Get J720 w/linux or wait for Asus?

Hi, everyone. Hope this is in the right forum. I'm looking for advice on whether a J720 with 720degrees or jlime will meet my needs or not. I'll confess up front I'm a noob; I've absolutely no experience with any flavor of linux.

I primarily need a device for part-time teaching I do at local universities. My primary needs are:
- Word processing - I need something with Textmaker-like capabilities, including support for tables, images, spell-checking, track changes, etc. Most of my files are Word docs.

- Presentations - I frequently do PowerPoint presentations in classes I teach.

- Internet - I do research online in library and other databases. I need a browser that is relatively fast (at least better than dial-up) and that can handle most websites. I don't need much streaming or video capabilities.

- Wireless - Would the Jornada work on a password-protected network? I have a 802.11g d-link router at home.

- E-mail - I frequently receive e-mail with attachments, mostly Word docs.

- File viewer - I need to be able to view a variety of file types, including pdfs.

I think that's most of it. I doubt the word processing will be an issue, but I'm concerned that internet speeds will be too slow or that I won't be able to access sites I need. I've been leaning toward the Asus EEE, but it's being delayed and may be beyond my price range for now. I have an Aero 8000 and an iPAQ 3650 to sell, so I figured that would give me enough to get a J720. I just want to make sure it can really do what I need. I've looked at the jlime & 720degrees sites, but the linux vocabulary is a bit baffling for a novice.

Any helpful information/opinions would be appreciated. Thanks.

i dont think you would want linux. CE would do all of this and better, except maybe slower browser.

Regarding CE, My concern would be around your presentation requirement: I have yet to find a decent presentation tool on Windows CE that failthfully will display anything other than very simple presentations.

My money would go on the eeepc I'm afraid. The 720 is, in my opinion, not up to complex documentation tasks especially with only 32MB of RAM. The eeepc is new, supported and will have a fairly huge community around it almost instantly.

You'll be waiting a long time for the eepc, imho. I doubt mass production has started yet - the latest target date mooted for the lines to start was end of July. There now appear to be three models, the one previously touted as 199US will now be 299US - altho there will be a cheaper, stripped down version for sale in other markets, perhaps as an OLPC.

The 7inch 4gb version, with a 4 cell battery, will be 369 to 399US, at this stage. For those in the UK (like me) I sadly expect the usual straight dollar to pound rip off, plus other racketeering from the UK vendors

Thisis the best site for checking the ee news from Taiwan

There are other competitors, like the Nanobook which look interesting... and of course the foleo

Cmonex: Would you stop trying to convince users to use CE in the Linux forum? He's already obviously made the choice to go with it - it is between the 720 with Linux, or a totally different product that is built around it.

PDXMark: We have several browsers to choose from, but the one that you would probably use is Konqueror Embedded (Konq/E). It should render everything you need quickly.

There are many email clients available - I don't know which one is used by default, but all of them are capable of getting attachments.

So long as your card is supported by Linux (likely), you can configure your network through Linux's tools. WAP is a little bit harder than WEP, but there are tutorials available.

For a good word processor, I would recommend just buying textmaker. Abiword is comparable and has been run on the 680, but no developers have successfully compiled it for the 720 yet. (They just haven't bothered, really)

File viewer - there are quite a few, but I don't know what type you are looking for. As far as pdf, xpdf should run fine. There might be others aimed toward embedded machines, but it can be configured to work with little memory.

The only problem that I see here is presentations. That is one point where CE does have the nice commercial support (for totally bare presentations), and I'm not sure whether the Jornada external video card works or not. Perhaps there are other external video cards that do.

However, that still does not solve the presentation problem. Unless if there is a small presentation program out there that I missed (possible), nothing comes to mind. Perhaps there is a powerpoint-compatible viewer out there?

Anyways, do note that while all these things may work, they may not be already available in packages or configured for the Jlime/720degrees system. I've been meaning to get to this sometime, but it still takes the end user some time (and knowledge) to get everything working to their liking. Then again, so does CE (moreso, actually). So you will need to do some research, posting, and reading to get everything running if you choose to go with Linux on the 720 (and any device, really).

Just double checked and Jlime's IceWM image came with Abiword which seems to work nicely, though I have not done any real testing with it. I tried the opie image but the iceWM one seems a lot more stable.

Konquorer embeded worked nicely on the opie image and dillo and midori seem functional on the IceWM image though I havn't done much testing at all....

Not tried 720deg...

John

Abiword runs on the 720? Which version?

The newer one is not nearly as great as the old - it sucks up ram and crashes. Or perhaps that was just my build...

Abiword embedded 2.4.6-r2

As I say i havn't really tested it much just done a few quick experiments so i can't comment on stability or anything.

John

Thanks for all the feedback! Presentation software might not be a big issue, as the school where I teach has equipment available, so I wouldn't be using my device for the presentations themselves. It would be nice to be able to put the presentation together on my device, but I don't really have that with the Aero 8000 I'm using now either.

I think the biggest issue may be having a real browser. That's the primary limitation for me with the Aero - I can't do online research with it. I'm willing to go to linux if it gets me decent wireless internet and e-mail capabilities.

It seems impossible to get reliable information on the eee pc these days.....but the most reasonable voices are clearly saying that price, memory, capabilities, etc. may not match the initial projections. Given my budget constraints (large family + government salary = No $$), getting a 720 may be a better solution, at least for the forseeable future.

cmonex, how slow would the CE browser be? And would it be limited in the types of sites it could handle?

Abiword embedded? Never heard of that.

The CE browser, PIE, would give you lots of problems. It can't open any sites that use certificates past (2005?), ssl, or anything like that. It has difficulty rendering any pages with complex scripts, java, and the like. For example, this site would not run too well (though I believe there is a special PIE version in the works). Ebay stopped working about a year ago, online banking fails, and so on. It wouldn't be a problem if sites still used clean HTML -- but they don't. As the internet was completely different in 2001 (when PIE was last updated), this is understandable.

Cmonex uses commercial browsers, such as netfront. They do perform better, but still don't work that great - and require modification before they can run.

Linux has opera, konq/e, dillo (worse than PIE, but fast), firefox (though it only runs well on the 728), and others. The browser is not a problem on that platform.

abiwird embedded was just the name that had a tick in the package list so not sure what the name actually signifies.

Besides not really what he was asking. Personally I couldnt live with 720 day in day out as it has poor video performance and web was quite slow. Hence me buying a Sig3.

I am also, depending on final apec and price, considering a EEE PC myself (though dont think it will replace my sig3 will probs replace my IBM x21 laptop).

Not tried 720deg so cant comment on it but on first showing jlime seems to show promise but it is a beta and not fully complete. As it is I wouldnt yet recommend it for a linux novice but would probs say keep an eye on development and wait till someone actually has an eee pc so you can actually make a more informed choice.

John

you miss the point?

and no i never tried to convince anyone. i give my opinion - can and will do that if i want.



this is the reason why i said that.

btw, the note in brackets that CE is more complex to configure is misleading.

Edited by cmonex 2007-08-15 7:11 PM

it does the browsing better than CE. didnt know browsing was the 1st priority - so if you are willing to learn, and resist the urge to tear your hair out on the first few days of adapting to linux, then you can try it.

but as others said, it is a beta. i've yet to try icewm, but it would probably offer better options than opie. opie is just boring pda linux.

actually, PIE is not that bad. you can log into ebay. and hpcfactor runs well in it. but yes it crashes on more and more sites now. many sites still work but not all and you said you want most sites to work.

hmm those modifications are easy. but here we should not discuss how to do it.

but yes, dillo in linux would be faster. and with a 728 (not 720) firefox would run almost decent?

though, opera for the jornada may come out. that would be a good fast up to date browser.







IE4 with pics turned off, most pages load in 15-20 secs over wifi. yes, limited.
netfront is similar speed, displays more pages and SSL works better.


Edited by cmonex 2007-08-15 7:28 PM