[LAU] Asus EEE 1000 as new softsynth?

[Folderol]

On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 11:14:08 -0500
"Ivica Ico Bukvic" <ico at vt.edu> wrote:

> > I've purchased a new Asus EEE 1000 PC, and I love this thing.
> > 
> > First off, almost everything on it just works with Linux, out of the box!
> > I've never had a laptop on which everything actually worked properly.
> > Audio, wireless, suspend-to-disk, even the webcam works with Debian EEE
> > distro, out of the box! I was stunned. I've never experienced anything
> > like this with linux.
> 
> I must say I indeed share every bit of your excitement in respect to Linux +
> netbooks. I too recently got a MSI Wind (was barely over $400) and after
> wiping the drive and installing Linux I can only say this thing is truly
> amazing. In my 10+ years of using Linux I've never had this kind of
> experience: everything worked except wireless for which I simply compiled a
> driver that did not make it into Ubuntu 8.10 (for those who venture in this
> direction, make sure to check what kind of wireless card you have--don't
> trust online how-tos as my netbook needed an entirely different driver;
> apparently MSI has a habit of changing these things). Suspend works,
> hibernate works, wireless works (after a quick compile), webcam works, Skype
> works, little dual screen setup works without having to restart X (great for
> presentations), and the funniest thing ever is that the manufacturer's
> latest BIOS allows overclocking with a Fn+F10 (dedicated key with a nice
> blue icon, too!) for up to 24% extra power (AC only). As if that weren't
> geeky enough, when overclocking the power button changes from blue to
> orange. The thing comes with a 6-cell battery (~4.5 hours of battery life)
> and a 1.6GHz Atom that packs quite a punch for a system that typically uses
> less than 15Watts.
> 
> Unlike EEE, though, this one does have a traditional HD, but it is a beast
> (160GB). Now, the coolest thing is that I have full effects running on
> Compiz, installed JACK, added 3 lines to limits.conf and presto, got rock
> solid RT performance at 512x2 using crappy built-in soundcard. Compiled
> Ardour 2.7 and haven't had a single xrun on a vanilla 8.10 kernel. All in
> all, I am a very, very happy owner of this netbook.
> 
> If there is room for complaining then that would be:
> 
> 1) 1024x600 resolution at times is cumbersome as some dialogs/apps by
> default have windows that don't allow resizing below ~650 pixels height-wise
> (cough, cough, ardour mixer? :-) making it a bit annoying to deal with as
> taskbars end-up covering the ok/cancel buttons
> 2) my model does not have synaptics touchpad (some claim to have it on this
> model, again suggesting that MSI mixes/matches parts) so no nifty scrolling
> features for me
> 3) the lack of a FW port for my FA-101. Seems like I might have to invest in
> an USB audio card...
> 
> ico

I shall be watching this thread very closely!

For some time I've been thinking of a netbook for audio 'doodling'
while travelling etc. and this sort of thing seems just what I'm after.
The thing that concerns me is the still woefully short battery life :(

-- 
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk