Asus Eee Pc X101

[smiling mantis]

This appears to be the only netbook being made by anybody today that features a SSD.

It's cheap (~$200US), it's small and light (<1kg), and it comes with Linux pre-installed. But I can't find it here in Thailand. Indeed, the Asus Thailand site doesn't even acknowledge its existence.

What you can find in Thailand is the Asus Eee PC X101H. This is comes with Windows, a HDD, and a price tag that is ~$300US. Saw a bunch of these today running around Chiang Mai. Nice size, a keyboard that I like (though some admittedly will not), and a decent LED display.

I'd love to be able to get my hands on one, but it looks like I'm out of luck? Is it the 8GB storage that turns off the Thais, or the fact that it's running Linux? 8GB is on the svelte side, I grant you, but for my purposes it's more than enough... I just want to run emacs and rxvt. Can make do with ratpoison, don't need Gnome or KDE. 8GB is like Montana as far as I'm concerned.

I guess maybe the better question is, are there vendors here in Thailand that can special order things like this but who can skip the regional dealers and go straight to the source in TW? Or is it cheaper to just swallow hard, pay the Windows tax, open her up and stick in my own SSD?

What exactly happened to the market that reduces us now to having only one netbook on the market with SSD storage? Didn't SSD practically introduce the netbook? Will the floods now change whatever this equation was to its favor?

I want something I can take to the local cafe and not freak out if the waitress spills my latte over the keyboard, or can take on a holiday using a budget carrier and not go over the 7kg carry-on limit. I want something I can drop and then smile as I pick it up knowing it's going to work. And sure, being cheap enough so I can buy two, just because.

[smiling mantis]

Thanks for all of the replies, guys.

I think I get it now though... I notice that this model is available in the Philippines. And as it just happens that I'm taking a trip there in the near future, I will solve the problem by simply buying a couple of units while I am there.

Theory: why is it available in the PI and not here in TH? Well, the people in the PI who would be in the market for a laptop that runs Linux are overwhelmingly going to be people who know English. And I know that while Gnome and I'm guessing KDE probably have good international support, and thus are accessible to all Thais, a Linux system that's running Meego probably isn't.

Imagine trying to administer a Linux system if the command prompt and the scripts and all of the various utilities all depended on your understanding Thai. So then we can better understand why Thais aren't breaking down the doors trying to get their hands on a laptop that almost demands English as a prerequisite.

At least that's my take, I'm sure nobody here will bother to correct me if I'm wrong. :jap:

[justsumhelp]

Here is one solution http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/natty/man1/txiterm.1.html

To think that there are no thai ISP's/corporations/etc... running linux is just absurd. Linux can be localized to almost any language.

Thanks for all of the replies, guys.

I think I get it now though... I notice that this model is available in the Philippines. And as it just happens that I'm taking a trip there in the near future, I will solve the problem by simply buying a couple of units while I am there.

Theory: why is it available in the PI and not here in TH? Well, the people in the PI who would be in the market for a laptop that runs Linux are overwhelmingly going to be people who know English. And I know that while Gnome and I'm guessing KDE probably have good international support, and thus are accessible to all Thais, a Linux system that's running Meego probably isn't.

Imagine trying to administer a Linux system if the command prompt and the scripts and all of the various utilities all depended on your understanding Thai. So then we can better understand why Thais aren't breaking down the doors trying to get their hands on a laptop that almost demands English as a prerequisite.

At least that's my take, I'm sure nobody here will bother to correct me if I'm wrong. :jap:

[smiling mantis]

Here is one solution http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/natty/man1/txiterm.1.html

To think that there are no thai ISP's/corporations/etc... running linux is just absurd. Linux can be localized to almost any language.

So you give me a link to a terminal emulator? How many users--Thai or otherwise--are going to be happy using a shell?

Linux can be localized to almost any language, but to make it usable to the numbers of people Asus would be interested in selling to requires something on the order of Gnome. Meego, which is the X101's alternative to Gnome, doesn't do Thai.

Edited October 29, 2011 by smiling mantis