Professor Elam

Several years back I wrote a piece for the SWT School Paper. I suggested there was a need for a cheap simple slimmed down laptop for use by students.  Word processing, internet, simple spreadsheet would do the trick.  Now comes the Asus Eee PC.

Read the review at Camera Labs Report.  This Taiwan company uses Linux instead of the power hungry mb consuming Windows XP, and of course handily avoids having to pay MSFT for it.  The unit weighs less than a kilogram. And it cleverly uses 4GB of flash drive instead of a more expensive hard drive.  Additional memory is of course available with the now inexpensive USB portable hard drive back up units.  At a price of $399 it looks like we have a winner here. The screen at seven inches and keyboard can actually be used unlike thumb accessible cell phone keyboards.   I have not seen one yet but will check it out at the first opportunity.

With units like this utilizing Linux, I am mystified why MSFT stock is up over $35.  Yes they do well with their game box but I have to wonder if XP and my new nemisis, 2007 VISTA, are finally about to have some real competition.  Hmmm, could Apple harness the flash drives in its iPod to do the same thing?