Back on a portable computer again.

Back when I was still in high school, I lusted after a particular subnotebook computer that had just come onto the market. It had a 486BL2-50 processor, a 7.7 inch screen at 640x480, 200 Megabyte hard drive, and 4 megs of ram. $1800. It was a mere 10.1"x7.2"x1.7" and only 4 pounds back in 1994. Needless to say, I never managed to buy that system, but as a graduation present my parents bought me a $800 Thinkpad 755CE.

I loved that system, and especially enjoyed the TV card that I bought for it. In the time before PSone’s came out with their little LCD screen, that was the best way to play console games. It ran OS/2 Warp 3.0 perfectly and I used it for the first 2 years I was in college. After that, I pretty much abandoned PC compatible systems as my portable units. I used Palm Pilot Pro’s, Palm 3, Palm 3C, Tapwave Zodiac, and Garmin Ique3600, and even had a keyboard that worked with some of those systems. 

I’m back to a PC compatible portable unit now though, and this one is even better than the 510c. This one is 8.9"x6.9"x1.5" (1.2"x0.3"x0.2" smaller than the 510C and even smaller than the P2000 at work), it has a 1024x600 screen, a full pound and a half lighter than the 510C, and the screen is significantly larger. 100x the storage capacity, a processor that is at least 320x as fast, and 256x as much memory… and this one clocked in at only $280!

Asus EEE 901, I’ve already replaced the OS with a version of Ubuntu and it’s just a great system. Having this smaller unit though makes me realize that my goals with the 510C were unrealistic though. I doubt it would have ever fit in my inside coat pocket… I may need to build a custom coat pocket just for this unit though. 

Trying to install Windows 2000 off a USB drive is a thorn in my side though. I suspect I’ll just need to fork out the $70 for a USB cd drive… (Cutting it short here at 5 paragraphs for STRedwolf’s benefit. ;)