Eventually, Asus could not keep hiking the price of Eee up like gasoline. This will effect Eee 900 series on both Linux and Windows XP model. Though Intel Atom version will not included. I guess it’s due to shortage supply as well. By the way, in practice, it doesn’t seem that Atom performs much better than Celeron, so I don’t think it will be an issue.
For the time being, Asus Eee PC 900 8.9″ 16GB, 20GB SSD 1GB RAM Linux will cost you around $400 and $450 (after $100 mail-in rebate for some stores) respectively while Windows XP version will be $50 extra. Oddly, there is no price cut on Eee 700 series which means Eee 701 4GB is about $399 and 702 model (8 GB) is still $499. It seems like no one would buy 700 model intentionally =) By the way, I still expect to see either another $100 off for 700 models or fading out of this series pretty soon. If you are interesting in the King of Netbook, this is such a nice time to grab one. Every popular online stores I know have this in stock.
Nonetheless, $100 off of Eee 900 is yet to tell if Asus will be able to retain the crown since $399 with 8.9″ Intel Celeron is almost the worst spec on paper. There are many arch rivals like Dell E, Acer Aspire One, and MSI Wind with this price tag and better spec. We will see how Asus is going to do with this.
Note: I just have a chance to see HP 2133 Mini-Note physically; it is such a toy!! I can believe that its keyboard looks really cheap–a lot cheaper than Eee PC, I must say.
Popularity: 2% [?]
How to install Thai input in Eee PC
I don’t know if this is useful, but I found many sites mentioned that Eee (Xandros) is not capable of handling Thai–only for input, I guess. So this could help somebody who passes by and is finding how to add Thai as an input language.
Originally, Eee PC comes with English and Chinese, of course. Thus, it needs something to switch between those languages already. Luckily it is SCIM - Smart Commom Input Method Platform. If you are familiar with another linux distro and using other language besides English, you will know it well. This is all you have to know in order to add Thai or any language as a keyboard input.
source: screenshot of openSUSE 10.3
Basically, SCIM has 2 parts which are core programs and tables (.bin & .png) for any languages. Usually, when you install SCIM, it will bundle tons of table for you to choose, but unfortunately Eee does have only English and Chinese. So, what you have to do is copying the table for the language you need into SCIM directory. That’s it!
I upload all non-CJK tables for SCIM in Sky Drive here, it’s only 110kB, so you may add all that or just choose what you want.
After you got the file, you have to extract and put them in
/usr/share/scim/
or if you want to add only Thai language, you have to copy Thai.png in icons folder to /usr/share/scim/icons and Thai.bin in tables folder to /usr/share/scim/tables. (you have to gain root privilege in order to do so)
Then you have to set for a hotkey for switch the language a bit. You might not use grave accent though since grave button is not on the right place as usual keyboard. I found that Ctrl+space is very comfortable way to switch, but it’s just my way.
Step-by-Step: how to add thai for eee pc:
1. download SCIM table from my Sky Drive here
2. Extract to where you want, assume /home/user
3. get into Terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T)
4. gain root privilege
sudo -i
5. copy 2 files needed for a lauguage you want
cp /home/user/scim/icons/Thai.png /usr/share/scim/icons/
cp /home/user/scim/Tables/Thai.bin /usr/share/scim/tables/
6. right-click on SCIM and set for a hotkey
7. you are now able to type Thai on Eee PC, congratulation!
#—–added on 2007-12-25—- การลงภาษาไทยใน eee pc ——–#
Additional part for you guys who prefer Pattachote keyboard layout (ปัตตะโชติ บน eee pc) pattachote on Eee; ปัตตโชติ บน eee
First of all, you don’t have to follow the step above. You have to do something a bit different which is adding scim-thai repository.
1. Get into terminal by ctrl+alt+t
2. add repository that has scim-thai (one I know is from linux.thai.net)
sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list
add the following line into the file, then save and exit.
deb http://linux.thai.net/apt ./
3. update the repositories and install scim-thai in terminal
sudo apt-get update
You may have to try several times until you haven’t seen an error. Then:-
sudo apt-get install scim-thai
4. once you finished installation; restart once–I don’t think it needs to but scim sometimes confuses about adding new stuffs.
5. After you get back; setting in SCIM then you all set!
Happy New Year! I hope you find some fun with your Eee PC!
Popularity: 12% [?]
