Hands on: Inside the Eee

Every so often a new product comes along that fires up almost everyone who sees it.

Such products quickly gain a cult following among early adopters who try out an array of modifications, comparing notes and results on internet forums.

Then as the product becomes mainstream, the less gung-ho among us can pick and choose from the various tweaks, which by then are well known and documented.

The latest product to earn this kind of cult status is the Asus Eee PC 4G, a mini laptop that stole the show at Computex 2007 and has since set numerous forums ablaze with countless tips, tricks and tweaks – and it’s not hard to see why.

The Eee PC 4G is small, light, affordable and runs a custom version of Linux that supports a wide range of applications and external devices. At £219, it’s not only the cheapest ultraportable laptop around, but also a dream gadget for enthusiasts.

The Eee PC OS
The Eee PC runs a custom version of Linux, based on Xandros. Having a relatively standard OS behind the scenes is what gives the Eee PC its flexibility, as there’s a wealth of software that should run on it without too many issues.

First things first, though. Asus has created a custom front end to operate the Eee PC, called the Easy Mode. This separates the various pre-installed applications and utilities under six tabbed menus – Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings and Favourites, with a Help option at the end.

On each page you’ll find big friendly icons with generic descriptions – for example, the web browser and email clients are actually Firefox and Thunderbird, but they’re simply referred to here as ‘Internet’ and ‘Mail’.

Asus offers certified updates to these pre-installed applications in its ‘Add/Remove Software’ control panel under the Settings tab, so if you’re looking for a new version, this is the place to start.

If there’s no update shown, but you know there’s, say, a beta version you’d like to try, then you can download it manually or use Linux-specific tools to install it, of which more later. You can also, of course, use both techniques to install other programs too, but sadly they won’t appear in the Easy Mode menus. Luckily there’s a way around this, which we’ll describe in a moment.

Asus has been careful to pre-install applications that work well on the 800x400 pixel display, but you will come across windows from time to time that infuriatingly extend below the height of the screen, thereby hiding crucial confirmation options; specifically, this happens when installing new applications.

The trick is to hold the Alt key while you drag the pointer. Doing so in effect treats the entire window as a title bar, allowing you to grab and drag it from any area.

Networking
The Eee PC is equipped with both wired 10/100 Ethernet and wireless b and g connectivity, but it’s not obvious at first how to connect and remember a set of preferences.

Under the Internet tab you’ll find icons labelled ‘Network’ and ‘Wireless Networks’, and it’s the former you should use when setting up a brand new connection, whether wired or wireless. The latter icon is instead just used to browse available wireless networks and choose which you’d like to connect to. It is possible to configure the unit to attempt always to connect to the same one when it boots.

In terms of security, at the time of writing the Eee PC supported hidden SSIDs and both Wep and WPA, although not WPA2. The Wireless Networks utility can also indicate the signal strength.

The File Manager icon under the Work tab allows you to browse networks including standard Windows workgroups. We successfully accessed files on a Windows workgroup with shared folders under both XP and Vista without a hitch, and it’s also possible to connect to printers.

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