Comments | elettaria: My adventures with computers, and a review of the EEE PC 900

elettaria

My adventures with computers, and a review of the EEE PC 900

Mar 09, 2009 13:00

It's odd to look back at what computers were like fifteen years ago. When I was growing up, the internet was unheard-of, floppy disks were floppy, screens were green on black, printers were dot matrix, computer games were so basic that they now have retro charm, I was one of the few students at my school writing my homework on the computer, and I ( Read more... )

disability, visual issues, review, netbooks, ergonomics, computing, accessibility blogging

Comments 7

eccentricterri March 9 2009, 22:40:40 UTC

I have the Asus eeepc 1000H with Linux easy peesy on it. I changed the operating system because I didn't like the pre-installed version. I have had no issues at all. It works great everything that I have done so far. I am about to work on my old web page soon so we will see how the software works but that has more to do with what is available with my OS instead of the computer. My husband has the same system with Windows XP on it. He just installed it but has had no issues thus far. We did opt for the solid state drives so I am sure XP will have some issues but none so far.

elettaria March 10 2009, 10:07:35 UTC

From what I hear, Linux is great if you want it for really basic use (e.g. you're not going to be installing any software yourself), or very advanced use (you could take the computer apart and put it back together yourself in a new and exciting way), but it's less useful for the rest of us who are in the middle of that. Also there's the problem that plenty of software just doesn't run on Linux, and that was the clincher for me as those audiobooks are my lifeline. (RNIB are muttering about getting better software one of these days.)

This is one of the newest EEEs, and I hear the additional size makes various things a lot easier, like seeing the screen and typing. How do you find those areas? Where are the speakers, what's the sound like, and does it depend on what the netbook is sitting on? Are you happy with the small text that comes as standard, and have you tried changing it at all?

eccentricterri March 11 2009, 02:06:22 UTC

I have installed various programs on my version of Linux. It has a synaptic package managers(kind of like add/remove for windows)that basically aids the newer Linux users to install a variety of programs. I have open office, a genealogy program, an art program, and added various games. I have added more but I am not on the laptop at the moment. I think the issues would be to find the right program to play the audio books unless you used something like wine to emulate windows. It can bog down your system but should be fine for just playing audio books.

Mine is the 10" monitor which is fabulous. It is pretty nice to type on. I have enlarged my fonts because it was hard for me to read. It didn't take long to find where to change settings with a little exploring. The speakers are underneath towards the front. The sound is really good. i haven't tried it on too many surfaces but haven't had an issue, yet.

elettaria March 11 2009, 10:52:27 UTC

Sounds like they ironed out the XP bugs then. They'd have had to, the product would have been a flop otherwise. Netbooks have a relatively high return rate as it is, I believe due to people not getting on with Linux, deciding that they'd rather have something with better storage, or having trouble using such a small laptop. And of course they know they're going to be dealing with that upfront, it's just that it can be hard to gauge what it will really be like to experience, plus you'll always get some people who don't bother to read the spec before buying. Anyway, no trouble when you enlarged your fonts, such as what I described? How much did you enlarge them? Can you keep the netbook at the standard viewing distance you'd use for an ordinary laptop? Is there any difference doing this on an XP machine as opposed to a Linux one?

The problem with the audiobooks is that they're in DAISY format. This is partly because it's meant to offer all sorts of special facilities, although in practice they don't bother addings page number ( ... )

Thread 5

green_knight March 10 2009, 07:43:32 UTC

I used to have a Psion series 5, and loved it dearly - I could type on the keyboard, I loved the 'instant on' feature, and I ran it from, and saved data to, a flash card which I could then pop into a card reader and transfer to my main computer. That got around the synchronizing problem as well as the 'lose the battery and everything is gone' problem ( ... )

elettaria March 10 2009, 10:33:44 UTC

It would be, you're right. Netbooks are insanely popular, Apple fans are very devoted and always happy to explore whatever new technology Apple brings out (and it generally does a very snazzy job of bringing out new stuff), they should tap into that. One of the netbooks I'm going to apply to review is pretty much Asus thinking "now what would Apple do with a netbook?". In other words, it's a high-end netbook, somewhat defeating the original purpose of having a small, cheap mini-laptop, and it's all pretty and high-spec and what have you. I'm curious to see how well it will do.

You can get wi-fi on a bus these days? Good heavens. I replied to your original comment about using the EEE on the bus, by the way, and would be interested to hear your response. Is it an EEE with a SSD (and thus supposedly safer for a moving environment)? I've a feeling all the 7" models had those. How easy do you find it to keep it steady on your lap on the bus? I'm still looking into different add-ons and bits of software, but I know there are ways ( ... )