Software Screenshots and Evaluation
As I have been saying during the first part of the review of the Asus Eee PC, while the small form factor and hardware of the PC is one key feature, the use of a custom Asus-designed Linux operating system is the other. So far not many people that have taken a look at the Asus Eee PC have bothered to show much of the operating system.
By using the integrated screen capture application I have attempted to capture and show you as much of the OS as possible!
By using the integrated screen capture application I have attempted to capture and show you as much of the OS as possible!
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Click to Enlarge
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Click to Enlarge |
The opening boot of the system from a cold start is just about 10-12 seconds. Ah, the benefits of solid state storage! The main screen you are welcomed with is on the left there and breaks up the various applications include on it into categories like Internet, Work, Learn and more.
Going into the Internet tab and selecting mail brings us to the screen on the right above that has links to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL mail already setup.
Clicking on the Gmail link takes you to the gmail.com website as you would expect where you can login and are brought to a screen on the right. The integrated Firefox browser has Flash and all the most common plug-ins and I had no issues with any sites that I visited throughout my testing.
You can choose to just open up the web browser and start surfing — here you see the Asus home page and the setup starting for my iGoogle page.
There is an integrated IM application that supports most of the current protocols like MSN, AIM and ICQ. There is also a full version of the Skype client for Linux. I logged into both applications and was pleasantly surprised by how well they seemed to work on the Eee PC.
Here is the Skype testing call working just fine with the integrated microphone.
Back at the home page, we find the rest of the applications wait for us to try them. What is interesting here is to note that just like you would expect in Windows, applications like Skype and Pigdin (the IM program) remain in the task bar when “closed” and can be accessed easily and quickly.
Here you can see some of the network setup options that the Asus Eee PC has.
Trying to look as much like Windows as possible in order to be familiar, the Asus system has “My” folders like My Documents, My Office, etc that help organize files. One of the links that Asus provides in their suite is to Google Docs — obviously an online only version of document editing.
Here is the world clock application as well as the result of the Wikipedia link – duh.
The Internet Radio link brings us to something called “Media U”, a site I haven’t used or even heard of at all. The final icon on the Internet tab is for wireless networks and simply used for browsing local networks.
Moving to the Work tab on the Asus Eee PC shows all the programs for getting all that stuff done that your boss asked for. Starting with the accessories window we get a few common applications.
The calculator is pretty bland but the PIM app is actually a “Personal Information Manager” that helps the user organize email, contacts, calendar entries, etc.
More shots of the PIM are seen here including the contacts and calendar manager.