Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook Talking technology, computers, and the Internet… for the average computer user

The Asus Eee 900A first came out months ago. I waited and watched in the wings to see how it would perform, and if prices would go down. I was soooo tempted to pick it up when prices bottomed out at $250. But it was still too expensive. I finally got my chance when the price dropped to $199 at BestBuy (selling it on clearance), plus I had some Rewards Points and a very nice promotional coupon. I nabbed the last one at the store. I love it when I get a great deal.

Even though it’s an older model, I’m still going to review it. A lot of frugal people like me have no doubt been waiting for the prices to drop, and the netbook is seeing a rise in popularity right now. So although I may be reviewing an “older” model, I believe it is still a viable effort and will relate to this model as well and the netbook in general. You can read my post about Quick Guide to Buying a Netbook before continuing here. If you are a newcomer to netbooks, that post is a good introduction. Otherwise, I assume you know what I am talking about here when I mention netbooks (a mini portable computer under 10 inches wide, etc).

The computer unit is OK. The screen is very nice and tight– no jiggling or looseness at the hinges. The on/off button is rather cheap, made of material one step above aluminum foil, it seems. It jiggles in the insert. The touchpad buttons are made of the same cheapo material. (Actually, I suspect that the buttons are made of plastic and wrapped with a mettalic-looking sticker). The touchpad itself is OK, but I frequently have to “double tap” several times over to get it to respond. We use a wireless mouse with the Eee so that we don’t have to use the touchpad that often.

The Asus Eee comes with Linux Xandros. I’m experienced with Linux Xandros. I had a full version years ago, and liked it enough. I had it partioned on a laptop with XP. It was XP that gave me problems– when I reformatted the laptop, I had to wipe out Xandros and well as XP. I never got around to reinstalling Xandros, because I gave the laptop away shortly after the reformat. And then I got Vista, which I like very much.

Xandros has gotten a bad rap on the Eee. I guess Ubuntu could have been better, but Xandros is OK. I’ve already tried wiping out the Xandros and installing Ubuntu, but I could not get the wireless to work with Ubuntu, so I dumped it and went back to the Xandros. I also tried updating the Xandros OS (as soon as you connect to the Internet, there’s a notification that asks if I want to install updates). When I installed the updates, it overloaded the remaining hard drive space (the Asus Eee has only 4GB space for the operating system), and crashed. I had to reformat the computer AGAIN with a boot disk I’d made on SD card. What a pain. So I’m stuck with the older version of Xandros and all the software that came with it.

What’s really crappy about the Xandros OS is all the bloated crapware that comes with it is that you cannot remove any of the programs. None. There’s a Potato Head game and a snowbaording penguin game that are so stupid you could cry– can’t uninstall it. There’s a Chinese language software tutor program- I have no need to learn colors in Chinese, thank you very much– can’t uninstall it. There’s a whole bunch of mindless, meaningless junk installed that you can’t remove. Removing it would enable me to install updates… whoever designed the software distro was a real knucklehead. This is a major downer and probably a main reason why the Asus Eee Linux versions are being ditched in favor of the Windows XP versions. It’s too bad– I like Linux in general, and the bundle with the Eee could have made Linux a household name. But their doom was sealed with the addition of all that junkware; so if average computer user had no interest in Linux before, they surely won’t now. Also, you’re stuck with the limited desktop “themes.” There’s a tab for “personalization” but that only means you can have pastel green, blue, tan, or silver for the background. No forest scenes or engagement rings photo wallpaper. I couldn’t even get the computer to go into “Desktop” mode, even though there was an icon for it. ?

Back to the netbook: start up is very, very fast. And like I said, getting on wireless with Xandros is so easy that I nearly cried with relief. There are some software programs that are useful- there’s a very nice PIM (personal information management) program, a cool astronomy program, Star Office (similar to Open Office), and etc. But most of the stuff is unhelpful, and, what’s worse, you’re stuck with it forever.

The keys are small, yes. I like it. I have very small hands anyway, so this is a bonus to me. It does take some getting used to, but netbooks are not really meant to replace computers– they supplement it.

Overall, the Asus Eee is amazing. It’s so portable, and that’s the wonder of it all. I can fit it into my purse and travel so lightly– I love that! But the major drawback is the operating system. More netbooks are coming with Windows XP, which is great, BUT this means that these netbooks needs more hard drive space, which in turn makes them a little bigger, and, in most cases, with a Hard Drive Disk that makes them less portable. So that’s something to consider.

Me, I just wanted a tiny, portable little computer to travel with and one that will serve as a backup for the kids’ schoolbooks. SO I’m sticking with the little Eee 900A. But I’m still keeping my eyes peeled for a better operating system. For now, the Xandros and all the additional crapware will have to do.