Ok, so I see some people singing their praises - please I need your help.

I'm a ludite when it comes to computers. Currently I've got an acer travelmate, and I do feel its coming to the end of its useful life. I'm really liking the idea of having a pc that has no moving parts, as I feel this is where my acer is failing having been on the bike around europe, and being bought in malaysia.

So, how do I use it? Im used to seeing 100's of gb's of hard disk, and gigs and gigs of ram, but none seem to be that impressive. And what about these quad core cpu thingies?

The spec of the eee doesnt seem to ring any bells, and without a dvd player, how do you install stuff (can you tell im a windowsaphile?). Also, does it work with one of these huawei mobile internet dongles, as supplied by vodafone, orange, 3 etc?

I want to say right now, that I want it as a direct replacement to my travelmate, safe in the knowledge that its going to survive a ride on the bike without knackering the hard disk. Is this the right choice? Office, internet, music, photos - I need it to do it all..except games.

If not, I've got about £500 to spend. Whats the next best alternative?

Ta.

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Hi,

I have just purchased a 12 GB EEE PC which runs XP Home. For me I think that it will be the ducks nuts but then again it only has a smallish hard drive if you can call it that?

For my work computer, I have a Sony Vaio VGN-TZ27GN. THis is a small unit with a lot of grunt and can run everythink you want but has a movable hard drive. It is only 1 kg and is small and thin so I am able to also fit this in my panniers. Maybe an option?

Have a look at one, it maybe what you want, oh also it gets nearly 5 hrs from the battery!!

Cheers
Ivan

I'm sure MattCBF600 will be along in a minute to put you right. All I can say as an Eee user is I bought it as an interface to take video off my SD cards and store them on a 250GB USB hard-drive. It does this easily. I've used it on-line using hotel Wi-Fi for e-mail and posting on the HUBB etc. I have the basic 2GB with an 8GB SD card in the slot. This cost me £199. Once you start buying the higher spec ones they quickly get into "real" laptop money. I like the idea it's tougher than a standard one and a lot smaller but I'm not that hard on it even when I'm travelling on the bike I always keep it in bubble wrap inside a hard case. I think a 12" laptop would probably survive quite well in the same conditions. If you're travelling in Europe or using hotels/campsites with access to a PC you may not even need one. I could manage with an SD card reader and my USB hard-drive. I think you need to look at the Eee-PC as a tool for a job and not your main computer. If you can afford one as well as your PC though they're easy to use and fun.

I think HD failure is a non-issue. My laptop has a rougher life now on the back of my bicycle then it will ever have in the pannier of my bike. No suspension!

Pity the higher spec ones weren't available when I had to replace my drowned Vaio.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

It's actually very straight forward. Out of the box you get a very basic simple interface - all nice big icons for music, photos, internet, documents etc - seriously - a person who has never used a computer before could use it.

The storage and RAM etc are not that impressive - but you need to remember that running Linux takes much less RAM and CPU - so you don't really notice any speed issues. You'll not be using the machine to do serious photo editing or messing around with big video files - but for browsing your photos, the web, uploading stuff or just listening to music - it's perfectly adequate.

You can hook up a USB DVD player / reader if you want - but all your programmes (with the linux instal) are installed via a repository online - you select the program you want, mark it for instal, then watch as it's downloaded and installed - very simple.

With the XP system running, you would need to hook something up to do any installs from DVDs etc

This isn't a fully functioning laptop - it's a secondary machine that's perfect for travelling - due it it's small size, weight and no moving parts stuff - but it will not replace a fully functioning, all bells and whistles laptop.

Get a second hand 12'' Apple iBook / MacBook - they're built to be thrown around and are powerful to boot.

Flyingdoctor - how did you know!

m

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cheers matt!

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[QUOTE=mattcbf600;196990]

With the XP system running, you would need to hook something up to do any installs from DVDs etc

Matt,

So to load Mapsource there is not other way than having a external DVD for the Windows XP version?

I have got it on there but it keeps asking for a map and won't open or run. I have installed several maps to no avail..........

Cheers.
Ivan

Mapsource and Garmin maps for me install from an executable file. It doesn't matter where this is, you can put it on a USB stick.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

So how do you put Mapsouce on a thumbdrive so I can use it on the EEE?

I'm stuck.

Step by step would be nice

thanks

Use another PC with a CD drive and copy the files to your thumbdrive. I thought that was obvious...

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Its a scarey thought, but you seem to know less than me on this subject.

Not that simple this transfer thing.

Computer wizards, speak up.

Hey guys,

JohnSB had done a really nice little on the road report over at

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...s-eee-pc-36339

As far as the mapsource question goes - some applications can be run as an executable file - you know - those programs with .exe on the end.

Some programs have some 'stuff' inside them that they generally need to be installed via a DVD / CD (it's still an exe file but it also relies on other files on the disk to make the install work).

As far as mapsource goes (I don't use Garmin so I'm not an expert here) if it has an .exe on the CD you can try to copy that file (usually called setup.exe) onto a USB memory stick.

From there you can take the memory stick, slap it in the side of the eee and then open it and double click the set up file. If you're lucky all will work.

If that doesn't work, you'll need to use an external DVD/CD drive.

However, a quick google of the Garmin website resulted in this

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download.jsp

which appears to allow you to download mapsource from their website, and therefore straight onto your eee PC for install - skipping the USB key thing. Getting your maps in there however is a question I'll leave for someone with more experience.

m

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Thanks, I was wondering how to use smellybiker maps on my GPS. Although I'm still not even sure if I'll ever use my GPS. I like papermaps. Edited to say, oh yeah, I'm planning on getting an Asus in the next day or so and I'm looking for cheap and linux instead of the more expensive XP version.

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Got me a Linux 900 for the road. All I need is some Linux GPS software to download/back-up and manage/edit GPS data (as opposed to navigating - prefer papermaps too).

There seem to be several around:
http://tuxmobil.org/linux_gps_navigation_applications.html

Has anyone got any recommendations?

thanks

Ch

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