I saw a blog entry on Slashgear about the Alpha 400. At the moment, I am still looking around to find out what Linux distribution is running on it. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of information from the manufacturer’s official site.
At 250 USD, you might get tempted to buy this ultramobile laptop. Why? Because it’s small and light. And it’s got Linux on it. But there are drawbacks: No webcam, no built-in wifi. Those two things are worth buying in the Asus EEE. Well if you want more space there’s …read more

Timelady gave me a lovely link for all you Asus EEE users out there. It’s a guide on configuring WPA on Xandros.
What does it involve?

Removing the WPA supplicant installed by default.
Installing WPA supplicant from the Debian repositories.
Installing MadWifi drivers.
Creating wpa_supplicant.conf_MINE
Creating a new network configuration.
Making sure that you fix the network monitor icon.

The steps are all there and you just need to follow them one by one.
Hope that helps you with your wifi needs! All thanks to the people of the EEE User wiki and Timelady.

After reading the articles on Computerworld and the Inquirer, I felt disappointed. Why? Because it seems that the OLPC team is backing off from their original plans. They are now thinking about using Windows XP instead of Linux on the OLPC. Uh… Hey, that’s so weird, dude!
*sigh*
Reasons mentioned:

Compatibility with Flash sites
Compatibility with other software

And speculations seem to imply that the move by Intel to sell the Classmate PC for a low price was one of the triggers. Why? Because consumers would buy that. And it seems like this shift to Windows XP would help …read more

A Hong Kong magazine was reported to have tested TV tuners for the Asus EEE. The drivers are for My Cinema U3100 Mini DVB-T and DMB-TH tuners. The article about the TV tuners was talking about how it worked:

…HDTV channels broadcasting in this format won’t play on Eee. Other channels sent over in MPEG-2 were played back properly. One caveat is that software doesn’t come with recording function…
Well, it’s been designed for learning and surfing, not really much for entertainment purposes (and it really isn’t so much fun to watch on such a small screen, if you ask …read more

Even HP has a new line of laptop for school kids. The laptop is called Mini-Note, which makes sense for something as small as a machine measuring 8.9 inches diagonally. It sounds like HP is following the footsteps of the OLPC and Asus. Like the Asus EEE, it has no optical drive and it was said to be taken out so that it is possible to “prevent students from playing unauthorized games” according to the article on ABC News.
There are versions of the laptop. One runs Linux and the other is powered by Windows Vista. …read more

Photo from mwilkie via Flickr

If you’ve been using Linux and wondering if you could use two monitors, especially for those who are laptop users, you have a tool Xrandr. But the thing with Xrandr is that it’s buggy and it’s mainly something you have to configure via the command line which not everybody is comfortable with. I’ve used Kubuntu some time last year and there was a graphical tool to fix it but at first I had to use the command line to make sure my external monitor was detected.
Enter Ubuntu Hardy Heron, the upcoming Ubuntu release. …read more

Laptop prices have dropped considerably lower over the last two years and it’s even getting lower with the Asus EEE. Dell apparently wants to introduce laptops which will have a competitive price against the Asus EEE. They have Red Flag Linux running on one of their low-end machines.
This sounds great to me! No lock-up with Windows. You could either go with the default Linux installed or you could install a distro you are more comfortable with.
News from PCWorld.

They reviewed the Asus EEE PC again and they don’t regret giving it the Editor’s Choice Award. Indeed, they emphasized the appeal of the ultraportable: it’s affordable and you could do the basic stuff that you want. It wasn’t really meant for heavy duty working. If you want something like that you could try some of the regular laptops.

The truth is you can get a much more powerful laptop for the same amount of money if you’re willing do deal with a larger notebook. However, no other laptop on the market gives you this much …read more