I really tried to avoid making a groan-worthy pun in the headline to this post. But I just couldn't do it. Sorry. Anyway, it looks like the latest company-you've -never-heard-of to launch an Eee PC competitor is Van Der Led, which will apparently be releasing the Jisus, a low cost, Linux-based laptop on May 25th.

If the unknown company hasn't already scared you off, take note that the Jisus PC will sport a mysterious "1 GHz, 64-Bit Loongson 2F" processor. I can't decide if that's a typo, a poor translation, or some newfangled proprietary chip.

The rest of the specs look reasonable:

• 512MB DDR-667 RAM
• 4GB Nand flash solid state memory
• 802.11b/g WiFi, Ethernet
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
  
• Microphone, headphone jacks, stereo speakers
• 4.5 hour battery life
• Ubuntu Linux operating system

The Jisus will also sport an 8.9 inch LCD with a disappointing 800 x 480 pixel display resolution. The computer will set you back 299 Euros, or about $470. At that price, I can't really see anything that makes this laptop stand out from the competition. But it's always nice to have choices.

[via Engadget]

A few more details about the Everex Cloudbook launch have been released. First up, it looks like the initial batch, including the review unit Laptop Magazine is playing with have an early version of the software with some annoying bugs, like windows that are too large to fit on the cramped 800 x 480 display. That wouldn't be so bad except that anybody who buys a Cloudbook because it's supposed to be easy to use is going to have some trouble right away, starting with the configuration screens if they aren't Linux savvy.

A new batch with a fix for the large windows should be available soon. Computer World reports that Wal-Mart should have units in stock on Feb 21st, while NewEgg and TigerDirect should have some Cloudbook inventory the first week of March. Everex is reportedly also talking to two more distributors about carrying the Cloudbook.

But it might be worth waiting a little while before picking one up if you want to make sure you get one with any software upgrades. Hopefully Everex will offer updates for existing users as well, but you never know.

Meanwhile, Avram over at Laptop Magazine has been continuing his adventures over the weekend, and he posted the video you see above showing the Cloudbook's boot process. Apparently it takes a good three minutes from the second you hit the power button to the time you get a working desktop. Part of the problem is that you have to enter a username and password during the login process, which is pretty much par for the course with most Linux distributions. But since the Cloudbook is running Ubuntu and GNOME, I'm guessing you can get around this by following these simple steps:

1. Go to the System menu
2. Select Administration
3. Select Login Screen Setup
4. Under the general tab, select "Automatic Login" and choose the user you want to auto login.

That should save you some typing and shave a few seconds off your boot time. But just a few seconds.

It's February 15th, and you know what that means: The Everex Cloudbook should be available today. Well, last time we checked there's a page up on Newegg, but no way to place an order. ZaReason is still sold out. And I haven't wandered into a Wal-Mart, so I can't tell you if they're in stores yet. If you happen to see one, let us know in the comments!

But that doesn't mean the Everex Eee PC "killer" is nowhere to be seen today. ZaReason did post a photo of a developer unit that they received. And the folks at Laptop Magazine got a shiny new review unit, which they proceeded to unbox, photograph, and fiddle with.

The first thing they noticed when they got it up and running is that The Cloudbook is running the GNOME desktop environment, not Englightment as had originally been planned. This isn't a huge surprised, as we'd heard a rumor to this effect a few days ago. But there's one bigproblem: The setup screen for Ubuntu has a series of windows that don't really fit on an 800x 480 pixel screen. And that means that as soon as new users turn their Cloudbooks on, they're presented with a setup screen that they can't really fill out, because the OK/Next boxes are all below the bottom of the screen.

There are two ways around this problem. You can plug in an external monitor, or you can use Alt+click to drag the window around the screen. You still won't be able to see the whole window at once, but you can press all the buttons you need by Holding down the Alt buttonw hile you click and drag the window around the screen.

It's a bit ridiculous that Everex wouldn't have tweaked the open source operating system to make the windows fit to the screen before shipping. The Laptop Magazine reviewers were baffled until I sent them a note suggesting they used Alt+click and drag. I imagine most people who walk into a Wal-Mart to pick up a Cloudbook aren't going to figure this out for themselves.

The easiest way to get Ubuntu 7.10 up and running on an Eee PC is probably to install eeeXubuntu. It's a custom distribution based on Xubuntu, which is a light weight version of Ubuntu running the XFCE desktop environment instead of GNOME. EeeXubuntu supports most of the Eee PC's hardware including WiFi and the Fn keys right out of the box (not that there's actually a box, you can download eeeXubuntu for free online).

But if you'd rather have the GNOME desktop and all the goodies that come with a typical Ubuntu installation like OpenOffice.org and GIMP, and Compiz you can install a full version of Ubuntu as well. But you'll need to do some tweaking to get the Fn keys, WiFi, camera, and other hardware working.

Fortunately, some dedicated folks have done all the hard work for us, and all you really have to do is run the Ubuntu Script Pack for the Eee PC. The script pack enables hardware support for Eee any Eee PC running Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. Some of the modules will also be helpful if you're using Xubuntu or Kubuntu, but there's no guarantees that everything will work the way you want it to.

What exactly does the script pack enable?

• Asus Eee specific kernel modules
• ACPI support for suspend, hotkeys etc
• Adds an overclocking utility that lets you toggle between 630MHz and 900MHz by hitting Fn+F6
• Fixes WiFi support
• Fixes sound issues
• Optimizes boot speed
• Enables software sources
• Fixes Skype video

For the current user account, the script pack also makes fonts smaller, adds the ability to to make any application full screen by hitting Alt+F11, hides icon text to save space, disables UI sounds, fixes the mute key, optimizes power settings, and hides the battery warning. It also makes it easier to move windows around the screen. Since the Eee PC has a low resolution display a lot of windows don't fit on the screen properly, so the full screen and moving options are pretty important.

You can also pick and choose the modules you want to install. To install everything, you would unpack the file you can download from the link above, navigate to the unpacked directory in a terminal window, and type "sudo ./install.sh all." But you can also install just the pieces you want by typing "sudo ./install.sh acpi," "sudo ./install.sh wifi" etc.

Note that if you install Ubuntu on an SD card as I did, suspend/resume won't function properly. Or rather, you can suspend your Eee PC, but you won't be able to wake it up from sleep properly unless you download a newer kernel designed for the Eee PC.

EeeXubuntu developer oasisbob has released the third version of his custom Ubuntu distribution for the Eee PC. The main improvements in eeeXubuntu r3 are support for additional Fn hotkeys. In r2, you could use the Fn keys to adjust the brightness, but that was about it. Now everything except for the WiFi toggle switch seems to work. Oasisbob has also made it easier to create a bootable flash drive from the live CD.

If you're already running eeeXubuntu r2, you can upgrade to r3. But be forewarned, the upgrade process has not been thoroughly tested, and you could wind up messing up your system.

For more info about installing eeeXubuntu, or info on what works and what doesn't, check out the eeeuser wiki.

So it turns out that that there's a way to boot a live Ubuntu environment from a USB flash disk without spending six minutes waiting for your Eee PC to be ready. OasisBob over at EeeUser has put together a handy little Xubuntu LiveCD designed specifically for Eee PC users. Basically, its just a regular Xubuntu installation disc/LiveCD, but with a few Eee friendly tweaks like:

• Adjustments for the low resolution desktop
• Native WiFi drivers
• WLAN support

In other words, once you boot EeeXubuntu you should be able to get online within a matter of seconds, making EeeXubuntu almost as easy to use as the Xandros environment that ships with the Eee PC.

Although the Eee PC is more than capable of handling the Gnome desktop environment that ships with the standard version of Ubuntu, Xubuntu uses the light weight XFCE interface which should stress the Eee's resources a bit less. But make no mistake, under the hood, this is still Ubuntu. For example, you can still access all the same software and OS updates using the Synaptic package manager and Ubuntu repositories.

Now, the astute reader will note that I said this is a LiveCD, but the Eee PC doesn't have a CD drive. If you happen to have a USB CD drive, you could pop the disc in, plug the drive into your Eee, hit Esc when the boot screen pops up, and select your external drive.

But if you don't have a USB CD drive, here's how you load eeeXubuntu onto a USB flash drive. Just pop the CD into your PC. It doesn't matter if you're running Windows or Linux or something else altogether. Reboot your computer and make sure to boot from the CD drive. A few moments later, you'll be running Xubuntu. Now all you have to do is plug in your flash drive, follow the steps on the download page, and in about two minutes you'll have eeeXubuntu loaded onto a flash drive.

When you're done, just unmount the flash drive, plug it into your Eee PC, and hit the Esc key during when the boot screen pops up to select your boot device. A little over 90 seconds later, you'll be running Xubuntu on your Eee PC.

If you want, you can click the install button on your desktop to load Xubuntu onto your main memory. Make sure you know what you're doing if you go this route, as you will wind up erasing Xandros. You can also choose to install Xubuntu to an SDHC card or another flash drive, but to be honest I haven't had much success with that yet.

I'm impressed enough with eeeXubuntu that I'm seriously thinking about replacing Xandros. But I'm not quite ready to make the jump yet. And eeeXubuntu is still a work in progress, so odds are if I wait a few days things will only get better.

Update: eeeXubuntu r3 is out, now with better support for the Eee PC's Fn keys.

The other day I was wondering how long it would take for an Eee PC with Ubuntu loaded on the main memory to boot up. Now I have an answer: 52 seconds.

C.K. Sample has been playing with his new Eee PC for the last few days. First, he went and loaded Ubuntu on a flash drive. Like me he discovered that while you can run Ubuntu this way, you're booting up a Live Install each time you turn your Eee on. That means you have to load the Linux kernel and system files into RAM before your PC starts, which explains why you have to wait six minutes for a fully usable desktop to show up after you hit the power button.

In order to load Ubuntu onto the Eee PC's solid state memory, of course you'll have to reformat the drive and lose the Xandros Linux that comes with the computer. You can always reinstall it using the DVD that comes with the Eee.

Anyway, Sample has step by step instructions for installing Ubuntu, configuring it to work on the Eee PC's small screen, getting the WiFi to work, and a few other tricks. You can find a lot of the same steps on the Eee User wiki, but it's nice to have everything all in one place.

Ever wonder if the Eee PC is powerful enough to run 3D desktop effects like Compiz? It is.



The video above shows Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon running on a stock 4GB Eee PC with 512MB RAM. Last month I tried loading Ubuntu onto a 1GB flash drive and booting it like a liveCD (without the CD). The benefit of doing things this way was that I could run Ubuntu without losing any data on my unit's solid state disk. But since it took about 6 minutes to boot I quickly scrapped the idea of using this method very often.

It looks like if you install Ubuntu directly onto an SDHC card that you keep in the SD slot, you can speed things up a bit. But it still takes a while to startup.



I'd love to see a video showing how long it takes to boot Ubuntu if you install it directly to the SSD (thus erasing the Xandros installation that ships with the Eee PC that boots in about 20 seconds).

Well, my foray into the world of Puppy Linux was short and sweet. But since I couldn't get the audio drivers working, I decided to move on.

The folks at Pendrivelinux.com have some incredibly simple tutorials for loading Knoppix, Slax, DSL, Gentoo, and Ubuntu onto USB flash drives. Since I've spent some time with Ubuntu on my primarily laptop, I figured I'd give it a whirl on my tiny new laptop.

If you've got an Ubuntu installation CD lying around, you can have your flash drive configured in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is format the drive, copy some files, and follow a few other arcane commands.

Once Ubuntu is running on the Eee PC, it's actually pretty snappy and responsive. But it takes a good six minutes to boot up. This probably has something to do with the fact that I'm essentially running a LiveCD off of a storage device instead of installing Ubuntu into main memory. Anyway, the slow boot time, and the fact that I can't get the wireless driver to work (even after following the directions for configuring ndiswrapper on the EeeUser wiki), make me think I should have stuck with Puppy.

But the truth of the matter is there's nothing wrong with the Xandros distribution that ships with the Eee PC (other than the fact that you have a lot of out of date packages like Firefox 2.0.0.3 and OpenOffice.org 2.0). So while I'll probably keep tinkering with alternate operating systems, it's only because I'm a glutton for punishment.