Asus EEE-PC - a tough little full featured lappy 4 the road.

[DHC6twinotter]

Mike, they have a VGA output if you want to run an external monitor.

[Whitey]

Indeed these netbooks have tiny hard drives but Daniel does bring up a great point. These units are small enough (in comparison to a 15" laptop) and the screen is big enough that it works great as an expedition/offroad gps screen. With the Solid State Drives it really makes it offroad friendly too! It may lack the cd drive but you can easily rip a dvd and store it on the hard drive to watch movies on long trips or even use an external usb cd drive to watch movies on the road!

The best part is that the price is comparable to that of the high end dedicated gps units or even something like what Ken has (combo of handheld + gps).

It's definitely something to consider but another toy/gadget that'll hit your wallet (doh!)

btw to throw another curve ball, a touch screen would be even better but I'm not sure how much that'll cost

You make some great points. When the dell unit game out over the summer it really caught my eye, but I was turned off by the HD capacity. Now that external HD's are dirt cheap, that is definitely the way to go.

Anyone have experience with the Linux OS? I wonder how much space it occupies compared to XP.

[DHC6twinotter]

Here's a link to Dell's version:

http://www.dell.com/content/products...iron-9_anav2~~

[Cebby]

Could something like this (or maybe a hair smaller) be used with it?

http://store.kanecal.net/14_LCD_Touc..._p/tv14lcd.htm

Requires VGA for the monitor and USB to control the touchscreen functionality. It would be nice to sink one of these into a custom dash.

[Whitey]

Here's a link to Dell's version:

http://www.dell.com/content/products...iron-9_anav2~~

Another thing I have an issue with is that for $30 you can get a 15.5" high-def widescreen laptop.

[Whitey]

Could something like this (or maybe a hair smaller) be used with it?

http://store.kanecal.net/14_LCD_Touc..._p/tv14lcd.htm

Requires VGA for the monitor and USB to control the touchscreen functionality. It would be nice to sink one of these into a custom dash.

Personally i think that buying a big $400 screen is counter intuitive to what these small laptops represent.

[Good Times]

no experience running linux but the thought of converting these netbooks to a macnetbook really tickles my fancy

[Cebby]

Could something like this (or maybe a hair smaller) be used with it?

http://store.kanecal.net/14_LCD_Touc..._p/tv14lcd.htm

Requires VGA for the monitor and USB to control the touchscreen functionality. It would be nice to sink one of these into a custom dash.

Personally i think that buying a big $400 screen is counter intuitive to what these small laptops represent.

I'm looking for something different out of it though - namely integration. I'm not a fan of stuff hanging all over the dash or mounted on pedestals all over the interior. Personal pet peeve, that's all.

I like the idea of the small laptop to be able to have it play double duty - ultra portability to be removed from the vehicle, but also robust enough to drive GPS software while squirreled away in the 4Runner. I'm probably more a candidate for a CarPC with what I want.

[tulsa_sr5]

Anyone have experience with the Linux OS? I wonder how much space it occupies compared to XP.

I have the original white one and have loved it for the last year. Played around with different linux distro's over the last year & just put the stock linux back on it this weekend. IIRC the stock linux takes about half of the 4gb mine has. It also has a built in sd slot that I have a 4gb card for.

There is a fantastic user forum, tons of info on just about anything anyone could think of to use one of these for. http://www.eeeuser.com/ including adding a touchscreen.

Cebby, if you are thinking straight up car pc, there is also the eee box
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883220003
pretty much the same internals, but no screen, battery etc and you get a 80gb or 160 gb hard disk for about 300.

[DHC6twinotter]

Cebby, if you are thinking straight up car pc, there is also the eee box
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883220003
pretty much the same internals, but no screen, battery etc and you get a 80gb or 160 gb hard disk for about 300.

Wow...that thing is pretty cool!