Maplin mini laptop: any views?

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FinesseChris

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Hi

Maplin have a deal on a " 4GB ASUS Eee PC Laptop with 512MB Memory". See web page.

Anyone reckon this as a possible on-board machine? I hasten to add that as a long-time Mac user at work I know little or nothing about these devices so any info would be more than I have now!

It is described as having " Durable, shock-proof, solid-state design giving unparalleled shock-protection and reliability "

Operating System:Linux/ Microsoft Windows XP compatible.
Storage is 4Gb flash so no hard drive.

Any views?

Thanks

Chris
 
I had my name dolwn for a 8gb version, tho very very short in supply so advised to look at the 9000 series. I really like the idea od solid state drive and I will be looking seriously at one of these for boat use.
 
I think the machine is XP compatible and so is some of the software. The OS is linux so you couldn't just load windoz software onto it. You should be able to install XP over linux but you would need to buy a licensed copy. Actually getting it on without a CD drive might be a challenge.

It it had more memory running XP under VMWare would be an option (still need a license) but would be slow in 1Gb and pushing it with 8Gb disk.
 
I would suggest that the biggest problem is simply that 4 GBytes simply that much storage these days. I tried converting an old IBM laptop to "solid state" operation; I put a 4 GByte Compact Flash card in a CF-IDE converter in place of the hard disk. Booted fine to install windows or Linux, but there were issues. The CF I had was slow in retrospect, and this had a huge impact on the performance of the machine. The actual capacity is also an issue - I could only just get Linux with tools and GUI installed - windows was actually easier (for a change). As a gut feeling I would say that the 8 GByte version would be a must - I assume that the Flash Memory they use would be fast enough (it is the write performance which is the issue). I would also be fairly confident that the machine will boot of a USB attached CDROM/DVDROM..

Seen this while googling:

Asus Eee PC 4GB In Stock
www.SuperEtrader.co.uk Pearl White with Webcam - £219.73 Lowest UK Price. Next Day Delivery.

Regards,
Jeff.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I put a 4 GByte Compact Flash card in a CF-IDE converter in place of the hard disk. Booted fine to install windows or Linux, but there were issues. The CF I had was slow in retrospect, and this had a huge impact on the performance of the machine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Apologies to the original poster for fred drift.

Jeff,

I don't think installing a standard linux distro on flash disk is workable. It's too slow to write to and will fail if written to too many times. There are specialist distros that write changes to the root file system in ram. Slax is an example. There are others.
 
There was a thread about laptops for boats in Feb 08. As a result of recommendation by Simon_SPGE I ordered one, a assus eepc G4 which has just come.

Its a cracker for general web use but runs on Linux, not Windows. My wife is working on the chart plotting side and has found software called Seafarer 1.9.3 from Barcosoft.com which will run maptech charting software version BSB3

Its only in the last day or so that we have worked on this . We have the Seafarer running: The Maptech software we use on a PDA is not the BSB3 and are in contact with them to get the older version BSB3.There is Seafarer using BSB4 being developed.

I will give more results in the following weeks as things develop!
 
Yes - I am aware of this now - there are a number of options which can be followed to mitigate the impact. My CF simply wasn't that fast, its old. My main point was that, in my opinion, 4 Gbytes just isn't that much these days unless you want to spend a lot of time tuning an installation so that you've enough space left to actually do anything. I will say that it was somewhat spooky watching a machine boot and run in nearly total silence - the audio seemed to pick up some interference from the disk IOs, odd.

Jeff.
 
I put my first Linux installation on a machine with a 100MB HDD and 8MB of RAM - it is nothing like as resource hungry as Windoze.

For a competent Linux person, 4GB is adequate for all the programmes you might want to install, but looks very small these days if you want to hold much data.

I think it is a very specialised machine - it is great as a cheap "ultra-portable" if you are prepared to put up with either the limitations of the installation as delivered, or to do the work to customise your own build, then it is good.

For most people a cheap £300 laptop with Vista installed is going to be a much better bet .

In particular the battery life seems very disappointing - only 3 hours from a machine with a flash disk seems poor
 
[ QUOTE ]
Linux ... is nothing like as resource hungry as Windoze.

[/ QUOTE ]

And you don't want to run XP on a flash drive with limited number of read/write operations. Would shorten life considerably! Instead stick with Ubuntu, DSL or puppy and run a virtual machine. It might give you quite a headache though with all those ports and drivers and stuff.

[ QUOTE ]

For most people a cheap £300 laptop with Vista installed is going to be a much better bet .
In particular the battery life seems very disappointing - only 3 hours from a machine with a flash disk seems poor

[/ QUOTE ]

agree, cheap 500Mhz laptop or so. Wouldn't dare wandering into Vista land yet...
What p****s me of with the Asus is that they recently substituted the battery for cheaper ones with reduced capacity: 4400mAh instead of 5200mAh giving you 2.5 hours.
Same price of course!
Suddenly they're not that cheap anymore, hmm?
Bit of a viral marketing hype really.
 
Can't install Windows software on an Eee PC running Linux - you sure?

Wine seems to run most of the software I need.
 
Seen these things in use and they are great for web surfing, email, word processing etc.

However, if you want windows or other memory/disk hungry stuff I reckon that unless you are prepared to spend a lot of time trying to get quarts into pint pots and living with the consequences then you are better off waiting for the next generation.
The manufacturers offer it with Linux for good reason.
 
We've just bought one, 4meg. It's cute - small cheap and simple. Planned on a dongle from 3 to get web access but that needs Windows, So now plan to installXP. The Eee handbook tells you how to optimise xp for the Eee ...We'll see. We only want it for internet access on a decent screen - ie not pda.
 
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