All of that means that your everyday computing experience will be the same on the 901 as it is on the 1000. The extra screen size only amounts to 1.3 inches and, as we say, the resolution's the same, so you won't get any more content onto it. But it does feel spacier, and we can see how some users might prefer it, especially those who might find themselves squinting at the 8.9in model.
The best Eee keyboard yet - but still one of the poorest netbook boards
Which brings us back to the... well... key difference: the keyboard. Just as the 901 delivered a slightly better typing experience than the Eee 900 did - and that, in turn, was nicer to type on than the 701 - the 1000 is a step forward. The keys may not be as big as those on a regular, 12in or larger laptop, but they're close enough. Like the keys on the 901, they're more rounded that those on the earlier Eees, and that makes for more rapid, less error-prone text entry.
What Asus hasn't improved on is the quality of the board itself: this one's just as rattly and cheap-feeling as the 901's board and with as much overall flex to it, too. Having used near full-size keyboards on the Wind and Acer Aspire One - the latter an 8.9in machine, don't forget - we have to say Asus is still well behind the others.
And even though Dell's idiosyncratic Inspiron Mini 9 keyboard is trickier to use than the 1000's, it feels like it has a better build quality. Asus definitely has some work to do here, as it's the Eee series' one major weakness.
One advantage of a bigger chassis is a bigger wrist-rest area, but Asus hasn't taken advantage of that to increase the touchpad size. Like the 901, the 1000 has a 67 x 37mm pad, again rimmed in brushed metal. It may just be us, but it seems as if Asus has smoothed out the rough texture it applied to the 901's touchpad. The texture's still there on the 1000, but it didn't feel so intrusive this time.
A familiar port array
Unlike other Eees, the 1000 line-up has entirely separate XP and Linux models. The 1000 is the Linux version, the 1000H the one with XP and a hard drive instead of an SSD. The 1000 again uses the Xandros version of Linux and presents the customary simplified UI. This provides access to all the essential apps - web browser, email, instant messaging, Skype and OpenOffice - but more are just a hack or two away.
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* :)
