My "small" Switch!

For more than a year now, I've been contented with my Eee PC 701 (4G) but around two weeks ago, I decided that the small screen and small storage of the Eee is no longer serving me well. An officemate, who is also connected with a local PC reseller has offered me a good deal on a yet another netbook. Since I have some disposable cash, I opted to "bite" at his offer.

My new netbook is now an MSI Wind U-100x. This is the cheaper variant of the Wind that does not have built-in bluetooth but has 2GB on-board RAM and 160GB hard drive.

Setting up the Wind for the first time was a no-sweat affair. All I needed to do was sit back and relax while it does its own thing and after a reboot, everything is in place -- MS Windows XP was installed and all I needed to do was to install my favorite apps (FireFox, MS Office, etc.)

Being a self-confessed techie, I also experimented with installing the Wind with OS X but that's for a different post altogether.

My Eee PC has VD!

Well, VD, in this case means Virtual Desktop (gotcha!).

When I went "Philistine" and installed Windows XP on my Eee, one of the things I missed was the virtual desktop that was built in to Eee's bundled Xandros Linux. Well, when I downloaded TweakUI Powertoy from Microsoft, I noticed an application called "Virtual Desktop Manager". I downloaded it (its quite small) and installed it. At first I was sort of lost on how to use it -- it turns out that you'll have to do a right-click on the Windows Taskbar and choose the virtual desktop manager from the toolbar submenu.

Anyway, I was able to activate it and it seems to work well.

Now I can organize my running apps more efficiently and I also have an additional eye-candy which I can show my non-geek friends.

My Eee PC on SP3

I just applied Windows XP Service Pack 3 on my XP-fied Eee PC. My free space was down to 1.5+ Gb from around 2 Gb. No worries because the SP3 uninstall files now weighs in at around 220+ Mb and once I see that my system is stable, I'll let CCleaner remove it so I'd still have ample space on my Eee.

I downloaded the SP3 file manually and applied it by double-clicking the file. I opted to do the download-and-install method because I heard that it is among the safest way of applying the patch.

So far, my Eee PC seems stable enough. The hacks I installed before SP3 are all working flawlessly and if I do not encounter any problems until Wednesday, I'll clean up my SSD to free up precious disk space.

Taking The WinXP Plunge... Again

After holding out for a looooong time, I finally took the plunge and installed Windows XP on my Eee PC! I'm actually posting this from my spanking brand new(?) OS! My first attempt was not up to par because it rendered my Eee PC mute (no sounds).

Anyway, I was able to finally make everything work now and so far so good! To save on the disk space I did not install any major applications on Windows, opting instead for the Portable Apps suite. Installed as portable apps are OpenOffice.Org, FireFox, 7-zip, GAIM, uTorrent, and few more. I am using portable apps not only to save disk space but also to prevent my Windows XP registry from being borked before its time. Now, almost all my programs (except for a 3rd party firewall app Ashampoo) are running off my 2GB SD Card. To "fix" the low resolution screen of the Eee PC, I also installed Astray+ *after* updating the graphics drivers as recommended here.

Even with Windows XP, the Eee PC is still not "able" enough to function as a primary PC and it will still act as my secondary, take-along computer. So far, I have not seen any obvious advantage of using Windows XP over the bundled Xandros Linux except that my Eee PC is now more vulnerable to 99% of the malware out in the wild.

I wonder how long I can tolerate using this before going back to Xandros?

You Ask, NoypEee Answers part deux (Windows-less Eee PC)

My colleagues has been asking me why I have not "Microsoftified" (read: installed WinXP) my Eee yet. Here's the long and short of it:

My Eee is not my primary computer. I use Windows XP at work and I use OS X at home. I like to think that I am platform-agnostic and I take pride in my ability to work in whatever computing environment in front of me. Besides, the cost of "upgrading" my Eee PC from Xandros Linux to Microsoft (Windows XP + MS Office + MS Money) will end up being more expensive than my hardware!

In its out-of-the box state, the Eee PC is usable because upon its first boot up, it already has almost all the necessary applications for a person to be productive -- OpenOffice.Org for word processing/spreadsheets/presentations, FireFox for web browsing, Thunderbird for email, Pidgin for instant messaging, and a host of other **free** bundled applications.

With all these in mind, I see no need to change my Eee PC's operating system.

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