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Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

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Re: Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

#31

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

Sunspark wrote: post #15

The Eee PC 701 was amazing. It was really good for students who needed something small and light that they could take to the library, etc. The alternative back then was a heavy power-hungry full-size laptop. This is before all the stuff we take for granted today like tablets, etc. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 was the next really good netbook. After those, Apple introduced the Macbook Air which came in a 11.6" size. Even…

> Chromebooks have now taken over the small and light segment replacing tablets as well

Maybe, maybe not. ICYMI, Google "pre-announced" an Android tablet for 2023 [1].

[1] https://twitter.com/madebygoogle/status/1524462561143537664

Re: Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

#32

Post by JoshTriplett »

The eee PC was also the original netbook used for the "booting Linux in five seconds" presentation at the first Linux Plumbers Conference: https://lwn.net/Articles/299483/

That presentation inspired a whole wave of boot optimizations across the industry, that recalibrated the expectations for what "boot fast" meant. If you look at some systems at the time, "boots in 30 seconds" was a selling point.

Today, you can reasonably expect a system to be done booting in a second, with the slowest portion of booting any secure system being the user typing a passphrase.

Re: Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

#33

Post by RosanaAnaDana »

alisonatwork wrote: post #17
emptysongglass wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some ways that era of netbooks felt like the glory days of creative computing devices and OSes. Intel created this really lovely UI on top of Linux called Moblin. My mom ran Jolicloud, which was built around webapps. A bunch of netbooks were coming out with their own Linux flavors to the mass market and webOS was right around the corner. I'm going to say this with a straight face: if only more people would have ha…

I think the most accessible small form factor Linux box right now is the Steam Deck. You're paying a bit more for game controller hardware if you just want to use it as a workstation, but it is just Linux under the hood and looks to be a pretty neat cyberdeck-like device.

thats precisely how I plan on using mine.

Re: Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

#34

Post by RosanaAnaDana »

p1necone wrote: post #23

I used one of these for uni for a while. The small screen is really not a barrier for just taking notes in class and the portability is so much better than a regular sized laptop (and the size makes it practically indestructible too). It also makes for a surprisingly adequate dev environment if you get used to switching between virtual desktops for extra screen space. Using an iPad instead of one of these would have…

the sizw was pwrfect for tiny uni desks.

Re: Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

#37

Post by [deleted] »

Sunspark wrote: post #15

The Eee PC 701 was amazing. It was really good for students who needed something small and light that they could take to the library, etc. The alternative back then was a heavy power-hungry full-size laptop. This is before all the stuff we take for granted today like tablets, etc. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 was the next really good netbook. After those, Apple introduced the Macbook Air which came in a 11.6" size. Even…

[deleted]

Re: Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

#39

Post by boboche »

Still got mine (900) running a low power linux and swapped the dead slow ssd to a 64gb somewat still slow drive. Not much use other than carrying on trips so if it gets stolen I wont care… its a shame to see so much good computers are thrown out while still perfectly working.

Re: Asus put out like 40 models of a laptop called the “Eee PC” (2021)

#40

Post by MichaelCollins »

orangepurple wrote: post #25

My takeaway from the article: Microsoft gave ASUS a deal they couldn't refuse. ASUS took the bait and sold the Eee PC with Windows preinstalled but the version of Windows was a little too crappy. Ultimately this sealed their fate as people upgraded to a "real computer," resigning the Eee PC's position to that of a toy. Is this right?

The one I bought came with Linux, but some weird distro I never heard of and I doubt anybody would really want to use. So I install a mainstream distro on it, no big deal, but then the limitations of the very small screen size become apparent when KDE/GNOME fail to fit basic things like settings GUIs onto the screen.

With a tiling window manager it became perfect for me. But I think most general computer users would be utterly alienated with that Linux experience. For the windows experience to also be shitty doubtlessly hurt the product line as well, but I don't think that shitty windows experience was displacing a polished linux experience. I think ASUS was basically between a rock and a hard place.

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