My 12in PowerBook was already pretty light compared to my old 15in Pismo PowerBook, which was much lighter than my desktop, etc. That's just one nice thing about the EeePC. Lately I've been having these little panic moments where I think I've forgotten my laptop, followed by satisfaction moments when I realize that I DO in fact have my computer with me.

Some more nice things:

The EeePC is pretty rugged. It uses a smalled LCD and the display lid is thicker than any other laptop I've seen. Even on my PowerBook, you can see little ripples in the LCD when you touch the back of the display (the side with the aluminum), but not with the EeePC. The display hinges are also really sturdy. The EeePC uses flash memory instead of a hard drive, so I don't have to worry about bumping it or setting down hard. The battery is a little loose, but the mechanism for locking it in is pretty solid so I'm not worried about that.

The EeePC is small enough that you can use it to read while standing. I've done this a couple times while waiting for the train, and I could see myself doing the same while standing if I couldn't get a seat. It wouldn't work for strap-dangling, but the Gold Line trains have places between cars where you can lean against the wall.

When I was a kid I used to read books while walking to and from school. EeePC works for that too. :)

One of the first things I did with my EeeP (right after opening up the warranty-voiding memory slot cover :) was to install Ubuntu Linux on it. I have to report that this is working out awesomely. And surprisingly for a long-time Mac fan, I have to say that I like the look of the GNOME desktop even more than OS X. It looks great on the EeePC's screen.

My eeePC came with 512MB of RAM. It used to freeze up while accessing the internal flash drive when opening apps like the Synaptic Package Manager - I think it was reading/writing to swap. I ordered a 2GB RAM card which was finally delivered last night, and the EeePC seems more stable, though time will tell. Now when I load Synaptic the drive access light blinks a couple times but that's all. We'll have to see how it acts after a couple hours of use.

There are a few things I'd change if I change if I could: The biggest thing is the power adapter - I'm afraid I'm gonna lose it someday so it'd be better if it was something more standard. I also wish the battery lasts longer. At least the adapter is small and the cable is pretty long. The most awesome hack would be if the USB ports could accept power as well as send, so you could charge it from your desktop.

Another thing that I don't like is that I have to unmount the SD card whenever I suspend. I suspect this is something that can be resolved - there's probably a way to make the OS unmount the SD card automatically on suspend, but I haven't found that yet. I've gotten around it by changing the power settings. Most of the time, when I close the lid I just want to move around a bit. I've changed it so that when I close the lid while on battery power it just dims the screen instead of suspending.

The EeePC runs pretty hot, which stands to reason since it has a 900MHz processor and is running the same software as my computer at work. After it's been on for awhile you feel the heat pouring out of the vents. You want to be really careful not to block the air vents so you don't fry the electronics inside. But this is just something I just keep in mind and it hasn't been a problem - so far.

Overall though, the EeePC is an amazing little device. A couple days ago somebody told me that it looked like something they'd expect a spy to use. Getting a laptop really changed how I thought about computing, and this changes it even more.

The next day there was an article in the Fresno Bee about the OLPC, talking about some Peruvian kids who were checking it out. The article was mostly pretty good except for a couple FUD-bombs that obviously dropped in there by somebody with an interest in Microsoft. I don't want to say any more about the haters and FUD-shovellers.

The OLPC is a neat device that will be enjoyed by a lot of kids. It's definitely not perfect - we saw a couple bugs while we looked at it. It's not for everybody either - even though my EeePC-trained fingers could probably adapt to the keyboard I wouldn't be able to do much of my work on it. And free laptops are definitely not a solution to world hunger problems.

But it's got a lot of things going for it too. The mesh networking idea is awesome - I wish we could have more of that on systems here. And it's got some programming tools built right in too. Hopefully some lucky kids will take to the OLPC the way I did to my ol' TRS-80. Actually, the OLPC, even with its flaws, is a MUCH more capable machine than my old Model I. Anyway, some might start down the road to learning how to make technology work for them, and use it to effect some change in their own and others' lives. And that would be a Good Thing™.

A couple days ago, it came out on the EeeUser site that Asus had announced that opening the RAM access door would not void the warranty. I wanted to do exactly that, of course, and also find out if my EeePC had one of those secret Mini-PCIe connectors, which would have let me add more RAM drive space. After printing a copy of Asus' announcement for my records, I broke that seal.

I'm bummed that my EeePC, a 7C unit, doesn't have the Mini-PCIe. Oh well. Still a great computer, and I can still add the 2GB RAM and expand it with SD cards. Anyway it's not actually a total replacement for a full-size computer.

On to Ubuntu. There are about 5 different posts describing how to install it, but most of them require a USB CDROM drive, a PC with no hard drive(?), or some such, so I opted for the instructions that involve creating an installer on a thumbdrive. Unfortunately, the PowerPC Ubuntu on my Mac doesn't have syslinux, so I'm here at the office on my work computer. I'm using these helpful instructions, collected by Mr. C.K. Sample III. Ubuntu on the Asus Eee PC: Part 1 (or How to run a functional Ubuntu install off a USB drive), which refers to PendriveLinux.com's USB Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon install, and Ubuntu on the Asus Eee PC: Part 2 (or How to Install Ubuntu on the Eee’s Internal Drive). UPDATE (2008-1-9): I just noticed most of this info is now on the Ubuntu site as How to install Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy" on the EeePC. Looks like most of it is just copied from the former pages.

I'm currently (7:15pm) downloading the Ubuntu 7.10 ISO on my work's darn-slow connection (43:56min left...)

UPDATE 20:17: ISO downloaded, burned, and successfully installed on the thumbdrive. Now working through the first page, getting the WiFi to work right.

UPDATE 20:28: Rebooted, and the wireless is working! I see Little Tokyo Unplugged! Now to install on the EeePC's internal drive...

UPDATE 21:04: Finished the install finally, and rebooting... the moment of truth... looks good so far... Ubuntu logo, progress bar... login screen! Now I'm running Updater, says it'll take another 25min to download on our slow connection...

UPDATE 22:18: Finally finished installing all the updates! That took forever! Rebooted and logging in again to get the wireless working. These instructions are excellent, but they take a long time...

UPDATE 22:39: Alright, got the wireless software installed again (i think() and rebooting... If the wireless works then we're done! And... looks like it works! Thank you, Mr. C.K. Sample III and all the people who put together the docs you aggregated! Ubuntu looks incredible on the EeePC - can't understand why Asus would want to use the interface that they did.

PC Club guy: Welcome to PC Club
me (GJ): Thanks! I'm here to pick up my EeePC
PCCg: Sorry sir, we just sold the last one.
GJ: That was to me - bought it online today.
PCCg: Ah yes, here we are... You do know that it runs Linux... right?
GJ: Yes of course, that's why I wanted to buy it.
PCCg: ...and we can install Windows on it so you can get some work done...
GJ: Heck no! I'm not putting Windows on this beautiful machine!
PCCg: [smouldering, brooding silence]

Anyway, when I brought it home and took it out of the box, the first thing she said was, "It's MINE!". :) Guess we can always get another one.. hm... Not everybody needs to have Windows. :)