wilkes

pk, I'll download that WinXP distro, and may install it one day when I'm bored. Right now, I'm having fun seeing how zippy the performance of this wimpy little device can be. It boots from cold to "full-on", at the desktop, ready for action in about 20 seconds. WOW! Quite a change for a Windows user!

I haven't found anything (other than playing dvds, which I fixed) I want to do with a netbook that it can't do with the included software. Xandros has yet to disappoint!

RG - Google this XP Build:
SiCoMiNiXP

I hear it screams on the netbooks, and unlike TinyXP, wireless/networking actually works like it's supposed to out of the box. You can use your own valid XP cd key with it to install it, it has good driver support, and only takes up 200MB once installed.

I'm thinking of triplebooting again - just finished installed OSX on my desktop and two laptops in a dualboot config, the desktop also has my fresh install of Vista Ultimate, one laptop has 7, the other XP pro. I do miss ubuntu, I'm sure theyve ironed out the kinks with most of my hardware by now. Thats my only problem with linux and buying brand new, just released hardware - somebody has to go first when getting the drivers to work!

I have an original Asus EEE-PC 4G (aka...the 701). It came with Win XP. It also came with only 4GB of space on the SSD (no hard drive, no moving parts). Anyone who knows Windows knows that with updates turned on, it will soon fill the entire 4 gigs, and then some. Well I've had updates turned off for months because there's just no place to put them. Finally I said "enough".

The EEE-PC was designed to run a very compact version of Linux, which has no virus worries! So I Downnloaded a couple of Linux distros and tried them. First EEE-Buntu, aka Easy Peasy. It worked fine, wireless worked right away, but when I tried to install applications, one after the other "isn't supported for your computer type"/ Say what? I've used VLC, MPlayer, and SMPlayer for Windows for a LONG time under Windows, and they worked just fine. EEE-Buntu wouldn't hear of it! Plus the MediaPlayer that came with EEE-Buntu was AWFUL. No color/gamma/hue adjustments (and the picture was too dark), and simple avi format divx files played back choppy...like a very fast slideshow. ARRGH!

Time to wipe the lil' drive and try something new. I downloaded and burned the ISO for Xandros, the default Linux distro designed for the EEE. Having done so, the system booted fine, and I could log on to my neighbor's unencrypted wifi network, but not my WPA encrypted one. I switched to WEP encryption. I still couldn't log on. So I turned off encryption altogether. IT STILL WOULDN'T mate with my Netgear Routher 15 feet away, but worked just fine with my neighbors more than a hundred yards away. Maddening!

I turned to the book "EEE PC for Dummies" and it suggested deleting all connections from the "Network" tab, and entering the info for my router manually step by step. BINGO! THAT worked just fine, and with strong-encryption TURNED ON, so I'm not providing internet service to the neighborhood. If I can "see theirs", they can certainly "see mine".

I've only added one item other than the default software that installed with Xandros. The decss dvd debian package, so I can play DVDs with an external (USB) drive (through SM Player). The copy of Bonnie and Clyde I picked up for five bucks at Wally-World plays and looks great...no dropped frames. Pretty much everything else I need is already there!

It's amazing how snappy this wimpy little machine is with an operating system that doesn't waste cpu-cycles on eye-candy, and bull****!