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THE ASUS Eee 701 PC
AND OTHER
SMALL, CHEAP COMPUTERS

Brian Grainger

brianATgrainger1.freeserve.co.uk

The year 2008 is one of those special years for computing and ICPUG. It is 30 years since the introduction of the Commodore PET, which kick started personal computing, and the formation of IPUG, (as ICPUG was then). It is also the 10th year of ICPUG on the web - doesn't time fly!

In 1978 the world of computing was revolutionised by the Commodore PET, along with the Apple and Tandy TRS80 machines. You could now buy a computer for the home. Since that time there have been a number of incremental changes until we reach today, where the PC is ubiquitous. Operating first through MSDOS, then Windows and more recently Linux and the Mac OS the PC has changed in operational interface significantly but essentially it is the same device underneath. It started by being a big box on the desk and was later joined by a portable version, the laptop, that could be used in a number of locations.

I believe that in 2008 we have reached the next big jump - both in hardware and how we use it. This change started a year or so ago but it will come to fruition this year and be very obvious to the general public.

I recently purchased an Asus Eee PC and I don't think I have been so enthused since that time 30 years ago when I took delivery of my Commodore PET. Perhaps I am going a little over the top - the Amiga was pretty ground breaking too!

The history of the PC has followed 2 general trends. Equipment getting more and more powerful for the same cost. Equipment getting smaller. The rule used to be that the smaller the PC the more you paid relatively, but that has changed recently with laptops coming down in price significantly.

The cost of PCs, although considered cheap by our standards, was still a drawback when trying to introduce the PC into the less developed countries. Some argue that PCs are the last thing such countries should be spending their limited resources on but I will side step that argument and just relate the facts.

Not so long ago it was decided to start the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project with the aim of producing a PC for $100 that could be sold for use by children in the less developed world. This project has gone through some trauma but the OLPC eventually appeared. It costs more than $100 and looked a bit different to what we are used to for a computer. Nevertheless, it provided the impetus to produce a small form factor PC at low cost. The low cost also provided some impetus to the usage of Linux as a PC operating system, because of its cost and more meagre hardware requirements relative to Windows. The OLPC appeared with a version of Linux from Red Hat that appeared to the user as the 'Sugar' interface.

Intel was involved in the early part of the OLPC project. However, there were disagreements along the way and subsequently Intel abandoned the project and decided to produce their own machine, the Classmate. This too has also come to fruition but is not available in the UK just yet.

That was the state of play until 2007. Then, out of nowhere, the Taiwanese company, ASUSTek, announced a new computer, the Eee PC. This was a small form factor PC with a 7 inch LCD display. What blew everybody away was the cost - £220 suggested price in the UK. This machine was clearly modelled on the OLPC and Intel Classmate but was to be available to anybody - not just children and not just to the third world. It was an instant success and I for one could not wait to get my hands on one. Unfortunately, it was so successful and supplies were limited, so as soon as they appeared in the outlets they sold out! It is only this year that they have become more easily available in the UK through PC World and Toys R Us, (my favourite PC vendor!).

With the sudden appearance of these machines it has become a little difficult to know what to call them! Desktops and laptops were named after where you placed them to use. These things are small enough to be used in the hand but palmtops was taken some time ago by a device that was also used in the hand but with much less functionality than the normal PC. Trading on the ability to use these devices on the move the Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) has also been mentioned. However, a specification for a UMPC has been defined and these new machines do not follow it. For example, a UMPC must have a touch screen.

The web based computer news site, 'The Register', initially decided on laptots but it has already been pointed out by readers that this could have altogether different connotations. They seem to have settled on SCC, (small, cheap computer), now. Netbook has been coined by Intel because they are about the size of a hardback book and they regard the primary use as accessing the net. I shall call them SCCs in this article. It remains to be seen what we will eventually call them.

When I first saw the advert for the Eee PC model in Toys R Us it coincided with the last bank holiday and here in Stevenage it was very soggy. No better opportunity to cheer myself up by buying a new computer to play with - something I have not done for a long time. I had already seen one at the local Linux User Group and could not wait to get my own. Toys R Us had two models, the 701 and the very latest 900.

The 701 comes with 7" screen, 4GB solid state disk, 512MB RAM and Xandros Linux. The 900 comes with nearly 9" screen, 12GB solid state disk, 1GB RAM and Windows XP. It also cost 50% more. If I wanted Windows XP I would buy a laptop for that price. The 701 was what I wanted.

When you buy an ASUS Eee PC you get a box which you can pop in your carrier bag. It tells you immediately the derivation of the name. According to the box the ASUS is:

• Easy to Learn
• Easy to Work
• Easy to Play

Open the box and you find:

1. the computer
2. the battery
3. a pouch for the computer
4. a mains plug and cable
5. support CD and recovery DVD
6. Quick Guide and Reference manual

You look at these items and you begin to realise how great is the design of this system. The plug for operating from the mains and/or charging the battery is simply a small charger with a US plug fitted which slots into a shell with the UK 3-square pin plug. There is no bulky brick to carry around. For ASUS they only have to manufacture a single charger for any country and then simply to supply a suitable shell for the electricity outlet of each specific country. Brilliant and cost effective. Another nice touch is that the power cable has a velcro device on it so that you can extract as much cable as you want and then tie up the rest to make it neat. A simple idea but very effective.

One thing I have felt necessary to purchase in addition to the provided items is a carry bag. The pouch is OK for the computer but if you are going somewhere you want to take the charger / power cable and maybe the reference manual as well. These machines are so new bags haven't been made yet. I got myself a Portable DVD carry bag. The size was just right and I got a free pair of headphones as well! There is plenty of room and should I wish to buy some peripherals later, such as a DVD drive, they could be carried as well.

The first job is to slot the battery into the computer and charge it up. In the UK they supplied a 4400 mAh battery, rather than the 5200 mAh elsewhere. The theory goes that the 5200 mAh battery was in limited supply at the time and, as usual, the UK gets short changed. It does mean that the UK version will not last for the quoted 3 hours time on the battery - more like 2 hours. ASUS now offer a battery upgrade for £10 so I presume the supply problem has since been sorted.

With the battery in place the sleek lines of the PC are noticeable. Time to let it charge. Full charge was obtained after about 90 minutes with the computer turned off.

While it is charging you can take a look at the design.

It has a clamshell design and opened up you see the top half has the screen with speakers either side of it. Above the screen is a 0.3M Pixel web cam.

The lower half contains everything else. The surface has a standard laptop keyboard with touchpad and buttons at the front. The power switch is just above the keyboard at top right. Status lights are at the bottom right. This all looks familiar to laptop users. The familiarity continues when you look at the sides.

The sides contain the various I/O ports. There are 3 USB 2.0 ports for attaching peripherals. There are microphone and headphone jacks and a 15pin Dsub connector for attaching a standard monitor. A standard Ethernet port exits for attaching to a wired network. There is a memory card slot which can take MMC/SD cards. Apart from enabling transfer of pictures from your camera this can also be used for additional data storage memory. Finally, there is a Kensington lock port should you wish to secure your Eee to a desktop.

I have left till last the final device because it is so stupid! The onboard microphone is located on the underside of the Eee underneath the touchpad! I cannot think of a worse place to put it and I suspect ASUS soon realised this because in more recent Eee PC models it has been moved to be beside the webcam.

Apart from the onboard microphone everything is pretty much as you would expect and mimics my own laptop, which cost considerably more and is considerably heavier. I forgot to mention that the Eee PC weighs just less than a standard bag of sugar (1 kg).

After things have charged up it's time to turn on for the first time. You are asked to accept the licence agreement and select a keyboard type. Then a User Name and Password is requested. You have the option to automatically remember passwords, just like that other insecure operating system. Finally you are asked to set the date, time and timezone. After this information is given the machine boots up.

Mindful of how long Windows takes to boot I thought I would time how long the Eee PC takes to start up on a subsequent boot - 24 seconds. That is from turning on and being ready to go. I can guarantee that it will not get slower as time goes on, unlike that other OS I keep mentioning. I should perhaps point out that shutdown is nearly instantaneous if there is nothing to write to disk!

After you turn on you get quite a (pleasant) shock. It doesn't look like Windows and it doesn't look like Linux. There is a taskbar across the bottom of the screen, with a system tray of running apps to the right of it but that is where the similarity with Windows ends. There is no Start button to search for programs. What you get is a tabbed interface with each tab devoted to a specific niche activity. This idea is another great design choice. On a 7" screen Windows is going to look a bit hard to see. A similar problem exists for native Linux, (I thought), but there is also the resistance that Windows users seem to have to something that doesn't look like Windows. This interface has big icons, easy to read and pretty obvious as to what each does. I defy anybody to get lost in confusion despite the fact it is not Windows. Let's look at each tab in turn to show the capability of the Eee PC.

This is the default tab on display, which is very sensible considering this is the one task that everybody uses a PC for these days.

The first thing one does with a new PC is to configure the network connection. Two of the icons, Network and Wireless Network, are for this task. Anybody who has used Linux will know this can be a tricky experience. ASUS has brought Windows wizard simplicity to setting up either network and it is well explained what you have to do in the User Guide.

Once you have configured your network, wireless or otherwise, you can access the web. Tapping the web icon brings up the (Firefox) browser for surfing the net. Tapping the Webmail icon gives you options for accessing Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL. Tapping Messenger will give access to an instant chat messenger service. After configuring your particular service or services away you go.

The other icons on the Internet tab give access to specific well used Internet based applications: Skype for phone calls via the internet; Internet Radio for listening to radio stations broadcast on the internet. Wikipedia, iGoogle, Google Docs and World Clock make up the rest of standard facilities. These are basically shortcuts to the appropriate internet address for the service.

The Work tab provides access to all those office applications needed to make your PC help you do your job.

Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations take you to the Word Processor, Spreadsheet and Presentations application of Open Office. This is equivalent to Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the Microsoft Office suite. The only difference is you don't have to buy it!

PDF Reader takes you to Adobe Reader in order to read PDF files. Not my first choice of PDF reader but well known to Windows users.

Mail takes you to the Thunderbird e-mail client for those of you who use SMTP mail. This is the equivalent of Outlook Express.

Notes is a popup sticky notes application.

Dictionary is worth mentioning. It provides access to the Pearson Longman dictionary to look up definitions, synonyms and antonyms.

File Manager starts up, you've guessed it, a file manager! When you look at the File Manager you begin to realise that although this machine is running Linux it goes out of its way to make it look like Windows! This is the Explorer application for the Eee PC and it looks like it. 'My Computer' is replace by 'My Eee PC'. 'My Documents', Trash (=Recycle Bin), Printers, and Windows Network (= Network Neighborhood) are all taken from Explorer. The menu bar is similar too.

As a Linux user I found it really interesting when I plugged in a USB stick Up popped a D drive in File Manager. This is using Windows drive designators, rather than the Linux type of designator such as hdb. The fact that it popped up automatically is pretty revolutionary too. Linux users are used to having to mount disk drives before they can be accessed - a source of much confusion to those coming to Linux from a Windows background. No such confusion here.

The ease of use of the File Manager to Windows users extends to the open/save dialog boxes in applications. Windows users will not have the normal struggle in understanding the Linux file system. Plugging in a USB stick is just like Windows as well. It automatically mounts and places an icon in the system tray. When you want to unplug it you use the tray icon to safely remove the stick. Windows users have never had it so easy with Linux!

Finally the Accesssories icon leads to a calculator, PIM (desktop diary) and screen capture facility.

The Learn tab gives access to a varied collection of educational software that has been developed for Linux.

Science is covered by a periodic table of the elements and a planetarium application, (Kstars), for budding astronomers.

Language is covered by Typing, Letter and Hangman games.

Math is a bit esoteric but the Geometry and Function Plotter application which allow you to draw geometric shapes and functions respectively look interesting. TuxMath is the teaching of basic maths wrapped up in a game.

Paint gives access to an image editor and a drawing program.

Web Learn goes to a web site for learning (www.skoool.com). I have never heard of this web site before but I guess I wouldn't trust it to teach spelling!

Play has a double meaning to Asus. It means play games and play media.

The Games icon leads, not surprisingly, to a collection of 7 games. The choice of games is not going to suit everybody but it certainly suits me! Solitaire and a Tetris game is provided to keep basic Windows users happy.

Sudoku is provided to satisfy those caught up in this fairly recent phenomenon.

Then they thought about me specially and provided Frozen Bubble. I find this a very relaxing timewaster!

The rest of the icons on the Play tab relate to mutimedia. Media Player is the equivalent to Windows Media Player. It is based on the MPlayer application, which is a very good media player. Unlike some Linux distros, the Eee PC will play proprietary formats out of the box. You will have no trouble playing MPEG1-4,MP3, OGG, WAV, WMV, DIVX, FLV (YouTube). It doesn't play SWF though.

Music Manager allows you to create musical playlists and play them. By connecting an iPod to the Eee PC you can create playlists from the iPod playlists.

Photo Manager is an image viewer. You can make limited editing to images as well as comment them via the exif system. This application is like a cut down IrfanView. It is not as powerful. For example, you can view folders of images as a slideshow but you cannot create a separate slideshow file like IrfanView.

The Video Manager is nothing special. It is simply a File Manager view onto the 'My Videos' folder.

The 2 final icons in the Play tab are Webcam, which allows you to create video and images from the webcam, and Sound Recorder, with which you can create sound clips. With the latter you can check that the Eee can actually hear things through the very poorly positioned microphone. It can but you do need maximum volume!

This tab is a collection of tools for configuring the Eee PC and its peripherals together with System Admin tools. It is like a combination of Control Panel and the System Admin tools of Windows.

I am not going to explain all of them. I'll just draw your attention to 2 of them.

Add/Remove Software is used to add software to the machine or implement BIOS updates. When you add software it goes into the user space of the on-board solid state disk. If the software is updating an older version of an application the older version does not get deleted. As the user space is limited, about 1.3GB is left on the Eee 701, you have to add software carefully. My personal feeling is that user space should be used solely for this. Data should be stored on external flash drives or SD cards. Since you can get a 4GB Flash drive fairly cheaply now this is no great hardship.

Voice Command is an interesting tool. When enabled it allows you to load a limited set of applications by simply talking to the computer. For example, you say out loud "computer-web" and the browser will load. You don't need to teach the Eee PC the sound of your voice but you have to speak clearly. It also helps to speak level with the microphone in the Eee PC. The obvious drawback with this tool is that not all applications are activated. For example, saying "computer-documents" will not bring up the word processor. I think it may be possible to teach the computer new applications to get round this problem.

The final tab is Favorites. This is not what you would expect from the equivalent in Windows, namely to collect any web address or file location for quick access. It is used rather to collect access to the applications on the Eee PC. You can create copies of the icons that you find on any other tab into the Favorites tab. This means that the applications you use most often can be accessed from one place - the Favorites tab.

I mentioned at the start that the screen display has a system tray at the bottom right . This includes the volume control applet, access to the Task Manager and a shut down button. Not that I use the latter. On the Eee PC you can press the power off button and, unlike my Windows PCs, it does not instantly turn the PC leaving the disk drives in an undefined state. It performs the same graceful shutdown process that clicking the tray shutdown button does. Very useful.

This section of the review is for the techies. I have already mentioned that the Linux used on the Eee PC is Xandros. Now this was one Linux company that signed an agreement with Microsoft. Novell has done the same with SUSE Linux and earned a lot of opprobrium from the Free Software community. If you disagree with this then you may not wish to purchase a Eee PC. However, an alternative is to forego the onboard Linux and run a Linux from a USB stick. I have already tested doing this with Fedora 9 and it works really well. The advantage of the agreement with Microsoft is clearly in the way that the Eee PC can be made to look like Windows without any fear of litigation and also that proprietary media formats can be run - again without fear of litigation. Some Linux distros do not ship with proprietary formats. It is up to the user to get them. Technically, it is not quite legal but so far a blind eye has been shown. The bigger problem is the irritation of having to obtain and install the proprietary stuff. There is no such problem with the Eee PC.

While the User Interface I have described above is certainly easy to use it is possible to run a standard Linux interface. The Windows Manager used by the Eee PC is IceWM and the Eee PC can be configured to show this interface.

When the Eee PC was first announced and the net chatterers started blogging one of the first questions raised was, 'Can I stick Windows on it?' Well the answer is yes and this possibility is run through in the User Guide. However, I question the sanity of doing so. This is not a desktop PC or a laptop PC. Just as you don't stick Windows XP on your mobile phone then I personally don't think you use Windows XP on this machine. The interface that has been provided is superb and does the job on this small display. Of course, the chatterers say then say the screen is too small. Yes - it is for Windows, but that is not the point. I have poor eyesight and don't like small screens. However, I have had no eyestrain problems with the Eee PC using the supplied interface. Start to increase the screen size and the device becomes less portable and blurs the distinction between it and a laptop.

There is another thing I worry about with running Windows - the use of solid state drives. These are based on flash memory technology, which is well known as having a limited life on write cycles. 10,000 writes is often quoted. It has been reported that the ASUS incorporates routines to ensure writes are evenly spread over the flash memory so that the drive wears evenly. Calculations have been done to show that, under Xandros at least, the lifetime will be more than enough. My concern is that Windows XP is always writing to the drive, whatever you do. Will this mean it wears out quicker running Windows?

Like a Windows PC the default settings of the Eee PC are set to hide things that the non-technical user might cause problems with. I found this a bit annoying, especially as I expected to see the Linux functionality. However, the settings can be opened up. It is a matter of knowing what to do and that leads me to ...

The first line of support for the Eee PC is the well written User Guide and the PC Help files. The latter are much better than one expects from a normal Linux distro. The Support CD complements the User Guide, especially with regard to installing Windows XP.

The ASUS web site also has the usual support facilities including a forum. However, to be able to interact on the forum one has to register on the web site. I found the registration process demanded what I considered to be too much personal information and I therefore did not follow this procedure.

Nevertheless, the Eee PC is extremely popular and this means independent support groups exist. Just like IPUG was formed to support the Commodore PET in the early days so support groups for the Eee PC have sprung up on the net.

The most active group can be found at:
http://www.eeeuser.com/

This has a blog, a wiki and a forum. It provides a lot of technical information for customising the Eee PC.

In addition, every major Linux distro seems to have an area concerned with implementing their distro on the Eee PC.

Is there a futures for SCCs? Until very recently I would have said yes, without doubt. The problem is that the ASUS Eee machine has become so successful that the Beast of Redmond, (Microsoft), has taken an interest. Microsoft looks to be trying to skew, or perhaps that should be skewer, the market.

The whole reason for the Eee success was the price and the size, Small, Cheap Computer is a highly relevant name! These two constraints meant that neither of Microsoft's main OS, Windows XP or Vista, would comfortably run on the machines. As more machines from other manufacturers were announced, all with Linux, Microsoft must have seen they were in trouble. Vista would never run on these machines and Windows XP was to be discontinued at the end of June. What did Microsoft do? They announced that XP would continue to be available for this type of computer beyond the June date. However, they laid down conditions. The screen may not be larger than 10" and the hard drive no bigger than 80GB. Here was Microsoft dictating what the hardware should be! The pundits suggest they are protecting the Vista market because Vista would never be capable on hardware with these constraints. Personally, I think they are trying to kill the market for SCCs. If the average user runs Windows on such a machine they will soon find the 10" screen annoying and the hard drive space limiting. Consequently they will move on. In the meantime all development of Linux will stagnate because this will not sell as well to the average user if Windows is available as an alternative. Eventually, nobody wants Windows on the machine and Linux is not available. This equates to no sales quickly followed by dead market.

I hope my analysis is wrong but there are already worrying signs, particularly with ASUS.

Although the Eee 701 only appeared in November 2007 we have already seen the introduction of the Eee 900. The latter comes as a Linux version and a Windows version and as ASUS wants to charge the same price for either machine they provide differing specs.

I would not buy either of the Eee 900 machines, even if I wanted one, because they are soon to be augmented by the Eee 901. This is essentially the same machine, at roughly the same price, but with better specs. This was scheduled to appear at the beginning of July but has now been delayed till the end of July at the earliest.

If that wasn't enough, at the recent Computex show in Taipei ASUS announced a 1000 series. Again there would be a Linux machine and a Windows machine, (designated 1000H), with differing specs. It is amazing how the spec for the Windows machine exactly matches the Microsoft restrictions! At the Computex show ASUS were promoting Windows heavily and it has been rumoured that Microsoft have been talking to ASUS with regard to getting Windows 7, (that which replaces Vista), on an SCC. It certainly looks as if ASUS have sold out to Microsoft, especially when it has been stated that the 1000H will be first to arrive in the UK.

Here is a table of specifications for the various machines:

Key:

(L) = Ships with Xandros Linus and Open Office

(W) = Ships with Windows XP and Microsoft Works

SSD = Solid State Disk : HD = Hard Disk

MP = Megapixel

1.6 GHz = Intel Atom Processor

From the specs above it should be noticeable that machines are getting larger, heavier and more expensive. Where do they stop becoming SCCs and start becoming laptops? It would seem £200 is a real price break point for readers of 'The Register'. The further beyond that and the more the complaints and the less 'I must have one' comments.

Here in the UK there have been announcements of an MSI Wind, HP2133 Mini-Note and a Dell SCC. PC World have also announced an Advent 4211 SCC, but this is a badged MSI Wind. The specs for these machines vary, as does the price, but all are £250+.

Two machines that have really caught some attention is the Acer Aspire One and the Elonex One. Despite both having 'One' as their suffix they are completely different.

The Elonex One is priced at £99, which is perhaps why it is generating some interest. However, the price is achieved by having a very much lower spec. The screen and weight are much as the Eee701 but the RAM is 128MB and the solid state disk is 1GB. It has a LNX Code 8 Mobile 300MHz processor, 2 USB Ports, and the Linos Linux OS (which I've never heard of till now). Interesting features are a splashproof removable keyboard and option for an outer rubberised skin. Compared to the Eee701 it is basically half the spec and half the price.

The Elonex One is targeted at the education sector and is being marketed as the UK OLPC. Elonex are taking orders and state delivery before the new school year in September.

The Acer Aspire One comes at the other end of the spectrum. When announced, it had better specs than the Eee 701 yet a slightly lower price at £199. This was clearly a competitor and as ASUS has increased its prices on the newer models and cosied up to Microsoft, the Acer has become the favourite of Register readers, despite not having appeared (in the UK) yet!

The Acer Aspire One comes with a 9" screen at 1024x600 resolution, 8GB solid state drive and 512MB RAM. It has a memory card slot and a memory card reader slot. It sports Linpus Linux with a tabbed interface that is not identical to the Eee tabbed interface, (some say worse because you have to scroll the tabs). It uses the Intel Atom 1.6 GHz Processor.

These specs suggest a competitor that fits somewhere between the Eee701 and 901, especially as the price has been revised upwards to £219 since it was first announced.

It certainly looks an interesting machine, especially if it remains true to its Linux roots and doesn't start turning into a laptop. We will have to see how well it is supported when it appears.

While the specifications quoted for the newer ASUS models and the competition are all fine and dandy there are a few things missing that are quite important. Expected battery life is one of them. The other is whether the charger will be small like the Eee 702 or whether it is a brick. The latter is very much a negative for me. I don't want a small light computer only to have to carry a heavy charger around with me.

Apart from machines that are known to exist, the Computex show had many vendors showing SCCs. Clearly the bandwagon is rolling.

It is obvious by the interest of consumers and suppliers that we have a brand new market for low cost computers.

It is also clear that the market is very volatile at the moment and it is not apparent where it will lead.

The market was originally defined by £200 machines with solid state drives that were light and ran Linux. If the market progresses to £300 machines with hard drives and Windows then they become not much different than laptops with little price advantage over the laptops today.

The Eee701 was first on the scene and was unique. In the future it may be regarded as innovative as the Commodore PET was 30 years ago. Alternatively, if the market goes toward Windows it may simply be forgotten as Microsoft extinguishes another competitor. The EE 701 will still be unique though.

I like the Eee 701. It has brought the fun back into computing and has a real niche in the computer world. Like the PET, people are experimenting with it and I think we have yet to see its full potential.

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