WorthyJourney

Eee PC 1000H

I get asked quite frequently what machine would I suggest someone get for themselves or often a loved one. I am always torn because if they had the cash i would always recommend a mac. they are easy to learn to use and do almost anything a Windows box can do. Everything if you’re willing to run windows on your mac inside vmware or parralells.

But what do I tell them if they don’t have $1000 burning a hole in their pocket?  in the past i just kind of hem hawed and said I don’t know if you don’t want a Mac.  But what about using their existing PC if it is less than 5 years old with a copy of Ubuntu Linux. Or if they want a small light weight laptop they could get what I just got for around $325, an ASUS Eee PC 1000H.

So I got it on Saturday of last week, and it did take me a bit of effort to get Ubuntu on it just the way I wanted and some of you may say, “Your a computer guy I could never do that” and perhaps your right.  the unit does come with XP home edition if you just can’t stand the idea of a little research, or asking a friend.  But in my case I found that if you have access to a windows pc that can get to the web, a 1 GB USB thumb drive, and a little patience you can have a Netbook just like mine.  I’ll post helpfull links at the bottom shortly.

What the desktop looks like.

So I have been using littleGuy as I refer to him since Saturday night, he’s gone  to work with me all week instead of my Mac.  Do I miss the mac, a little, but I am really surprised at how good the experience has been thus far. Can I do everything I can on my mac, no.  But can I do a lot of things, so far all the things I need to do on it, yes.  In fact I have found only a few things I can’t do, audible books an rent movies to download.  BUT, you can watch rented movies from amazon.com movie store live, and I purchased a new Lyle Lovett CD from the Amazon M3 store and they even have a ubuntu downloader.  Plus with the install you get several games, a full micro$oft Office compatible suite of software, internet apps like Firefox and Totem (a movie player), the songbird music player (It’s kinda itunish, probably more than apple would care for ), and Picasa a google graphics program like iphoto.  I am not sure about video editing, but iwouldn’t put it past  them, i just haven’t looked yet.

So all this is simply to say, you can get a safer OS and a computer cheaper now than ever.  One that with a little patience and interest you can discover a ton of free software and one that you won’t have to worry about viruses as much about.  I won’t say never, because sure as the world some yahoo will eventually come out with a mac or linux virus, but for now I can relax and just enjoy a quick, responsive OS that runs on machines that XP, much less Vista would scoff at.  Did I mention it comes with a webcam and stereo speakers and mics?  A videophone if you use skype.