The EEEPC701 and Linux today Part 1: 6 years later

Category: Linux

While training at Nova Scotia way back in 2008, a handful of co-workers and I visited a Future Shop branch. Equipped with a per diem allowance, they ALL purchased an Acer Aspire One netbook regardless of specifications. They had no idea about the keyboard, OS, display resolution, 3-cell and 6-cell batteries on the machines (one of them through sheer luck was issued a 6-cell model by an equally clueless salesperson). They're all managers now and have probably long replaced their netbooks with a Macbook Air or an iPad.

Note: If you guys are reading this, feel free to send me an e-mail and ship the Aspire One's over - I promise a kid will benefit from it.

I recently salvaged an original EEEPC701 with a Japanese keyboard and was miffed that someone had chucked it away in a cardboard box. The battery hadn't been charged for years but the cycles were adequate and the SSD and RAM were functioning. I booted up using my handy Knoppix 6.5 Linux LiveUSB and ran a quick diagnostic to test USB ports, audio, the ethernet port, the wireless card and SD card reader. It all checked out ok. The keyboard obviously had not been used and had the feel of an unused laptop (my own 1000H already has problems with the backspace and space bar).


Size comparisons: 701, iPod Touch, iPad and 1000H


In the face of amazing products like the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 and the recent updates to the excellent Macbook Pro (both devices I wish I could afford), it's odd to be writing about a legacy device like the ASUS EEEPC701. Donald Bell from CNET recently named the netbook as one of the "failed" tech trends of the last decade. However, if you search for the 701, you'll actually see plenty of sites devoted to this early EEEPC model. I was surprised that many of the articles focused on the early Hackintosh methods that were used on the EEEPC - a machine that came with Linux (and worked with Linux) but was dubbed one of the first devices to support the Intel-version of MacOSX 10.4.x. Back then, I couldn't imagine power-hungry MacOSX running with such hardware but enthusiasts made it work.

Now, I won't go through the limitations of the EEEPC701. Dozens of reviews and crticisms have been leveraged on the netbook category and on this particular model for years. The screen is only slightly bigger than today's oversized smartphones and the resolution is nowhere near today's Samsung Galaxy products and HTC phones. My small hands are accustomed to small keyboards but most users today would prefer today's touch screen keyboards over the 701's tiny input device. For those who have never worked on a 701, the main specifications are:
 

•  900Mhz Intel Celeron processor
•  7" 800x480 display
•  512MB PC2-5300 SODIMM
•  4GB SSD storage
•  Atheros wireless 802.11b/g card

 
I'm always on the look out for computer hardware I can someday donate to schools that need a Linux machine. I would love to award the machine while teaching computers and Linux to underprivileged kids.


Slax Linux on the EEEPC701

 
Wealthy people would scorn at the idea of giving a legacy device to a poor kid. They would say "provide a cellphone instead" or "at least a more powerful machine". What they fail to understand is that with Linux, you don't need a new Core i5 Dell, HP or (God forbid) Mac to study HTML, networking, hardware and basic programming. In fact, with the right Linux distribution, someone using a 701 can access free online learning courses from Alison.com, Khan Academy or even BBC Bytesize (my preferred online education sources).
 
The tough part was selecting which Linux distribution would work with the 701's conservative hardware. Mainstream Linux distributions like Ubuntu, openSUSE and Fedora have evolved tremendously and are no longer always ideal for low-end, legacy hardware. The hard drive was the toughest limitation. 4GB is not enough even for early versions of Linux Mint or Mandriva. The solution was to run a LiveUSB or a bootable SD card but I want to avoid that option as much as possible. With distributions like Damn Small Linux (DSL) floating around, I can't see why a frugal Debian-based distribution can be installed on the 701. 



 
If an underprivileged child or student was to use the EEEPC701 to study only Linux any lightweight distribution running via LiveUSB or a bootable SD card would do. However, I thought that gaining access to free online education services such as Alison.com would be a huge help so I knew Adobe Flash and multimedia packages would be needed.

Continued in The EEEPC701 and Linux today Part 2: Finding the right distribution