesn't have a swap partition 
either. It seems the word on the street is NOT to use the Asus repos for 
updates. It seems to screw things up for some reason.

My other half got a 900 with XP [ just can not  get her over to Linux 
yet ]. It accepted 2gig ram with no issue. The "hard drive" is 
partitioned into to drives for some silly reason. XP and all associated 
files on the first and nothing on the second. Don't understand why they 
did that but.................. The only thing she doesn't like about it 
is the location of the speakers. On the 4G they are on either side of 
the screen. On the 900, because of the larger scree, the speakers are on 
the bottom of the computer. Sound quality suffers because of it. Her 
battery life is a little less to.

There are, so far as I have heard, two Ubuntu versions specifically for 
the Eee, Eeebuntu and Xeeebuntu [ I think is the name ]. I haven't heard 
anything about a Keeebuntu yet. I have Eeebuntu downloaded but haven't 
done anything with it yet. I wanted to install it on a USB dongle and 
use it like a live CD before I tried installing it.

I have a new Gateway full size laptop [ excellent Kubuntu machine, by 
the way ] but it's heavy and hard to carry around for most just day to 
day stuff. The Asus EeePC is better than a PDA/PDA phone. Has more 
features without that much gain in weight. I love it.

With Asus' success with the Eee I'm sure EVERYONE will be jumping on the 
bandwagon soon.

-- 
Life is what happens while your busy making other plans.