Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Yes, the eeepc comes shipped with Linux, but also with some very simple instructions for replacing Linux with Windows/XP if you have a licensed copy Windows available to install, which I did. I thought I might end up with a conversation piece. I started off simply. by installing Windows XP/Pro as per Asus's instructions. Then, I installed Firefox, then Thunderbird. Oh, what the heck...I installed Office 2003, Cool Edit 2000, and kept on going Everything works like a charm! The eeepc is light and easy to transport. It's got built-in WiFi and can do anything any other laptop can do. It has a built-in SD card reader than appears as a disk drive. This allows you to install an SD card to be used as additional disk storage. I put a 4GB card in mine and installed many of my programs there. I am now starting to think of this as my new full fledged laptop. The eeepc does not come with a DVD/RW, internal or external, but any external USB unit can be used, which is how I installed XP. Many installation CDs can be copied to a 1GB USB drive (flash drive/thumb drive) by using another computer and the USB drive used to install the programs on the eeepc. I've done that, too! There is some debate about whether XP/Home is compatible with the eeepc. Consensus seems to be that the critical factor is Service Pack 2 rather than the type of XP. I have no first hand knowledge of XP/Home, since I installed XP/Pro with SP2. There are some small disadvantages to the eeepc. Keeping in mind that my overall rating is 5 stars, here they are: (1) The screen is 800x480, an odd size. It can be set to 800x600, but that requires some auto-scrolling to get to the top and bottom of the screen. All in all the 800x480 isn't bad, though. (2) 4GB isn't a lot of space for a primary partition. A typical XP/Pro installation will run about 2+GB. Some users have reported installing XP in less than 1GB, although it's not entirely clear which pieces they've left out. By the time you add the programs that don't run well from a secondary drive, there's a good chance that, even if the drive is not full, there won't be enough space to allow the computer to hibernate, which requires as much disk storage as the computer has memory. An 8GB version is reported to be available early next year, which will alleviate the problem for many. (3) There are no Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll Lock indicators. However there is an excellent freeware utility available on the Web that places indicator lights in the system tray.