Talk:Asus Eee PC/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Archive 5

User replaceable RAM in the Surf Edition

Recent forum posts on http://forum.eeeuser.com seem to indicate that the surf ram is indeed upgradable. Should this new information be reflected in the wikipedia article, as it seems that the soldered ram information is outdated? 216.47.136.121 (talk) 19:13, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

The 2G version has its RAM Soldered. Both the 4G and 4G Surf have upgradeable ram. However, unlike the 4G which has an easy to access panel to replace the ram; you must disassemble to 4G Surf completely to access the RAM. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.232.126.226 (talk) 21:28, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

No, i bought an 4G surf and it DOES have an access panel to upgrade RAM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.239.77.223 (talk) 03:52, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

I believe the black 4G Surf has a RAM access panel (mine does), but the white ones don't. 75.67.58.13 (talk) 13:24, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

I have a UK spec blue 4G Eee PC, purchased recently. The box just says EEE PC, the laptop has a sticker on the bottom that says it is a 4G SURF, Revision 701c. It has a webcam, and an access pannel that gives access to the RAM. One screw on the panel is covered with a small sticker with the Eee PC logo. The sticker can be easily removed and replaced. Opening the panel provides access to the SODIMM module. The battery is the 4400mAh Surf battery. This seems to make the blue 4G Eee (at least the UK version) a hybrid between the 4G and the 4G Surf, and makes the table in the article invalid - 212.183.134.129 (talk) 09:26, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Storage

The referred article clearly says the maximum ram is 1 GiB, so why 2 GiB?

http://www.eeeuser.com/2007/09/11/confirmed-by-asus-eee-pc-ram-will-be-replaceable/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.255.126.131 (talk) 09:40, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

That article is very old; the device wasn't even for sale at that time. Since it has gone on sale it has been found to function just fine with 2GB modules in the BIOS and in OSs that are configured to recognized more than 1GB. ASUS has had the Eee PC OS setup to only recognize up to 1GB of RAM, even if more is installed. Setting a max RAM limit is very easy to do in the Linux kernel config, and should be very easy to undo once all relevant source code has been made available. --69.242.142.89 01:57, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

The Configuration section later clarifies that the kernel needs to be recompiled to recognize more than 1 GB. The two sections need to be tied together somehow. SpareSimian (talk) 18:35, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Price info fix

I have added a bit to clarify that news media speculation had created the 4GB@$199 myth, in the face of the actual initial announcement by ASUS indicating a 2 GB model at "around $199." This has long been a source of controversy and I'm surprised myself and others let it sit so long unfixed as I have initiated some of the major changes and info in the page (ie 700, 701, 801 update, xG and Surf info and update, GPL response info, etc). The wide spread media speculation about the Eee PC was very wrong on many points which should be easily found and refuted here, just like the $199 price issue. The link to the 2 GB $199 release was already linked to in this article. News reports from third parties are not a good source for info when the primary source of the companies press release is easily available for confirmation of the truth. --69.242.142.89 15:16, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

RAM size

Yesterday someone claimed the eee pc 2g surf now comes with 512 mb's of RAM, not 256 mb.. And he changed the article accordingly? Are there any references to that? And shouldn't the article mention that there are two versions of the eee pc 2G? -- JanCK (talk) 10:48, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

The official ASUS Eee PC page now shows 512 MB RAM for the 2G Surf. http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm The link I posted to had pictures of the shipping and packaging box that showed the 512 MB spec listed. There is no Eee PC shipping with only 256 MB RAM, so all references should be updated. 69.242.142.89 (talk) 20:20, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Communities

This category of 'external links' seems to be getting more than its fair share of link spam (links to commercial sites that do no add to the encyclopia). Should it be deleted? quota (talk) 20:57, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

I think the external links are needed. The EeeUser forums are notable (and useful), and reviews by reputable sites/publications are certainly fine. I think people just need to keep an eye out for questionable additions (like the eeewiki.org link I just deleted, which seemed to just a copy/paste of stuff from the EeeUser wiki.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Perardi (talk • contribs) 05:59, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Of all the sites, only a few are useful to a reader, I am going to clean up the list removing the most blatant spam links. Really the category should be removed as it is a magnet for spam. Г^edʃtǁcɭ 23:15, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

The current three links are very useful, and I would suggest keeping them as an essential minimum. It would be good to have some kind of consensus on what is expected to be here. Besides the manufacturers site I would expect a link to the main user forum(s) and maybe one or two major reviews. As the community grows, I would also expect to find a developers site in the link section. 210.213.196.131 (talk) 09:58, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Software limitations

So, what can you do on this computer? Can you put Skype on it? Can you put Open Office and Firefox? Will it run DivX movies and video streaming form the Web? What other limitations should I expect? --Cryout (talk) 21:21, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

If you took two minutes to read the first couple of pages of the article, you'd know the answer to that.... quota (talk) 15:50, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Point taken. I read them and I see that the examples I gave are answered directly. Still, what should I expect to *not* be able to do with the eee? --Cryout (talk) 19:59, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

I imagine the EEE is very poorly suited to run recent (like after 2005) high-power 3D games with impressive graphics, since the 3D hardware is pretty low-power. You can still run older video games on it, like DOOM or emulators. Since you don't have much storage on it you probably won't be able to store any substantial portion of your music or video collections on it, and although I suppose you could in theory, I don't recommend trying to edit video on it, because of the reduced storage and power, as well as the lack of FireWire. Since it doesn't have an optical drive you can't watch or burn DVDs on it without an external one (and possibly extra software). Although I think the article says it's been tested with Vista I doubt you'd ever want to run Vista on it because it would be extremely slow, due to the reduced RAM. Some programs won't run on the included Linux operating system, but you can install Windows XP on it. Basically you can do almost anything on it that you can do with a machine that's just a few years old (which is a surprising amount), but keep in mind that it has less storage and no built in optical drive. --TexasDex ★ 00:16, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank, this is helpful. --Cryout (talk) 00:20, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

"...imagine the EEE is very poorly suited to run re..." wrong! This baby can ran new games as well, read more about intel GPU. 71.99.85.56 (talk) 05:26, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Wrong! Yourself. The EEEpc is entirely capable for what it is. It is not a super speed machine that was even designed to run the latest and greatest 3D games, nor can I even comprehend why anyone would want it to. As a VERY happy EEE owner and user I find it to be a fantastic tool for various work, school and personal tasks, but don't try to make it into something it's not. A EEE WILL NOT replace a full powered computer meant to fulfill gaming and other extensive multimedia tasks. Anyone who thinks a $300 - $400 computer about the size of a hardback book (only thinner) with a 7" screen, a Celeron-M 900mhz underclocked at 650mhz, 512kb cache and 1.4 GB +/- of free space out of the box is going to be the perfect gaming system is delusion. Once again the EEE is exceptional at what it's made for, poor for what it wasn't. To promote it as otherwise is going to leave behind a lot of disappointed buyers. Worlock93 (talk) 13:13, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

The Intel GPU is pretty low-power. It will work for basic 3D accelleration (video games 3 or 4 years old, basic things like Google Earth, etc), but if you want to try anything high-caliber on it prepare to be disappointed. Relative to practically every other computer out there, the EEE PC sacrifices speed, storage space, and display size for weight and battery life. As evidenced by the positive reaction, however, it's a trade-off that many are happy with.--TexasDex ★ 18:19, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Question: Can extra (or updated) software be added with a package manager & repository? -Bernard S. Jansen (talk) 12:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The short answer is yes. The long answer can be found here. In fact most of your questions can probably be answered by looking on eeeuser.com and I would encourage you to look there instead of here for future questions, since this talk page is technically for discussion to improve the wikipedia article, not about the subject itself (see WP:TALK). --TexasDex ★ 18:19, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I raised the question on the talk page, because I feel that the answer to this question should be contained in the article. Based on your response and the link you posted, I'll make such an edit. -Bernard S. Jansen (talk) 23:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Edit: I just noticed that there was a mention of apt-get and repositories in the article that I didn't notice before. Added mention of Synaptic, and a wikilink to Software repository, as the concept of what a repsitory actually is is foreign to maintstream OS users. -Bernard S. Jansen (talk) 23:37, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Did ASUS rebuild the Xandros/Debian software packages from source code, with GCC code-optimizing flags specific to this hardware? If anyone knows and can "prove" it (that is, source it), it'd be nice to have that in this article. Thanks in advance? Enquiring minds wanna know. --Jerome Potts (talk) 05:38, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Prices

I have removed all the prices apart from the price in Taiwanese Dollars and USD equivalent and the price in the USA. Prices in Pounds, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australian Dollars are not really required.Г^edʃtǁcɭ 18:41, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

"Not really required" according to which criteria exactly? This is the English Wikipedia, not the USA/Taiwan Wikipedia, so the article should at least include the prices in the currencies of the major English speaking countries which last time I looked included the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland. By removing these prices, you're actually making the article less informative and not really improving it in any way. 217.155.20.163 (talk) 01:14, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

You can draw the line at the worlds major currencies:

• US Dollar (USD)
• British Pound (GBP)
• Euro (EUR)
• Swiss Franc (CHF)
• Japanese Yen (JPY)
• Australian Dollar (AUS)
• New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
• Canadian Dollar (CAD)

Combined they make up almost all the money in the world.--58.111.143.164 (talk) 12:53, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

I think, it's just not feasible to list every price in every currency. And I don't see where one should draw the line. Why shouldn't a Norwegian or a Kenyan not be as much of a appreciated reader of the English wikipedia as an native speaker? I'm happy that the German wikipedia lists the German prices but the English wikipedia (sry, for all the native speakers) kind of got an international version. When I look at the page I expect some general information and as I'm not living in Taiwan or the US I don't expect to get a price comparison on the wikipedia. I expect to get informed about an approximate price range and a typical price payed by most of the customer (that'd probably the US price). Maybe we could open up an extra table listing various prices and shipping dates in the countries. But I don't think the main specs-table is the place to put all the prices. -- JanCK (talk) 15:39, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

User:58.111.143.164, you listed several currencies. What about Indian rupee or Chinese Renminbi. Even if we could decide that those are the important currencies, there could be different prices within these currencies? I'm not sure that the French, German and Spanish price is the same. And how can we decide not to list any African or South-American price? I guess, I'd stick with the price of the country of origin and the country with the most users. Hm, thinking about that, this might soon be India or China. hm, but for now, I guess it would be easier for me to organize shipping to Europe myself from the US than from India. But maybe even that'll change. Dunno. I'll just stick with the Taiwanese and the US price. -- JanCK (talk) 15:14, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I put back in the Euro -- that's a lareger economic unit than either NT or USD, and more stable than the latter. But I agree the table is cluttered on this row. Why are the NT figures followed by 'about $US?' .. this varies all the time, and is easily converted if anyone wants to. So I would suggest three or four prices at most: NT (because that's the source of the device), Euro (important market), GBP (global currency), USD (volatile at the moment, but of interest to many Wikipedia readers) quota (talk) 19:43, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

7 and 8 " same resolution

can somone please add this link to references: http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/news/2008/01/11/CES-2008-Asus-Eee-PC-With-SplashTop-Linux-8in-Screen/p1

thx 71.99.85.56 (talk) 05:24, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Eee DC input voltage specs?

Does anyone know what the DC input specs are, perhaps as you read them from the included power supply? I haven't seen any mention of it in the manuals I've downloaded from Asus. Further is there any documentation of the input voltage range that the Eee will accept? The reason I ask is that the OLPC accepts a wide range of input voltage and it's power supply outputs 12vdc, perfect for cars, batteries, PV panels and such. I'm wondering if the same is true for the Eee? --D0li0 (talk) 10:50, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't hook anything up directly to car power unless I had written information from the manufacturer that it was designed for it. Car power while nominally 12V is rough as hell. Plugwash (talk) 22:47, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

For the EEEpc 4G and probably the others; the output is 9.5v DC 2.5A on the adapter, on the case it indicates a positive tip and the amps at 2.315 at 22 watts. Also note that the 4G and the 4G surf have the same labeling on the case. The label on my non-4G surf says 4G surf on the bottom and I made sure that I didn't make a mistake and that I don't have a surf. The manual is the same for the 4G (701), 4G Surf, and the 8G, but does not list the power requirements. 70.149.40.167 (talk) 20:32, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Criticism section - confusion

Even though the supplied Linux operating system includes an Add/Remove Software icon on the settings page, it only gives the option of installing or removing a few programs and does not allow the use of many applications available via open-source software. The Eeepc user base has begun building custom software repositories for the device.

Does this mean that the operating system itself has this limitation, meaning it is not possible to install Linux programs other than those specifically customised to work with the Eee PC's implementation, or simply that such programs cannot be installed via the "Add/Remove" icon and have to be installed by other means? The latter would be at most a minor annoyance, the former a very serious limitation. 217.155.20.163 (talk) 00:57, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Out of the box Xandros only has limited software available from an ASUS source specific to the EEE. However, since Xandros is Debian based by changing the source server for the Debian package manager apt-get you can easily install nearly any linux based software. Edit this file /etc/apt/sources.list to a debian respository and the packages available are huge! The GUI package manager is most likely a front end interface for apt-get. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.232.126.226 (talk) 21:38, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Virtually impossible ?

The article says "The Kensington lock slot is too close to the VGA out connector, making it virtually impossible to use both at the same time." What does that mean, virtually impossible ? That is appears to be impossible, but is actually possible ? Or that it is practically (actually) impossible ? Or possible, but with a lot of effort ?

--Xerces8 (talk) 11:12, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

To give you an idea the lock slot is placed right where one of the locking screws would go, in fact you can see the screw receptacle for the cable screw through the slot. As you can guess the eee doesn't allow for screwing in the monitor cable. Because of the design you would need to remove the casing surrounding the head of the monitor cable or saw off one side of the monitor cable head. Possible, yes. Practicable, no. You would need to make yourself a custom monitor extension for most practicable uses, such as setting up a projector for presentation and locking it down. Virtually impossible because it is impossible to do without severely and permanently modifying components. [usemasper] 70.149.40.167 (talk) 20:57, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I believe Xerces had a problem with the use of the term "virtually" when what the passage meant is that it is practically ("in practice") impossible. It has since been changed to simply "impossible" though that it probably literally an overstatement as it might be possible with cable modifications (or, say, a custom combo kensington/monitor dongle). "Me fail English? That's unpossible!" --Justfred (talk) 21:47, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

His wording seemed to address not the issue with the word impossible but rather the vagueness surrounding the the statement. Stating "practically" rather that "virtually" doesn't really clear up anything as what is practical for one may not be for another. So now the entry, instead of being ambitious on the subject, is inaccurate. [usemasper] 65.8.157.26 (talk) 23:23, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Operating System Limitations

According to Xandros Support FAQ's (http://support.xandros.com/desktop-faq.php):

"The Eee PC is an ASUS product and is solely supported by them, including Operating system issues. The Operating System on the Eee PC is not a Xandros Product. While Xandros may have aided in the development of the Eee PC OS, it is owned and supported by ASUS."

The OS used in the EEE Pc is not a full (Home Premium, Server or Network) version of the Xandros Linux release. Much of the functionality and user configurable features of the operating system, as well as much of the KDE desktop GUI components, are extremely limited. As such, it should be considered a separate but similar OS, and not a true Xandros install.

The EEE will, however, accept most Linux releases that would be otherwise suitable for machines which require a less intensive use of processor or RAM capabilities. It will also accept Windows XP. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ASGPhoenix (talk • contribs) 21:30, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

XP

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/23/eee_pc_japan_launch/ XP on Eee PCs sold in Japan. RB30DE (talk) 23:58, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Footnotes, citations, etc.

This article is quite a mess as to its References, etc. Not sure how best to proceed.

'References' should be to scholarly papers, generally available (in print) material, or persistent URIs. But many Wikipedia articles are loose about that. But this article is quite bad .. many links to blogs, web pages, etc., of only ephemeral significance.

'Footnotes' would be clarifications, not external references at all -- but generally Wikipedia doesn't do those.

'Citations' at the end all seem to be 'External links'?

Discussion welcome. quota (talk) 15:37, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

You've got my full backing to remove any unreliable or non-useful sources on sight. This article has a bad habit of picking up inappropriate external links. Once these refs are removed, it'll be easier to spot where to insert reliable references. Don't worry too much about the semantic difference between "footnotes" and "references" at this stage; most articles intermingle them freely, because Wikipedia's inline citation mechanism doesn't support distinction between the two. Chris Cunningham (talk) 15:50, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Citation #4

The link in the article seems to imply that the linked article would mention the sales figures. But there's no mention of this 300,000 number anywhere on that page and, in fact, the linked article was written months before the EEE PC went on sale. Just bringing it to your attention because I don't know enough about the EEE PC to know if this is referenced elsewhere. Thanks Roshangeorge (talk) 13:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

"seen in person by this contributor"

..is not good enough. Read WP:V. --Jerome Potts (talk) 21:35, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

can a set of pictures be a citation?

[1] which is just a list of jpegs of the eee pc was added as a citation. I have taken it off as it does not seem to support the paragraph it is attached to... Unless someone can explain this to me. --Brian R Hunter (talk) 21:45, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Samba protocol

The article states "Samba protocol is only partially supported. If you have access to a file server you will be able to open a file from it, but the eee PC will make a local copy and you won't be able to save to the file server."

From personal experience, this is not true. I've copied files to and from Windows and Linux shared drives with no problems. As there's no citation for this, can anyone confirm this, or shall I delete this section? Aawood (talk) 20:23, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Also, you can edit/view files on a remote share without making a local copy if you mount a samba share(Tools/Mount Network Share). I use this method to watch videos from my server without making a local copy.41.240.179.86 (talk) 12:10, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

That it is not sourced is a problem indeed. You should add a "fact" template (citation needed) which should be answered after a reasonable while, failing which you remove the passage altogether. Note though that both your personal experiences (assumedly on other systems) is of little relevance here: the passage states that this system offers only partial Samba support, hence the limitation. --Jerome Potts (talk) 21:42, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I accept that my personal experience (which is with an Eee, not on another system) isn't in itself valid, it's just what brought me to wonder about the validity of that line. I'm not sure how to add a template, but I'll look it up and add it. Aawood (talk) 12:38, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

And done... and now I know how to use templates :) Thank you for your advice on this. Aawood (talk) 12:42, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Misc Suggestion

Sure would be nice if someone provided all three dimensions (not just the screen) and the weight. thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.9.94.34 (talk) 17:01, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

I came to the talk page to make exactly this suggestion Fholson 17:51, 26 February 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fholson (talk • contribs)

Well, why not do the research and add that!? quota (talk) 20:43, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

From http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm the weight is 0.92 kg. No mention of dimensions, though. SpareSimian (talk) 18:33, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Just my own measurements. While closed, 22.5-23cm x 16.5-17cm x ~4cm peak (from top of lid to higher-upper foot tilt at base) to ~2.5 (from top of lid to lower foot tilt at base). Feel free to alter this so it is more understand able. 70.149.40.167 (talk) 20:44, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Battery Life

A battery life of less than 5 hours makes this appliance useless for mobile usage. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.213.65.214 (talk) 12:07, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Are you retarded? - Go to a forum and bawwww! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.48.185.54 (talk) 15:48, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Why does it take you 5 hours to accomplish your task? Perhaps a toaster or clothes dryer might be a more appropriate appliance. 75.67.58.13 (talk) 13:33, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Eee PC 900 series

Looks like these are being officially announced in the next couple of days. Are we going to branch the different configurations off into different articles, or add the 900 series to the existing table, or what? Decisions have to be made! Sockatume (talk) 23:20, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

There is a press release at http://eeepc.asus.com/global/news03042008.htm --87.127.117.246 (talk) 20:27, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Here is a new article that reports from CeBit and shares that:

• The demo unit has the same processor as the 1st generation
• This should be a June release
• A product representative admits that Asus could upgrade the processor

[| [article link ]] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.175.123.100 (talk) 23:14, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

I'd say that we probably won't have enough different material to split the article. It looks like it's just an incremental upgrade, not a huge overhaul (but the screen size improvement alone is enough to make me want to buy one as soon as the new ones come out). The table format that we currently use for specs should be sufficient to include the 900 series. --TexasDex ★ 20:15, 8 March 2008 (UTC)