Asus Set To Release Desktop Eee PC Variant 171
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."
Why's it so... flash? (Score:3, Insightful)
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...
Re:Makes no sense (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Wow... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Vista on an MSI Wind (Score:2, Insightful)
Citing from original article: "Wind is using Intel 945 display chipset, which can easily handle Aero visual effects."
Though I doubt the validity of the statement.
Latest cheap thing vs Older good thing (Score:4, Insightful)
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:Why's it so... flash? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:3, Insightful)
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 it up. There's plenty more to come.
Re:Makes no sense (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:3, Insightful)
"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 bad as "all that" and probably grow to like it (as far as common computer users go).
Your choice of quotes is ammusing though, because up until the last few years, Linux has been all of those things to the common "e-mail checking and web browsing" computer users. Which I am not saying is a bad thing, because it led a lot of people into a better understanding of how the operating system functions fundamentally, aswell as I myself enjoyed it because its abundance of options and configuration, and now that there are a lot of "User Friendly" linux distributions out there, those distributions have become bloated and glitchy just like Microsofts OS's have, its what the greater percentage of the user base wants.
Anyways, thats beside my point, and I dont see Microsoft touting how "The XBox runs Microsofts [whatever the fuck] better than Linux", no, because its not intended to. You can argue how it should all be open and any OS under the sun (no punn) should be able to run on anything, but thats also off course of the point.
Re:Why not just buy a Mac Mini? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:2, Insightful)
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-Microsoft in general) crowd's.
One need only look at the very example that started this thread to see that. The "Diamondville" Atom CPU this machine is supposed to have comes in a 2.2Ghz, dual-core version. A CPU like that will run Vista fine (heck, the single-core version will run it fine).
It's just getting old (Score:2, Insightful)
1. it's just getting old. Yes, we know, you don't like MS. You may even imagine that it's your duty to save the world from it. Guess what? Noone else gives a fuck. Repeating the same wannabe-memes over and over again just makes one boring, nothing more.
2. Fighting FUD and disinformation with FUD and disinformation, does not a moral high ground make. Yes, MS has some nasty marketing and lacks ethics. Guess what? Being as big a lying prick doesn't make you better. It just makes you yet another lying prick.
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. It's, what? Saving the world from MS evil FUD, by filling it with your own? At the end then we'd still have a disinformed market, making purchases based on little more than uncertainty and _lack_ of knowledge, same as before. Big freakin' improvement. Not. It's like fighting against malaria by giving those people HIV instead.
3. If you want to talk about "inventing FUD", that term was first used about IBM. So, nope, MS didn't invent that either, just like they didn't invent the browser or personal computing.
4. "Now it's your turn and you're whining like whipped bitches" is a piss-poor ad-hominem. I know it probably doesn't fit your simplified view of the world, but not everyone who's tired of hearing you whine, bitch, and moan, is in any way connected to MS. Some of us are just tired of the endless noise from bleating fanboys, drowning the useful signal in threads that have nothing to do with their whine.
It has nothing to do with being pro or against MS. I can tell you that I have a BSD fanboy at work, trying to save me from Linux, and he's just as annoying.
5. "Well suck it up. There's plenty more to come." Well, that's what makes it annoying. You said it once, learn to take a break now and then. Repeating same tired fanboy whine again and again, is hardly going to make it either better or true than it was the first time around. It'll just add more noise to drown the useful signal. If your contribution to the world and claim to greatness is that you'll troll some more, heh... you could get some useful skill instead, and actually contribute something, ya know?
6. I'll even go one step further and say: "It is easier to be a "humanitarian" than to render your own country its proper due; it is easier to be a "patriot" than to make your community a better place to live in; it is easier to be a "civic leader" than to treat your own family with loving understanding; for the smaller the focus of attention, the harder the task." --Sydney J. Harris
I get the distinct impression that a lot of those who can't just shut up even for 5 minutes about saving the world from X (where X can be anything between the upcoming wrath of God, like in the Crusades, to more modern concerns like MS) are those who can't sort out their own lives, or show some backbone to the boss in person. It's _easy_ to fight for some nebulous global task that will never be done, and noone can fault you if you show no progress. So wake me up when you can claim some actual personal achievement, not just being a "me too" clone in the big cozy family of sheep bleating against MS.
Just a thought.
Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why not just buy a Mac Mini? (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's talk about who made that progress (Score:3, Insightful)
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 helped alienate the potential market. If you tell someone a blatant lie again, you just lost credibility. Anything else that you try to tell him, will be tainted by that. And the fanboy FUD just served to create an impression in some people that the whole Linux crowd is a bunch of pathological lying whiners.
People, it's not like telling shit about Elbonia. Everyone has a Windows computer, or knows someone who does. Telling him bullshit like that his machine does this and that, which he knows (or can quickly check) that it doesn't do, is just a way to lose his trust and attention.
Even MS FUD steered clear of blatant lies. Just something to think about.
Re:Redundant department of redundancy... (Score:3, Insightful)
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:It's just getting old (Score:3, Insightful)
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 newest version of the most popular operating system?
GTFO