Paul Johnston - A weeek with the Asus Eee PC 900

Paul 'Padojo' Johnston writes:

I've finally succumbed to the lure of the Eee PC. It's giving the Macbook Pro a run for its money as the geeks weapon of choice for events. When I went to Mashed08 I was surprised at how many there were in use there, but it was partially that that encouraged me to get one. Among the other reasons for getting one are that it's small, light and runs linux.

Now, I love my computer that runs Ubuntu, and I love having a laptop that means I can work anywhere (well, anywhere with a power socket). I really hate it if I have to use a desktop nowadays, because it means I can't go and sit in the garden and work. The issue I have with most laptops is that they are desktop replacements, and not made for the purpose of being portable. When I have commuted into London, I would have loved to be able to get my laptop out and do 20 minutes of work before I got into the office. My laptop is too big.

All hail the Eee PC! With a solid state drive (like the Macbook Air but much cheaper) it's quiet and light. The original version (700/701) didn't have a huge amount of disk space in it, and as such I was put off, but with the 900 coming out with an 8.9" screen (and the 901 almost here) I couldn't wait any longer. The screen is bright and clear, the keyboard is small, and takes about 5 minutes to get used to.

So, is it actually usable? Well, the first thing I did with it, is make it usable for me, by upgrading the installation, and installing the development tools and servers I'd need, such as MySQL, ruby on rails, and various other things. The linux version already comes with OpenOffice 2.0 which is brilliant, Thunderbird for email and Pidgin for instant messaging. I've even managed to get Adobe Air and Twhirl running so I can keep up with twitter on the eee without any problem.

I used it for most of the day the next day instead of my normal laptop, and found that for almost everything it's highly usable. The screen is 1024x600 so you don't lose anything in terms of what you can see. Most websites are easily readable on the screen and since they are mostly for 1024x768 now, you really don't lose any quality in browsing. I even spent some time doing development work on it, to find out if I could use it as a backup development machine. It was great. My wife then took it for a test drive, and did some browsing on it. She spent an hour on it without worrying about it and she liked it too (which is always a good test for me).

Now, I like all things when they are new, but I wanted to be able to road test this computer in a real world environment. So I took it to the July meetup of minibar in London. It's about the same weight as a computer book from O'Reilly and was significantly lighter and smaller to carry on the train and tube than my laptop. I spent my time there chatting and while the talks were going on, I took some notes on it. It's easy enough to hold the Eee in one hand and type with the other. The keyboard was just about small enough that I could type at some speed. I agree that it would be easier sitting with my laptop and typing with both hands, but I wanted to test it out. The Eee definitely starts conversations as many people were definitely looking at it with interest. I used the EEE to write a blog post on the train as well, and it was very simple to do. There was no difficulty retrieving it from the bag (like my other laptop) or putting it back because it's so small. It took me only a few minutes to expand on the notes and to create a much more complete overview of the night than I could have from memory. Very useful.

The Eee is great for business meetings too. I've met friends and colleagues in coffee shops over the last week and been able to get my Eee out and show them prototypes of websites. It's great to be able to meet somewhere comfortable instead of at a desk or at my office. Not only that, but it's easy enough to do development on the machine, so I can spend time wherever I want just quietly getting on with work.

I like it. The battery life is good (not perfect, and reducing the brightness on the screen helps a lot) although you could wait for the 901. Sleeping the computer (by closing the lid) works great and is very useful if you're just wanting to stop for 5 minutes then come back. It's usable, loads up quickly, and - no small thing - it's cheap! You can easily get one for under £300 with Linux installed, and it's very handy for someone who commutes or does a lot of travelling. To cap it all, if you get a 3G account and USB dongle, you've got broadband on the go. It's better than a mobile, in that you've got a complete keyboard and computer, and it's better than a laptop because it's lighter and smaller. If you can wait a short while (like I couldn't) the 901 will be out which uses the Intel Atom processor, which uses a lot less power and will have a bigger battery.

Was it worth it? Yes. All hail the Eee PC!

Paul Johnston, Entrepreneur, blogger and CEO of Vida