I gave away my last PC (i.e. non-Apple) in 2005. I recently recovered this beige-box PC from the garbage. It has a Pentum 4 2.8 GHz CPU, integrated video, 256 MB RAM (upgraded to 768 MB with a 512 MB DIMM left over from a G4 Mac Mini upgrade) and a POS Western Digital 80 GB HDD. It came pre-installed with Windows 98 and booted on the first try.

The Pentium 4 has always ranked at the bottom of my list of favored CPUs (doesn’t everyone have this list?). The high clock speeds, terrible power consumption and poor performance of the Pentium 4 should have kept these spacer heaters out of my office, but the price was right on this one.

So, what does one do with such a system? Good question. I have no use for a Windows system (let alone Windows 98), so I installed Ubuntu 8.0. Ubuntu is a popular distibution of Linux, and runs well on this hardware. Now, what will I do with an Ubuntu system? It will probably live in the shop and be used for heat in the winter and web browsing the rest of the year.

Eee PC 900 Full Review

The Asus Eee PC 700 is a nice sub-notebook computer, and the Asus Eee PC 900 is a really nice sub-notebook computer. Why is this slow laptop with a tiny screen that doesn’t run OS X interesting? For me, this is the first non-Apple computer that I’ve seen in a long time that I’d consider purchasing.

What is the Eee PC 900? The Eee PC 900 weighs about 2 lbs., has an 8.9” screen, an Apple-esque multi-touch trackpad, solid state storage and wireless networking. In other words, it is a fully functional portable computer for people with tiny hands. U.S. pricing hasn’t been released, but it looks like prices will be between $500 and $600.

The Eee PC 900 is available with a light-weight version of Windows XP or a custom distribution of Linux. This light-weight version of XP has received a “stay of execution” form Microsoft. This is promising news for those of us supporting enterprise environments primarily running XP Pro, but not so much for this market. More promising XP news. XP has it’s place, it just isn’t on a device like the Eee PC. Have you ever use a MS Pocket PC product?

The price is the same for the Linux and MS versions of the Eee PC 900. However, the Linux verison ships with 20 GB of solid state storage while the XP version ships with 12 GB and Microsoft gets the difference in the form of OS license fees.

What is the Eee PC missing? An Intel Atom CPU. The Celeron 900 MHz processor in the current Eee PC 900 is fast enough; the problem is power consumption. The Atom will use far less power than the Celeron and will significantly extend battery life. If the Atom finds it’s way into the Eee PC you may be reading a review of it here…

Apple purchases PA Semi (Forbes)

What do these have to do with one another? Nothing. However, I’d be interested to see an Apple low cost PC similar to the Eee PC. While the iPod Touch / iPhone are capable of doing many of the functions of the Eee PC, they lack a real keyboard and an open platform that allows third party applications (this point will be addressed shortly). Do I think Apple will release a sub-notebook? No. Why did Apple buy PA Semi? Ask these guys.

Your link for this weekend:
Adobe’s new free online Photoshop Express

Your camera phone photos for this weekend:

A Friday evening ride at Schaeffer Farm.

This afternoon on the upper yellow loop at Gambrill State Park.