EeeP!

[steuard]

I appear to unexpectedly be the owner of an Eee PC. I know very little about these things, but it seems to be a fairly high end recent model (EEEPC 1005HA), with an Atom 280 processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, multi-touch capability, and a bunch of other features. It apparently runs Windows XP, though I assume I could install Linux on it if I tried (though I'd need to figure out how to do that without an optical drive).

So, who out there has used these before? What sorts of things should I expect to work well, and what should I watch out for? Given that I'm reasonably comfortable with both Windows and Linux (despite being mostly a Mac person these days), is there any especially good reason to get rid of Windows? Either way, should I expect much trouble getting Firefox up and running?

It's very cute, regardless.

Comments

[minorninth.livejournal.com]

You can run Chrome OS on it, too.

[steuard.livejournal.com]

Eeenteresting. Though unlike MacOS, Windows, and Linux, I know absolutely nothing about Chrome OS. (Really, pretty much zilch except the name and the vague impression that it maybe relies on cloud computing somehow.) What are its pros and cons? What's my inducement to learn a new OS?

[pmb.livejournal.com]

It apparently boots very very quickly.

[feuervogel]

Interesting... it took me ages to get Ubuntu-netbook remix working right on my EeePC. I wonder if getting Chrome to work would be nicer. I've pondered getting a 4-GB USB drive to use as the boot disk, because the netbook has a 4GB solid state drive, and there isn't enough *&%#^**@&% free space to download the kernel update. :P

Where can I learn more about ChromeOS?

[minorninth.livejournal.com]

I just started working on Chrome OS a couple of months ago! (I'm working on making it accessible.) The first computers with Chrome OS will be released later this year. Until then, it is available for download, but it's not quite polished, intended mostly for developers at this point. Luckily Eee PC is one of our main development platforms, so it will most likely boot as-is with no modification needed.

If you want to try it, the easiest would be to find a disk image of Chromium OS that's ready to go ("Chromium" is the open-source version of "Chrome"), stick it on a USB flash drive, then boot your Eee PC with it.

So, why Chrome OS?

It's not a whole new operating system. It's just a web browser. The ENTIRE operating system is just a web browser. There's no file manager, virus scanner, no way to install software, etc.

Your netbook is too underpowered to run Photoshop or Matlab anyway, so why bother with a complete operating system where you'll be wasting so much time installing security patches and dealing with install wizards? Chrome OS boots in about 5 seconds, shuts down in about 1 second, and it auto-updates transparently in the background.

Here's the video that tries to sell Chrome OS to people who don't know as much about computers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QRO3gKj3qw

I think it's perfect as a second or third computer. You can carry it anywhere, and get on the Internet wherever you are.