info on linux.

im am new to linux and was thinking about buying a Asus eee pc 701 4G. but im not sure about how the virsion of linux it has on it works and i dont know what virsion it is. if someone could explain it to me and anything else i might need to know it would be much aprecated. i am good with computers so you dont have to dumb it down. its just my spelling that is rubish. many thanks motoko.

I have an Eee PC 701 4G, and I'm very happy with it. It's wonderfully engineered. They come with Xandros Linux, a commercial distro that is quite stable but not as feature-rich as many other choices. The default interface is extremely user-friendly and meets most needs, but you can modify it to "Full desktop" mode to facilitate customization. There are many posts describing alternative distros and how to install/adjust them at www.eeeuser.com (and elsewhere). See the forum and wiki links at the very top of the page. The latest Mandriva 2008.1 touts full out-of-the-box support for the Eee. The 701 works quite well, but the keyboard is tight, given size constraints. For only a modest $50, I'd bump up to the 900. The 901 or 1000 would be nice, but the prices jump substantially. Sometimes the systems with WinXP preloaded cost less than the Linux versions despite potentially greater specifications - a sign that MS is likely subsidizing the costs to push distribution. You can always delete the MS malware (OS & all) and install Linux on those though. [Modified by: Bob on August 20, 2008 04:21 PM]