Which Asuus EEPC Linus or Load XP Professional . Compatability Issues

Ok,

>I work from home and have several machines and a server, I use Windows XP.

I'm wondering a little if you're in the right place ... ?

>However, I have seen the Asuus eeePC 1000and it looks wonderful.

Yes indeed, I'm thinking of getting one myself ...

>However, it appears that there are compatability problems with XP

Strangely not an issue for me tho'...

>1. Wait until Linux sort out these issues

Unless we're talking at cross purposes, issues with Windows drivers are nothing to do with "linux" ..

>3. Get the Linux version with the benefit of solid state and mirror the task in option 2 above.

... Solid state disks aren't necessarily faster than hard drives, it depends on the specific technology they employ .. for example pen drives, speed typically varies between 5M/sec and 30M/sec.

>My heart wants me to jump to Linnnux NOW.

So do it!

Get the Linux version .. or am I confusing the 901 and the 1000 ? Do you mean there are problems with the Linux drivers on the 1000? ??

If you must run Windows too, just load up VMWARE Server (which is free) and you'll get a complete system, just without the sound. And (wait for it!) if you want sound, instead of accessing via the VMWARE server, simply enable Windows XP's remote administration tool, then use a thin client / RDP session to access the desktop and hey-presto, sound too!

As things like Wireless and USB use the Linux drivers and are presented to Windows via software drivers, I wouldn't expect any hardware issues .. indeed I always prefer to run Windows server inside VMWARE sessions, I've found Windows 2000 in particular to be far more stable inside VMWARE than running on raw hardware.

<fx: rambling a bit>

Anyway, the hardware is designed to run Linux .. I'd no more want to put XP on it than I'd want to put Linux on an XBox. (you can do it but the XBOX hardware only drives a 640x480 screen)

If you really really want to use XP and don't want to use VMWARE, you'd be doing yourself a big favour by buying a box that comes with XP pre-installed, although saying that, can you still get XP or do you have to have Vista now?

Dear Gareth,

Thank you for this information. I still have XP and would rather be placed in a war zone than go towards Vista! I still have nightmares when I had Windows ME. You are right. At first sight my questions do appear to be those of a Windows person. Sadly, I have been caught up in it and want to break away. My e-mails are currently saved by me on an external hard drive in a windows format under a folder created by each subject. I am using Outlook. I took the hard drive into a PC shop and triued to get the EEEPC to read them. It had no problem with standard XP docs using Open Office. However, it would not read the saved e-mails. Also the 3G card for mobile broadband seemed to be very uncomfortable with the EEEPC. If I could get over these issues I would take that leap. My fear are that as I am not a tecky person if I do take that leap and then end up spending hours trying to familiarise myself with a new process I am uncomfortable with as it takes me out of my comfort zone!

Any further suggesttions really appreciated. Working from home has some advantages, however the main duisadvantage is there is no IT technical backup department if all goes wrong!

Regards & Thanks,

Jonathan

Ok, well my first comment would have to be, "when did you last get support from Microsoft and how much did they charge you to call?". And if the answer is "I found the solution to my problem on a website", the chances of you finding Linux help on a website are (IMHO) higher if you need help with Linux.

Firstly Emails, there are many arguments / pro's / con's but the bottom line is that you need to be using an IMAP email server (this is standard, Microsoft do one called "Exchange") and once you transfer your emails to the server, Microsoft's own email format is no longer a problem and there are any number of clients (Evolution, Thunderbird etc..) which you can use.

Personally I use something called "Zimbra" which is effectively a webmail solution, albeit it works pretty much like a local application. IMHO this is better than commercial solutions like Outlook and Exchange, and of course it's free, and given it's hosted I don't need to worry about problems with my PC. [I have around 10 years worth of email which cloggs up about 4G of server space, this is mainly ~ 70,000 sent messages]

Process: Connect your Outlook to an IMAP server, drag and drop all local emails onto the server folder, dispose of Outlook. Fire up web browser, point it at IMAP server and off you go.

http://www.zimbra.com/

http://www.zimbra.com/products/hosted_demo.php

As far as 3G goes, I use a 5 year old NEC laptop with Ubuntu Hardy and I have a "3" USB modem with a £5 per month (incl VAT) account. [it's 1/2 price becuase I have a "3" phone] This gives me 1G download per month, which is loads.

I recently spent a week in Italy and with "3"'s "three like home" policy, I got to use all my call allowances across there. I spent the week driving around Tuscany and I reckon they have about 95% 3G coverage in terms of the roads I drove and the places I stayed. Worst thruput was about 256kbps (farmhouse) and the best was about 1.3Mbps (Arezzo).

See this article;

http://linux.co.uk/docs/center/how-to/how-to-get-online-with-3g-broadband

If anyone tries this and has problems, I'm quite happy to help and tweak the article, I suspect support for this sort of connection will improve with future versions of Gnome / Networkmanager / Ubuntu, but once you have it configured it certainly does the job. Note that I don't know if it would work within a VMWARE session, it would be interesting to find out if anyone has a laptop with enough RAM to run VMWARE ..

This is where the OpenSource spirit comes in .. if you're prepared to document your experience and all the things you need to do to get what you need up and running, there are people out there who will help you get it done.  :)

Thanks for this Gareth thios gives me a lot to consider!