Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 17th Jun 2008 19:35 UTC
As we all know by now, the Asus Eee PC has been a massive success for Asus. While that's really nice for the men and women working at Asus, us operating system enthusiasts like the device for another reason: it came pre-loaded with something else than Windows, which creates awareness of alternatives among the public, which in turn helps to diversify the operating system marketplace - something we all want. While the new Eee PC can be pre-loaded with Windows, the Linux version is still there. El Reg takes a look at the Linux version of the new Eee PC 901.
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Member since:
2005-11-11
Ah well, and a "Menu" key seems to be present, too. Two keys, nearly useless, wasting space on the keyboard (and making the space bar smaller).
).
For Linux use, please add Meta keys and a middle mouse button. :-)
The home (windows) button hides all apps and shows the (tabbed) desktop, from where all programs are launched in the easy UI. Useful enough. The menu button, sure that's less useful. But there's no reason one couldn't define that as a Meta key. This is in fact what I have done, so the "menu" key is what I use to create accented characters now.
A middle mouse button would be nice for sure. But at least one can emulate it by clicking both mouse buttons a once. This should be easier now since the 901 actually has two regular buttons instead of what seems to be a rocker button on my sister's 900 (though middle click by clicking both is still somehow possible, just difficult. Bit that's what a nice small wireless mouse is for
So... can one operate one of these devices without any crapblobs in ones kernel?
Yes. People have been loading other flavors of Linux on it with comparatively little difficulty. The wireless is a sticking point, requiring a patched madwifi (and acceptance of Atheros' binary HAL) so it may not be as pure as some would like. Hopefully ath5k will get there soon.
Xandros as it appears on the Eee also boots very fast with a proprietary init replacement: fastinit. It's been reverse engineered and a drop in open source replacement, finit, is available. I'm using it so I can have /var/log (and run and lock) mounted as tmpfs.
There are still some proprietary bits shipping with the system if it bothers one. Skype for one, Adobe Acrobat Reader for another. Evince replaces the latter nicely. Xandros File Manager is another. Konqueror is there too though if one prefers.