Great little notebook for a great price!
Headings
Why would I or you want one?
Believe it or not, I don't have a connected Mobile phone, that's not to say it will always be that way, though I just hate being a sheep for the sake of it. I really have no use for a mobile phone, I couldn't handle people ringing me wherever I am, I look at it like an invasion of privacy, not for me, well not at the moment anyway.
Why am I babbling on about mobile phones?
Well part of the reason I bought the EEEPC was so I could take it with me and do almost anything with it, nope don't want to play any game apart from maybe and old arcade style game, I don't want to do AutoCAD work or any other high end process, but I do want to be able to access the net, my VoIP calls and surf the net wherever I am.
I searched about online reading forums and tech articles, finding out what was what and which one to get, I decided on the ASUS because I admire them for taking a chance on Linux, yep I'm weird like that!
Upgrade my BABEEE
About one week after I got it I upgraded the RAM to 2 gig and also bought a 8 gig SDHC card for it, I am not sure that I absolutely needed to upgrade the RAM, though seeing as RAM is so cheap I thought why not.
The EEEPC is certainly not for everyone, if you want a big Laptop, bloody get one, don't get a EEEPC then go on like a little school girl because it can't do what a fully featured laptop can do. For what I need, it is perfect, a big laptop would never get used, I only want a real computer, desktop or server and a small notebook, I have never seen the sense in an inferior Laptop, sorry that's just me, I prefer to sit up straight on a comfortable chair and use the desktop, rather than lounge around like a Y-Gen sloth. Each to their own.....I guess.
For me the price was right!
The cheapest I found at the time was from OfficeWorks in Campbellfield, they had two (one black, one white) that winbloze twits had returned, see even though the idiots (mindless sheeple) frustrate me no end, it can be advantageous that we let them run free in society, as much as, generally it really annoys me. Essentially they were both second hand, I knew I would have to remove the winbloze sheeple germs but that's a small price to pay. They were priced at $300 but when we started the black one up at least it needed login details, of course I knew it would be possible to "start again" and reformat, but didn't exactly know what Linux Distro I would be installing and really didn't know much about the ASUS/Xandros system so I told him to get me the lowest price, he asked the boss and I got it for $270, cool that would at least pay for the RAM upgrade, sweet!
The EEEPC 701SD has a eight gigabyte SSD drive the extra space is nice IMO. After some reading resetting the EEEPC distro was a breeze you just have to restore it back to default, I didn't know this at all and seeing as it was so easy, I even rang up the guy who served me at "OW" and told him what need to be done if the white EEEPC already had a user and password, I'm good like that lol. I decided to install the basic version of EEEBUNTU I installed the "Base" install as I knew I could just add what I wanted as I went along, I have not installed much at all really, the updates will fill the SSD quick enough I'm sure! Of course I needed VoIP and after reading up on the latest Linux softphone software I settled on the good old reliable SJphone Linux, v.1.60.299, 09.24.05, the Linux version doesn't have a fancy interface and that's fine with me, it's easy to configure, no bullshit eyecandy!
Wireless Broadband - Exetel HSPA
The only choice for my EEEPC was Exetel HSPA Wireless, there pricess absolutely "cream" the competition no matter what bullshit other providers try to spin, there are some classic examples of this spin out there. I just like the cheapest prices, FFS all these resellers go through Optus Mobile Towers, there would be very little difference in the connection at your end. A fool and his fanboy money are soon parted, I can but snigger! Exetel also offer VoIP so I use that for my calls from my EEEPC over Mobile Broadband. Exetel's members area is excellent you can do most everything there without having to sit on a phone waiting for Customer Service.
The Huawei E169 USB wireless modem was a breeze to configure with eeebuntu, I have only made a dozen calls with VoIP over wireless but so far so good.
I will add more as I go ;o)
