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Asus Set To Release Desktop Eee PC Variant

Posted by kdawson on Tue May 27, 2008 02:04 AM
from the eight-days dept.
Linux Business Hardware
the_leander writes "The Register has pictures of the desktop version of Asus's Eee PC, reportedly called the 'Ebox.' It will be released early next month after it has been unveiled publicly at Computex in Taipei on June 3. It'll come equipped with the same Xandros Linux distribution as the Eee, though it's likely that Windows XP will be available also. But given the probable choice for CPU, Atom, ithe Ebox is unlikely to allow for the use of Vista, unless you're something of a masochist. It's expected to retail for $200-$300."
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Submission: Asus set to release desktop EeePC variant by the_leander (759904)
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  • Looks cool (Score:4, Funny)

    by BadAnalogyGuy (945258) <BadAnalogyGuy@gmail.com> on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:07AM (#23552833)
    I like the looks of it, but where is the floppy drive?
    • Come on, BadAnalogyGuy!

      The floppy drive on this machine is like the main character in Beckett's famous novel "Waiting for Godot" in which Godot never shows up, probably because Beckett was so drunk he forgot to write that part.
        • Yep - it was a play.

          I remember seeing Leo McKern and Max Wall performing it in Manchester several decades ago - one of the best plays I ever saw (Pinter's The Birthday Party may have trumped it, but it's a close call).

          Very good bad analogy, though :o)

          • Talking of becket: you should watch "The End of the Game" with a good cast... Though make sure you have a good samaritan friend handy for the next couple of days or you may end up hanging from a tree somewhere.

            Talking of the desktop EE this looks like the perfect thin client and/or set-top box for a linux/vlc based media distribution system. Rip out the hard disk and voila. It should have enough grunt to decode SD and scale it to 1344x768 without skipping frames. After all 4 year old Via can do that and Geo

  • Why's it so... flash? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ChowRiit (939581) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:12AM (#23552877)
    Is it just me, or does it seem somewhat odd to make a low budget PC quite so flash and stylish? Surely, if you're trying to get sales by having THE cheapest machine on the market, then perhaps people might not care how it looks so much as how much it costs?

    I would have thought you could shave at least $50 off the price if you built it in a really boring, plain case, without silly stands or LED buttons...
    • Pretty is just as cheap to mass produce as ugly. GM should take a lesson.
        • Like all costs of production, that cost get distributed over the units manufactured. Also, one measure of the cost of production is indicated by the marginal cost, that is, the cost incurred by producing one more unit. That particular measure would not be affected by a development cost.

          How much does a good design cost over a bad design? Are bad designers available for $20 an hour, and good designers available for $100 an hour? A large production run would dilute even a big difference in costs there.
        • It's a square box, on a silly stand, it's not really a grand feat of form and function.
    • It's just plastic

    • Re:Why's it so... flash? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dominique_cimafranca (978645) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:56AM (#23553083) Homepage

      People won't just buy it for its price or features, they'll also buy it for the wow factor. If the production cost difference is minimal, why not go the extra distance?

      Where I am, the EeePC is outselling other competitors (Classmate, Astone UMPC) precisely because of that. Sure, it's pricier, but you won't get embarrassed whipping it out in a café.

      Looks like the EBox was designed to look like a Wii.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by zakezuke (229119)

      I would have thought you could shave at least $50 off the price if you built it in a really boring, plain case, without silly stands or LED buttons...

      I don't know what it costs to manufacture PC cases. I would guess $10 to $15 for a cheap one with a power supply. While you can get away with some cheap sheet metal, there are those folds for the card cage. This thing looks like you can mass produce it in a mold without those pesky inside folds or rivets. I mean it looks nice, but I'm thinking the price mark would be similar to that of a regular PC case.

      Also, I think also tried their hand at beige box PCs. I had a couple of hand me downs which were no

    • It's a white plastic box on a stalk. The desktop stand is the first thing to go into the trash. What's stylish about it?
    • You need a specifically designed case. Making it stylish isn't really more complicated or costly than to make a boring one. A power status LED is something I would consider unavoidable, and it costs less than a dollar.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Rogerborg (306625)

      I would have thought you could shave at least $50 off the price if you built it in a really boring, plain case, without silly stands or LED buttons...

      Why would you think that? Silly stands and LEDs cost pennies, not $50 per unit. It costs money for someone to produce the design, but that's a fixed cost, not per unit, and since they just cloned a Wii (and their previous design cloned the Acer Veriton, which was itself a bloated Mac Mini), that's not such a huge expense either.

      And even if they could sha

  • I even hate myself for this... (Score:3, Funny)

    by penguin king (673171) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:22AM (#23552923)

    "The Register has pictures of the desktop version of Asus's Eee PC, reportedly called the 'Ebox.' It will be released early next month after it has been unveiled publicly at Computex in Taipei on June 3. It'll come equipped with the same Xandros Linux distribution as the Eee, though it's likely that Windows XP will be available also. But given the probable choice for CPU, Atom, ithe Ebox is unlikely to allow for the use of Vista, unless you're something of a masochist. It's expected to retail for $200-$300."


    I really do.... I feel the karma drain

    • Re:I even hate myself for this... (Score:5, Informative)

      by the_leander (759904) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @03:43AM (#23553291) Homepage Journal
      Not my fault, honest!

      Seriously though, I'd put in a link to the inquirer as well (they had larger pictures of this device), which was removed and had forgotten to add the price. This was my first ever submission to Slashdot so I had actually run a spell check. What I submitted was error free.

      Thank you editors. I really did need the pedant hoards blasting me for this...

  • Mythfrontend box (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pembo13 (770295) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:22AM (#23552929) Homepage
    That's what I thought when I saw it. Sweet deal.

  • Wow... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RuBLed (995686) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:32AM (#23552983)
    It's like a portable desktop...

    Seriously, if it is slim and small enough I can clearly think of several nice uses. It's a perfect living room pc, a kitchen computer ( I dont want my mom to get my laptop dirty when browsing recipes ), a car pc (someone would definitely do this), what else.. ohhh.. and a beowulf cluster, imagine a server rack of these..

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by zakezuke (229119)

      Seriously, if it is slim and small enough I can clearly think of several nice uses. It's a perfect living room pc, a kitchen computer ( I dont want my mom to get my laptop dirty when browsing recipes ), a car pc (someone would definitely do this), what else.. ohhh.. and a beowulf cluster, imagine a server rack of these..
      Why not a laptop?

  • I doubt this will take off like the EEE (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jkrise (535370) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:47AM (#23553045) Journal
    People buy desktops for connecting to backend office infrastructure, and sad to say, the Windows-Office lockin still rules in this space. Skype and other stuff like Image manipulation might make sense in the Home Linux market, but there are already plenty cheap hardware out there that can run Linux for under $200. The gBox for one.

    So Asus will find it very hard to push these desktops unless they race to the bottom. Which might rule out Windows XP as well.
  • ...It'll come in windows and linux flavours, but the linux one will have half the ram and hdd capacity as the windows version and cost a twice as much due to 'lesser availability'.

    Actually MSI is making the linux version of its 'Wind' notebook [gizmodo.com] with 50% less RAM, 50% less battery and taking away bluetooth!

    Needless to say, many are miffed that they would have an unwanted software charge attached just to get the more capable hardware!

    • actually (Score:5, Informative)

      by nguy (1207026) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @03:34AM (#23553253)
      ...It'll come in windows and linux flavours, but the linux one will have half the ram and hdd capacity as the windows version and cost a twice as much due to 'lesser availability'.

      Actually, for the announced configurations, the Eee 900 with Linux will have 20G flash (instead of 12G) and be slightly more expensive as a result. A fair tradeoff.

      For the HP 2133, the Linux versions are consistently cheaper than the equivalent Windows versions.

      So, direct your anger elsewhere. These mini laptops have been good for Linux.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by lbbros (900904)
        I believe the OP is referring to the situation in Australia, where the Eee 900 with Linux will cost more than the Windows version.

  • Wouldn't it be better for Asus to release low cost motherboard designed for Small Form Factor case like the Mac Mini. The motherboard would then have slots for DDR2 memory. Then come out with new SSD hard drive that can fit into a slot specially designed for the Asus motherboard and replaceable when it goes bad in 2-4 years.

    In other note, the style of the case is beautiful. It would be nice if it would have Fast Wifi/Ethernet and HDMI/Composite Video out. Then use VideoLAN to stream video from desk
    • There are already plenty of small, low-cost motherboards around. But who wants to bother with them? And other companies just aren't picking them up enough.

  • Latest cheap thing vs Older good thing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zakezuke (229119) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @03:17AM (#23553175)
    Before I go into monologue mode, it looks like Dell already has something in the ultra slim ultra cheap arena. Dell EPP Inspiron 530S starts under $400, ok not as cheap as the Asus solution, but still.

    I do see a need for an Asus EEE laptop. Something ultra cheap that you can kick around, get some work done on it, but not be too worried if it gets lost or stolen. I see slightly less of a need for an Asus EEE desktop. The market is pretty flooded with desktops, so much so that getting something in the Socket A to 939 class for $200-$300 on closeout is very possible. While duel core is all the rage, the last time I checked new egg a 4000+ single core 939 was well under $50, and that is nothing to sneeze at. A 2000mhz socket A system does the job for most people IMHO.

    So the real question is this... do I want a trimmed down might as well be a laptop desktop, or do I want an older machine that might out perform it. There are no facts or specs to backup this assertion, it's just been my experience that new ultra cheap has often been outclassed by 3 year old goods.

    • Re:Makes no sense (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Technician (215283) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @02:56AM (#23553079)
      I don't see how any of this matters in a desktop.

      The RV folks like a battery friendly PC. As a marine map display for boat use, or a topo map unit, these would make fantastic GPS map display units and double as an entertainment server for movies and music. Battery life with a 300 watt PC sucks. A sub 60 watt unit is more along the lines of usable in the evenings on battery power.
    • Lack imagination much?
    • You can get a year old regular desktop for the same price and run an operating system of your choice,

      You can get a big, noisy, ugly, year old desktop, high power-consuming, requiring an O/S reinstall, along with hunting down all the applications (a no-no for the masses), with god-only-knows-what sort of hardware problems.

      Or you can get one of these things - and have all common workflows (skype, office, google, music) working out of the box.
    • Minus the numeric keyboard? I think you're thinking of the Amiga 600 rather than the 500...

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ozmanjusri (601766)
        Exactly, I wondered the same thing, its just trolling

        Ohhh, did the nasty reviewer man disrespect poor widdle Microsoft?

        Seriously, what's with this petulant Crokeresque "Leave Vista Alooonnnee" meme over the past few months?

        I mean, give me a break. This is the company the _invented_ FUD. For years we've been hearing "Linux is hard to install", "Linux has poor hardware support", "Command line everything" "No games", etc, etc, etc.

        Now it's your turn and you're whining like whipped bitches. Well suck i

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Vectronic (1221470)
          "Fight Fire With Fire And Everything Will Burn"

          "An Eye For An Eye Leaves Everyone Blind"

          Frankly, I dont like Microsoft anymore, nor am I ignorant to their previous and current propoganda, but this incessant Anti-Vista nonsense doesn't do much but help advertise Vista, people who have yet to 'experience' Vista, will start because its mentioned so often, under the impression that its so atrociously horrible that its just going to be a comedic little endeavor worth some giggles, then realize its not quite as b

          • Fighting fire with fire (Score:5, Interesting)

            by mangu (126918) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @07:11AM (#23554313)

            "Fight Fire With Fire And Everything Will Burn"

            Sure, but it might save your life. Read about it in this book [gutenberg.org]. When you are downwind from a big fire, set fire to the grass in front of you, then walk into the burned patch.


            up until the last few years, Linux has been all of those things to the common "e-mail checking and web browsing" computer users

            Define "few" years, please. I started using Linux in 1995 with the Yggdrasil "plug and play" distribution. At that time it was more or less like what the Microsoft shills claim, but still I was able to install and run it in less than an hour, without any outside help. Google didn't exist at the time and I had never met anyone who had ever used Linux.


            Compared to that, at about the same period it took me nearly a week and several consultations with other people until I got Windows 95 to run on the same machine. The hardware drivers had to be carefully configured and installed in a precise sequence to boot windows 95, even though it had been running windows 3.11 before. So, even if Linux was in an extremely primitive state for the common user at the time, it wasn't any more difficult to install and configure than windows.


            For normal use today, I think Linux with KDE is easier to use than XP (I have never tried Vista). For one thing, the "K" or "Start" menu is nicely organized, divided by application type instead of by software provider. Also, It's much easier to search and install software: click on "Add/Remove programs", search by keyword, click on "install" and "apply changes", and that's it. And copy/paste is easier too: select with the mouse, middle-click to paste. One handed, no need to CTRL-C, CTRL-V. And so on, etc, etc.


            Now, if you think it's off-topic to mention Vista in a discussion about Linux, think again: why is it that Linux is mentioned 177000 times in the Microsoft website [google.com]? It's always on-topic to mention the alternatives, of course.
             

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by drsmithy (35869)

          I mean, give me a break. This is the company the _invented_ FUD.

          I think you meant IBM.

          For years we've been hearing "Linux is hard to install", "Linux has poor hardware support", "Command line everything" "No games", etc, etc, etc.

          Difference is, most of that stuff was (or still is, in the case of games) true. Pretty much everything negative that gets written about Vista - *especially* on Slashdot - is just flat-out wrong.

          Microsoft's FUD pales into insignificance compared to the anti-Vista (and anti-Mi

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by jedidiah (1196)
            Nope. Edison invented FUD. Either that or he stole it from someone else (as was his practice).

            FUD didn't begin with Microsoft or IBM.

            You could probably find some examples in Greece, Egypt or Ur if you tried to look for it...

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by thegnu (557446)

            If you have something useful to contribute (e.g., exactly what problems happen if one runs Vista on that machine, or on a similar configuration?), by all means, go ahead. But just rehashing "but does it run Vista" one-liners is just noise and literally FUD.

            Right, except that this whole thread generated itself out of the trolls on your side. OP stated that you're not going to run Vista unless you're a masochist. Now let's deconstruct:

            1. Windows is the most common OS.
            2. Vista is the latest version of Windows.
            3. It has high system requirements.
            4. Most people hate running software on a machine that's not fast enough for it.

            What is the likelihood, really, that someone who is posting a synopsis about new hardware that it won't run--at satisfactory speeds--the ne

            • Let's talk about who made that progress then.

              It was made by people like those from Asus, who actually made a Linux computer for the masses. Or by the guys at Ubuntu putting together that wonderful distro. Or by the lots of guys who set their eyes on a realistic goal, like, say, let's make a little config utility, and actually achieved it.

              It was not made by the trolling fanboys posting FUD.

              In fact, any progress has been made in _spite_ of the trolling faboys and their blatant attempts at FUD. Those just help

      • Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Idaho (12907) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @03:46AM (#23553305)

        Exactly, I wondered the same thing, its just trolling, it would almost be as relevant if [..]


        You must have missed the memo, but Microsoft does not want you to be able to buy XP anymore. Everyone is supposed to move to Vista. So it is *most definitely* newsworthy if manufacturers are introducing *new products* a year and a half (!!) after Vista has been released to the public, *and they explicitly do not support the newest Microsoft OS at all*, although they do support the previous version - even though you're not even supposed to be able to buy that version anymore, at least not without jumping through all kinds of hoops. Hello? I consider this to be extremely newsworthy.

        It's not designed to run Vista, therefore it does not necessitate any reference to Vista, it probably wouldnt run Ubuntu very well either, or OSX...

        The EEE Laptops run Ubuntu just fine. I would be very surprised if these desktop versions wouldn't. Whether you could turn them into a Hackintosh is kindof a moot point IMO, but probably you could, at least if OS X happens to support the specific hardware they used. Please "get the facts" first next time, thanks.

      • Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:5, Informative)

        by Idaho (12907) on Tuesday May 27 2008, @04:02AM (#23553365)

        It's not designed to run Vista


        The very fact that long-time PC manufacturers are designing systems that "are not designed to run Vista" a year and a half after it has been released is about as significant news as you could possibly get, with regards to the PC market in any case.

        The only reason when you might have considered it less relevant, would have been if the systems where not selling well at all. So, have you bothered to check Amazons Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware [amazon.com] list lately? (Amazon being by far the largest online reseller that sells Apple, Asus EEE PC as well as Vista laptops?). The list updates hourly, but currently the first Vista laptop is at spot number 4. The Asus EEE PC used to be at 1 for over a week, and I guess the only reason why it currently isn't, is because they are out of stock everywhere. So it's currently in second place, flanked by Macbooks at place 1 and 3. So basically Microsofts margins are getting squeezed here from two directions at once: Apple at the high end, EEE PC's at the low end.

        • So, have you bothered to check Amazons Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware [amazon.com] list lately? (Amazon being by far the largest online reseller that sells Apple, Asus EEE PC as well as Vista laptops?). The list updates hourly, but currently the first Vista laptop is at spot number 4.

          It's also worth looking at customer satisfaction, as indicated by the customer reviews. Each of the Apple machines has a review average of 4.5/5 starts; the EEEPC has a review average of 5/5; the first Vista PC has a review average of 3/5. Not only are the non-Vista laptops selling very well, but the people who buy them are happier with what they get for their money - both at the high end and at the low end.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Gideon Fubar (833343)
        I don't get it.. why would it be able to run xandros and not run ubuntu? They're even both Debian based distros.. they're virtually the same, except for the UI (which can, of course, be changed anyway).

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by digitig (1056110)
        The fact that it's not designed to run Vista, and probably has a spec that would struggle to run Vista is noteworthy to those who want to run MS on it. XPs days are numbered, so anybody buying one hoping for an MS Windows platform needs to know that they're already near the end of support. They might decide that it's worth it anyway, they might not, but it's relevant information, not naive Vista-bashing.

        • Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by timrichardson (450256) * on Tuesday May 27 2008, @06:39AM (#23554131) Homepage
          I asked a shop in the central business district of Melbourne how the EEE laptop Linux machines were selling now that Asus provides a Microsoft system (with lower hardware specs to compensate for the cost of the OS). The answer was that the Windows version was strongly outselling the Linux version. However, Linux market share is about 0.7% so even if the Windows version is selling 10 to 1, the Linux version is still helping Linux get market share.
          For the record, I use Debian and for an EEE PC I would recommend to consumers to use the Linux version.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Aranykai (1053846)

      A Mac Mini is not that much more in price, and is virtually immune to browser exploits and attacks from remote.
      You must be new here...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why settle for 'virtually immune' when you can have 'immune'?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cerberusss (660701)

      A Mac Mini is not that much more in price
      That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Let's say the Desktop EEE goes for $300. Well, a Mac Mini is $600. You call a TWO HUNDRED PERCENT PRICE INCREASE "not that much more in price"??
    • To answer this question, let's leave the computer geek mind and enter the mind of average joe:
      Because it's new,
      Because it's beautiful,
      Because it's small,
      Because it's quiet,
      Because it has the same interface as the eeePC (that you already have)

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