eee pc

[Tim Wegener]

On Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:02:37 +1030
jon <thebusiness at gmail.com> wrote:

> > It is on my wish list this Christmas but so is a n800,
> > not sure what would be more useful.

>From my experience, the N800 is best for recreational/passive computing, i.e. web browsing, reading PDFs, reading ebooks, listening to music (streaming or not), IM. It fits in your pocket (well it fits in mine at least). Very low power, so you can just leave it on standby ("instant on"). 

I'd expect the eee pc to be better for games, coding, writing large amounts. Also, it is x86 whereas the N800 is ARM, so it is probably easier to get/develop software for the eee. Also the host-mode USB ports are a big plus for the eee. Does anyone know if it can handle an external hard disk? It could make a nice solid-state wireless media server. :-)

> im not sure either .. problem i see with the n800 is lack of keyboard. - 
> you almost may as well use phone..

Web browsing on a phone or even on a traditional PDA gets unbearable pretty quickly IMO. The 800x480 resolution makes a big difference (same res for N800 and eee). Perhaps openmoko neo1973, iPhone, or treos would be comparable, I don't know. 

I've found for things like IM, short emails and quick notes the on-screen thumb-keyboard is fine. There is also the option of using a bluetooth keyboard, but with this I find the small screen to be the limiting factor to doing things like coding or writing larger things.  

The N810 has a physical slide-out thumb-keyboard, but it is way more expensive, and I've heard it's not that great to type on. 

> i dunno tho.. i'd like to see one first and compare side by side

Or get both? :-)

Changing the subject, does anyone know whether the source for the eee wireless driver is available? 
As far as I know the N800 ships with a closed wireless driver. Does anyone know how this sits with the GPL (kernel)?

Tim