The $200 laptop

[Rob Oplawar]

So I'm thinking about getting a laptop at some point this fall, just so I can word process, check my e-mail, and surf the web without bringing all 100 pounds of computer I have in my apartment.

But I don't need anything fancy, all I need is an internet browsing typewriter, basically.

So here's this "Asus Eee PC"- the epitome of barebones computing. For $200 (American) you get a 7 inch LCD (resolution not specified), Linux based OS, a full suite of office software (Firefox, word processor, paint knockoff, solitaire, etc), a full qwerty keyboard, 3 hour battery life, 4 GB of flash memory, 1 GB DDR2 ram, an Intel Celeron processor (lol), built in wireless, an ethernet jack, audio ports, 3 USB 2.0 ports, a webcam, and speakers.

The OS is as lightweight as they get (which I love, compared to fucking 15GB Vista) and as such it just screams- less than 10 seconds boot time, and no waiting when opening applications.

Here's a review:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3829

What do you guys think? It's cheap and tiny, but then, that's what I'm looking for, right? The consumer in me is insisting that I need to get a Vista capable $800 laptop with a glossy screen, but I really don't know if I need all that.

[Archon23]

Well if its e-mail checking, web surfing, and info processing this is a great laptop. I think I might consider picking up one myself.

[Con]

Looks kinda dinky...

[kenney001]

yeah....no...Have fun surfing the web when you cant even read the text.....
Spend the extra and get a nicer one. I have seen WAY better for around $100 on craigslist and ebay...If you want something like that just go with a blackberry or something similar.

(this makes me love my 15.4 inch Gateway with an Intel 1.86ghz dual-core processor, 120gb SATA HDD, 1 gig RAM, and a DVD+RW that i bought for $100 because my uncle thought he broke it (just needed new HD)

[KIWIDOGGIE]

Yea i might pick one up for pspdevlopment (linux) and some extras *cough* 360 linux*cough*

[Snaver]

Whats the point in that windows key? Kinda fail, needs moar tux buttonz.

[SnaFuBAR]

pretty neat. i'd like a higher capacity drive, though... then again, grab a WD external slim 80 gig and you're good to go.

might have to pick one up for myself.

[Mr Buckshot]

There was a sale at Futureshop (Canada's equivalent of Fry's, owned by Best Buy) where for $99 Canadian you could pick up a 14.1" Presario with an AMD Sempron 64 3000+, 512 MB RAM, and a 40 GB 5400rpm hard drive plus a Radeon Xpress 200M integrated with 32 MB dedicated (more memory available via Hypermemory). Not bad for $100, it could actually do some light casual gaming and play Halo with 30 fps on full.

Ignore this $200 Linux laptop and wait for a sale at the store, or just pick up a refurbished laptop.

[Bad Waffle]

hey, i might get one of those. i type quicker than i write, and that 10 sec bootup means that i can start typing at about the same speed that it takes to pull out a notebook and pen.

[jahrain]

Looks like a great device for students, and costs the equivalent of 2 of my textbooks. If I hadn't have already bought a laptop, I would definitely get one of those. I wonder if it is able to run ubuntu.

[klange]

Looks like a great device for students, and costs the equivalent of 2 of my textbooks. If I hadn't have already bought a laptop, I would definitely get one of those. I wonder if it is able to run ubuntu.
It'll run Vista if you really want it to, so I'm sure Ubuntu would be no problem ;)
But regardless, there's no need, you can get all the same stuff that you can for Ubuntu, and its Distro is custom-tailored to meet the device's capabilities.
It comes with OpenOffice and Firefox and has an XP Luna (silver)-based theme. I'm not sure what window manager it runs, though...
EDIT:
Xandros, and you have direct terminal access. Installing Aptitude and a packet installer should be a cake walk.
I really want to get one of these for assorted awesomeness, specifically my web work. It would be great to be able to write up my web pages on this with Wine and Notepad++ (as I always do on Linux - gEdit just doesn't cut it...)