Review of used ASUS eee 701 and IBM T42 running Xandros and the Google Operating System

Asus EEE 701

The primary way I am using the Asus EEE 701 (purchased used for$20.00) net book is with an external monitor, mouse and keyboard. It works well this way, otherwise it is too small for long durations of work. But that said, the machine is more than adequate for day to day email and writing assignments, html coding, listening to music, the occasional Youtube video and photo editing (via GIMP).

Id actually recommend this machine with Xandros as an office device (no software licensing costs), the one weakness with Xandros is that if you are mapping network drives, should that mapped drive disappear prior to removing it locally, you will need to reboot this Asus. (it freezes, so I don't do that anymore. I transfer files with a thumbdrive).

I still continue to use a Windows XP box for one thing: I test all of my new website content on three browsers: IE 8.0, Firefox 3.0 and the latest Safari before I certify for production. I do that on WindowsXP. I found a text formatting weakness in Joomla while testing with I.E. this way. I use the MAC for Final Cut Pro Video Production and Cubase for audio editing. I have not found any robust enough multi-media production open source solutions yet on the Linux free distros.

Video plays slow on ASUS 701 EEE as the processor in this model is one of its first, but audio works well.

IBM T42

My digital still cameras all work well with this machine. I have recorded Podcasts using Skype and speaker phone on that little $20 dollar Asus wonder. You can listen to one (if you like) on using Twitter for business here: http://ning.it/cikRzx

I also work on an IBM T42 (right) with GOS (Google Operating System).  (I paid my former employer $50 bucks for the T42). Software costs = $0 (zero). The desktop is loaded with icons hooked into all of Google cloud apps as well as Open Office. It seems as if there are endless widgets for stock tickers and weather if you want to clutter up the desktop that way.  The T42 has a standard size laptop screen,a 40 gig hard drive, a new 6600 battery gives me 3.5 hours on the T42and I get around 2 hours on the Asus EEE.  I have taken both to restaurants and found wireless signals to surf the web and check email while out and about. Linux wireless drivers and radio on the old T42 out perform new Dell laptops running XP in side by side comparisons.

Amazing little devices that Linux breathes new life into. Also someone compiled a flavor of PuppyLinux that supports all the drivers on this little ASUS EEE. Puppy Linux is stinking fast on this machine.I keep a version of puppy on a little USB stick which I can boot on if needed to access a full hard drive. Its easy to fill up the 4 gig drive accidentally when experimenting with unsupported methodology.

This document was created with Open Office (free)and the photos are all from my Panasonic pocket camera imported using Picasa on the Google Operating System (IBM T42) and edited with GIMP.If you were so inclined Open Office is fully compatible with WSS 3.0 Share Point (incredibly free from Microsoft!)

above:128mb RAM 486 proc. RunsDSL)