Asus Eee PC 1000 10in Linux netbook
The Eee family expands - literally
Review Asus missed a trick when it released the Eee PC 901: it didn't incorporate a bigger keyboard than the one on the Eee 701. Had it done so, there wouldn't perhaps be a need for the 1000.
Yes, the 1000 comes with a larger, 10.2in screen, but with the display's 1024 x 600 resolution matching that of the 8.9in panel built into the 901, and with an otherwise identical specification, what the bigger machine really brings you is nothing more than a more adult-friendly keyboard.
Asus' Eee PC 1000: just like the 901, only bigger
We'll look at how successful the expanded input device is in a moment. First, let's look at the 1000 in the round. It's identical to the 901, only larger, magnified to make room for the bigger screen and keyboard.
You can see from Register Hardware's Netbooks Spec Table that the 1000 is one of the larger 10.2in SCCs, coming in slightly longer, deeper and taller than its nearest rival, the MSI Wind - and it feels bigger when you carry it too. Cast a glance in its direction and you might mistake it for a 12in notebook.
Asus hasn't used the space to deliver more portage: there are still three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA out, a 10/100Mb/s Ethernet connector, SDHC card slot and analogue audio socketry. The chunky 6600mAH is the same capacity as the one on the smaller 901.
Larger chassis, but standard SCC spec
The other internals are much the same too: 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of DDR 2 memory, Intel integrated graphics, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 1.3-megapixel webcam. The bigger box buys you a more solid-state storage: 40GB to the 901's 20GB, comprising an 8GB 'fast' SSD for the OS and apps, and 32GB of slower but cheaper storage for your data.
COMMENTS
Said it before
"Some buyers may prefer the familiarity of Windows, especially if they need to run specific apps or hardware that lacks Linux support, but there can't be many of those."
AutoCAD & Paint.NET (amongst others) don't run on Linux (and Wine & Gimp are not valid arguments).
XP tax comes in at about £20 on these machines after the shakedown. Which is decent enough value as far as I'm concerned. Faffery and hacking around in Linux would come to much more than £20 worth of my time.
Shame the XP machine only comes with a HDD rather than an SSD. Shame also that MS won't be honest and just flog XP off the shelf at £20. Then I could buy a desirably specced Linux SCC and install my favoured OS.
Show us the source, ASUS
By not providing source for software which is distributed under licences such as the GPL, they're breaking the licence conditions and, as a result, they do not have permission to distribute the binaries.
Oops.
Deja vu
Looks remarkably like the 2003-vintage G3 iBook I've got in a box somewhere in the spare room.
ASUS and opensource
They haven't really got it yet.
Their repositories are out of date, even if you do make it to a command line, you won't be updating to the latest patch.
They see opensource as being free in that they have to put zero effort in, and if they are going to do that they should at least install a community distro on it. Then they could just setup a mirror, problem solved. But, instead they go for a commercial linux, modify and have stale repositories.
There are lots of GUI package managers around, and I think they have bundled one, somewhere.
ASUS could have had a lot of fun with opensource, had they been just a little bit visionary. Most of the buyers prefer to stick with what comes with a machine, irrational perhaps, but that seems to be a trait, with that type of install base they could have given some of the distros a run for their money, instead they just sort of gave up.
Ubuntu netbook seems to have filled the gap for a few, but there a lot of EEEs out there, running unpatched I would imagine.
I was going to ask about the price in the UK
Until I looked in the Dutch shops and saw that it's gone up by 50 euros since it was first released...
I got my 1000H for 399 euros (just over 300 quid). At that price point it was perfect - I checked in the shop against the 901 and the Acer One and it was the nicest to use.
I have to say I don't have the issue with the keyboard flex that others have pointed out - it fits the bill perfectly for what I need from a sub-notebook. Whilst the screen resolution isn't a gain over the 901, the keyboard is a *huge* gain, and I don't have stubby fat fingers (I can type just fine on the 701 that my wife has) it's just *nicer* :)
