EeePC follow-up: working with Rev

[Bernard Devlin]

I'm planning on getting the Acer One (AA1) and looking to do all my Rev
development on it (don't ask...) The AA1 has been favourably compared
against all the Asus umpc's and the HP mini-note.

http://www.osnews.com/story/20176/Review_Acer_Aspire_One
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39030092,49297519-2,00.htm
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/208539/acer-aspire-one.html
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=2214&pn=1
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=14349

No only that, but in the UK the AA1 is cheaper than all competitors except
the Asus 701 (which is just not possible to use as a normal laptop).
Incidentally, last week the AA1 was the 2nd best-selling notebook on
amazon.com (
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/2008/09/03/acer-aspire-one-netbook-no-2-at-amazon/).
Today they've actually sold out.

What really put me off about the Asus eee umpcs was their keyboards: too
small and too unresponsive when typing.  Finally when I saw the AA1 and
started typing the keyboard felt almost normal - and given the device is so
small, that's quite an achievement.  After doing a bit of research, I found
that the OS is Linpus which is a version of Fedora.  And even though it
comes with a 'simplified' screen for 'normal' users, this can easily be
altered (without installing a new OS), to give access to package managers
and to get to the kind of desktop UI one would expect on a modern day linux.

The only drawback seems to be battery life, which is rated at somewhere
between 2.5 - 7 hours (depending on the presence of a 3-cell or a 6-cell
battery - so far only the 3-cell batteries are generally available).  Also,
the mouse buttons are a rather odd design (one on either side of the
trackpad, and each is a tall thin column.  Mind you, since my stupid compaq
laptop actually has the whole trackpad two inches to the right of the center
keys (F...J), I guess one can get used to strange physical layouts, but
maybe I'll find it necessary to use a mouse.  I suppose if I want to really
ask for the sky, I'd complain about the lack of built-in bluetooth, but then
most of the umpcs lack that.

Comparing the different umpcs for speed seems an unpredictable procedure.
Some reviews have the AA1 beating all the Asus alternatives; some have the
Asus 901 besting the AA1.  Some reviews complain the speakers sound tinny,
others say they sound better than on their normal laptop.  As I usually have
sound switched off on every pc I use, that's not going to be much of an
issue for me.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Bernard

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 4:50 PM, Richard Gaskin
<ambassador at fourthworld.com>wrote:

> A couple months ago I asked folks here about their experiences with the
> EeePC (see <http://eeepc.asus.com>).  In general folks seemed very happy
> with their purchase, but I thought it'd be interesting to see how they fare
> once the novelty wears off.
>
> It's been long enough now that those who have them have had plenty of
> real-world use, and it may also be of interest to the readers here who don't
> have EeePCs to learn about usage patterns since they're among the
> best-selling laptops right now - from eeeuser.com:
>
>   It looks like the Eee PC models are continuing to be strong
>   in the marketplace, as the Eee PC 901 12G is currently the
>   most popular item in the Computers & PC Hardware category
>   of Amazon.com Also rounding out the top 10 are the Eee PC
>   900 16G (white, Linux) in 7th spot and the Eee PC 900 16G
>   (black, XP) in 9th. The Eee PC 1000H just missed the cut in
>   12th place.
>
> So if you have an EeePC, please take a moment to let us know how it's
> working out for you, esp. with regard to using Rev:
>
> - Do you do any Rev development on your EeePC?
>
> - If so, how much of your development do you do on your EeePC
>  relative to your other computer(s)?
>
> - What do you like most about using the EeePC,
>  and what do you find most annoying?
>
> - Do you target the EeePC in your deployment plans for
>  commercial/shareware/freeware apps?
>
> - Which model of EeePC do you have?
>
> - Do you run Linux or XP on it?
>
> - How do you manage synchronizing files (both development
>  stackfiles and things like email) between the EeePC and
>  your other computer(s)?
>
> - Any other comments about your EeePC experience you can share?
>
> TIA -
>
> --
>  Richard Gaskin
>  Fourth World Media Corporation
>  ___________________________________________________________
>  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com
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