Lightning Fast Boot on Asus EEE with Modified IceWM

Many thanks to the people at wiki.eeeuser.com for insightful information on modifying the IceWM installation, to Debian for providing up-to-date packages, and to the IceWM developers for making such an awesome window manager.

What I Think About the MacBook Air

Last weekend I went to the Apple Store to get the faulty burner in my MacBook Pro repaired. While I was waiting, I looked around and played with the various gadgets and gizmos in the room. Since I knew the MacBook Air had been recently announced, I decided to go take a look at it and form some opinions (as well as take some pictures).

The first thing that I noticed was that the MacBook Air is not so much small as it is light. The overall “airy” feeling you get when you lift the machine up reminded me of my Asus EEE. In addition, the lack of weight did not make the machine feel flimsy or cheap at all. Another thing that I really liked was the black keyboard. It has a very nice feel to it, and although the keys are close to the notebook, the gaps in between them allow for fast touch-typing. They are also backlit, but the ambient light sensor wouldn’t let me kick them on to see.

One thing I disliked about the machine was the screen. It is the same screen that the MacBook series uses, and the “reflective shield” over it makes glare when in lots of light. I much prefer the matte screen that the MacBook Pro uses. Another thing that bothered me is that other notebook manufacturers are using 13″ panels with 1440×900 resolution, yet the MacBook Air is only 1280×800.

Now the MacBook Air is a nice machine and all, but I feel that Apple skimped a little in terms of hardware. I can understand the lack of an optical drive, but only one USB port and no wired Ethernet? For an $1800 computer that lacks standard Ethernet, you’d at least expect Apple to throw in a USB Ethernet adapter for free – but instead they want to charge extra for it (just like the Mini-DVI to VGA adapter in the MacBook series). The standard processor is the Intel Core 2 Duo at 1.6GHz and can run typical Mac OS X applications with very acceptable speed.

Keeping in mind that the specs of the MacBook Air are much less than those of the similarly-sized MacBook, and that the PC alternatives (such as Lenovo’s X300) are much more feature rich, the MacBook Air might not be for you. However, if you’re looking for a very lightweight Mac OS X-capable notebook and have a chunk of money to spend, then the MacBook Air is a very suitable machine.

Asus EEE 701- Another Linux Machine for the Collection

I have a certain affinity towards small Linux-running devices, and the Asus EEE PC is one of these such devices. The EEE is a low-cost ultra-portable notebook computer. The specs of the 4G (“701″) model are modest: 7″ screen, 4GB solid state drive, 512MB DDRII-400 memory, Intel Celeron Mobile 900MHz processor, Intel Integrated Graphics, an MMC/SD/SDHC card reader, built-in webcam, and wired/wireless connectivity (100Mbit Ethernet and 802.11b/g Wifi). There are other models that have different specs, but the 4G model seems to be the most popular. The machines are also available in a variety of colors – white, black, green, blue, pink, and so on.

Here’s the obligatory unboxing photos of my new machine:

After unpacking the box contained: The EEE itself, the battery, an AC adapter (not a brick), a “carrying case” (more like a sleeve), a driver DVD for Windows, a quick start guide, and a printed manual.

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