[senit] Asus Mini Books

Hi,

They're great - unbelievably good value. I bought my other half one (from
Misco rather than RM) as an early Xmas couple of weeks ago, she's in love
with it. They ship with a bespoke version of Xandros4 linux, which is a
stable and easy to use version of Linux - its really intuitive, works out of
the box with a good range of software already installed. The default, easy
interface only allows you to update and maintain the bundled software and
anything else that Asus later add to their repository over time - but you
can add any Xandros4 software repository which gives you pretty much any
linux software using apt/synaptic.

If you're used to Linux it's a breeze and you can ditch the easy user
interface in favour of standard KDE, but there's plenty of support though if
you're not, its worth persevering with a few weeks before installing Windows
XP (all the drivers for Windows XP come on CD in the box).

Simon

-----Original Message-----
From: senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of barry andrews
Sent: 07 December 2007 20:59
To: senit at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [senit] Asus Mini Books

I've been looking at the RM/Asus mini book. Has anyone used it. I was
thinking about using it with KS3 struggling/disaffected writers. They look
pretty cool and would have some street cred.

  Is it right that you can't load any software on? I think something like a
prediction package (Cowriter/Penfriend) would be useful. Is it possible to
do this? What about battery life and the small screen?

  Any advice appreciated.

  Barry.

---------------------------------
 Sent from Yahoo! &#45; the World&#39;s favourite mail.