Customer Reviews

Using the Asus Eee PC

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has a lot of excellent and useful information about the Eee PC in general, but it disappointed me as I tried to apply its instructions to my model 900 Eee PC. Maybe a better title (until the book is updated) would be "Using the Model 700 Asus Eee PC."

What I had hoped most to accomplish with this book was customizing the system and adding Linux software beyond what was preloaded. Most of the instructions for doing these things require use of the "advanced desktop" (also called the "KDE Desktop") which is not accessible in the EeePC as delivered. Unfortunately, Asus made some changes between the 700 series models and the 900. The directions for making the advanced desktop available, provided in this book, are for the 700 series, and do not work with my model 900.

The default repositories (external sources for application packages) listed on page 162 appear to be those used by the model 700 and do not match what's included in the model 900.

This book would be a very good choice for someone having a model 700 Eee PC, but for those of us with a 900, it would be helpful to have an addendum or supplement with instructions for our model.

As a new user of the Eee PC 1000, running its standard Xandros Linux, I very much looked forward to the arrival of this book, and have not been disappointed. Yes, as noted by other reviewers, it's not written with the 1000 models in mind. However, even as a new Eee PC owner with no prior experience with Linux, I've been able to successfully apply everything I've tried in the book. It's just a matter of proceeding very carefully when doing tasks that may have changed since the 700 and 900 models explicitly covered by this book.

Here are the pages I've noted as needing updates for the 901 and 1000 models:
page 26 worked after I'd already done sudo synaptic and temporarily added repository download.tuxfamily.org/eepcrepos long enough to activate the Advanced Desktop and then removed that repository again. (Don't do this until you fully understand the preceeding sentence!) Comment: I'm not impressed by the Advanced Desktop, and prefer just enabling the IceWM start menu as described on page 79.
page 36-37: Again, I got it to work, but didn't care enough for the result to keep it.
page 70 on the 901, 1000 & recent 700s, simpleui.rc is in /var/lib/AsusLauncher
page 214: caution: won't install if Firefox cache size is set to 0.
page 318: caution: EEEControl has not been updated for the 1000 yet. Again, I don't really need it, so don't care.

Having written several computer books myself, back in the Commodore era, I consider this a pretty good accuracy rating for a model the author hadn't even seen yet when the book was printed.

My only beef is that I wish there were a way to get the author's errata and corrections for the new models and search the book electronically without having to join an online subscription that's only free for 45 days. I'd happily buy an updated PDF copy to keep right on the Eee PC, if that were available. Meanwhile, all the updated help I can use is handy at eeeuser.com, a source also recommended by the author.

After buying an Asus Eee PC1000 (Linux OS), I realized how little I understood about Linux, especially its file structure and Synaptic - the graphical software maintainance program that is built into Linux Systems. After a good amount of time searching for a reference, I chose this book as a reasonable starting point. Note that "Using the Asus Eee PC" is not really for the PC1000 model, but it enabled me to read my way to being able to search and use the various Asus forums found on-line.

This book is a well rewritten and detail book on getting the most of your EEE but the problem lays in it's lack of attention to Windows XP based EEE. Other than description of hardware theirs little for the users of later models like the 1005HA. It's really too bad because I really loved reading the book. The Dummies series has the same problem. It's seems that the authors didn't believe there was going to be a market for Windows based netbooks. The name on the cover is very inaccurate especially for the newbie since they are more likely to have a Windows OS than a Linux. Not going to fault the author for not predicting the future.

Don't bother with this book if you have a windows pc as Linux dominates the pages. It also is old enough to not really discuss the Asus Eee PC 1000He other than as an upcoming model.

The focus is on using Xandros linux rather than on the eee PC's hardware. However, it's well written and contains information that would be difficult to source from the internet.

After reading this book, you should pretty much be able to do anything with your Eee PC except have it brew your coffee for you every morning. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the author finds a way to use the Eee to perform even that very task between now and the next edition.

I've been looking for a low-cost machine that will allow me to easily learn and experiment with Linux, yet double as a highly portable computer (and GPS device) for travel and vacations. The Eee is that machine, and this book has those bases covered and more.

There is a good deal of information about Xandros (the Linux version offered by Asus) as well as several other common flavors of Linux; I intend to try them all. My particular Eee model (the 1000H) came with Windows installed by default, and the book has loads of useful information for Windows users, too.

I also appreciated the discussion on cloud computing, and of course the Eee lends itself perfectly to that. The book even offers hardware upgrade advice, which I used to upgraded the memory in my unit to 2GB. I also installed a spare 160GB 7200-RPM hard disk, and the machine is faster than ever. (It was plenty zippy when I bought it, but I'm a geek and couldn't help myself with regard to the hardware tweaks.)

By the way, a prior reviewer mentioned that he wanted to customize Xandros and therefore needed to use the advanced (KDE) desktop, but the instructions were not 900-series-specific. While Asus apparently made some changes between the 700 and 900 seried, all he needs to do is point to the 700-series (instead of the 900-series) repositories to get the advanced desktop.

*Using the Asus Eee PC* is a great resource for Eee owners. I can't wait try the scads of free yet high-quality software available for the Eee, and I look forward to the other projects presented as well. If you want to get maximum value out of your Eee PC, or if you've been thinking about buying an Eee and what to see what it can do, this is the book for you.

Very simply, this work is very well done, whether you are new to the EEEPC or have used it exhaustively over many months. That is a rare accomplishment.