[lug] Linux on Intel Atom?

[David Morris]

On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 11:36, Paul E Condon <pecondon at mesanetworks.net> wrote:
> I saw the Acer 10.1 inch Netbook for sale at Costco yesterday. It looks
> like a neat little package for travel. But I haven't touched Windows
> for years, and don't intend to renew what little skill I ever had with
> it. So, is there any prospect for being able to load Linux onto one of
> these, and is it likely that it has adequate CPU to run email, text
> editing, etc. ? The display card on the thing says it uses Intel Atom
> chip, and has 1GB RAM and 160GB HD. Price is $350. Is this a "cheap
> laptop" as was being discussed a few days ago?

It should work fine.  I have an Asus EEE PC 701 with a CPU
far less capable than the Intel Atom and it is almost
perfect as a small travel computer.  Linux even comes as the
default OS.

There is a newer model available, the EEE PC 901, which uses
the Atom processor and is a big improvement over the 701.
Already discontinued, but still available new for about $285
from still from places like ebay and overstock retailers.

Personally, I prefer the EEE PC as it comes standard with an
SSD, which makes it far more rugged for travel (a big
requirement of mine!), though only has 20GB storage
(expandable with SD cards).

--David