Download Squad

Asus is set to launch the tiny Eee PC in the US this week. While the US version will cost about twice the $199 price that Asus teased us with this summer, the Eee PC is a full fledged computer in a 2 pound package for under $400, and that's pretty impressive.

What's also impressive is the custom Linux interface Asus threw together to make the Eee PC as useful as possible. Since the machine has a 900MHz celeron processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of solid state memory, it's capable of running Windows, Linux, or pretty much any other operating system you'd care to install. But out of the box, the Eee PC includes a custom version of Xandros Linux that's meant to take the pain out of Linux for novice users.

In fact, it's probable that many customers will never know that the Eee PC runs Linux at all. EeeUser has put together a thorough review of the operating system. In a nutshell:

• The Eee PC starts up and shuts down faster than almost any other computer you've ever used.
• Programs are grouped into tabbed categories: Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings, Favorites, and Help.
• The Internet tab lets you open the Firefox Web browser, connect to your web mail service of choice, use Pidgin for chatting, and Skype for VoIP calls.
• The Work tab lets you use Open Office, Kcalc, Adobe Reader, KDE Personal Information manager, and Thunderbird.
  
• The Play tab includes a few games like Solitare, Soduku, and Penguin Race, as well as SMPlayer media player, a music jukebox, Photo Manager, and Video Manager application

There's also an add/remove programs feature, but there aren't a ton of extra applications available at the moment. Since the Eee PC interface is built on top of Xandros, you could probably add some repositories and install a whole slew of applications on the computer. But part of the beauty of this $400 laptop is that it works out of the box. While it certainly presents a lot of tinkering potential, it's designed for ease of use. And installing unsupported applications can lead to all sorts of problems if you're not already a Linux guru.

Update: jkOnTheRun turned us onto a great website showing off the Eee PC user interface. It's really just a series of interactive screenshots, not an emulator. But it should give you a sense of the EeePC layout.

[via Asus Eee PC Hacks]