As predicted, the built-in microphone problem on the EeePC 1000 has been fixed. I have gotten used to the slightly different positioning of the right-hand shift key and now I am looking for a way of disabling the mouse pad while typing. The irritations are so minor compared to the good things that I keep discovering that they don't tarnish my joy at all.
But two nights ago I did have a nightmare about computers. It was really scary - I woke up in a sweat. I dreamed that I was forced to revert to Windows!
My thoughts have since turned to fighting crime. If only there was a web-based database where everyone could advertise their stolen goods. Second hand dealers, like Cash Converters, would be able to do a quick search to establish whether the items being offered for sale have been reported as stolen. It could also lead to valuables being returned to the rightful owners. Before planning any further I did a search for similar ideas on the internet - and I found one - right here in South Africa. It is still brand new but is growing fast. The web site owner, John Weber, has geat plans for the future of his site. The web site, http://tagga.co.za, not only allows for searches for stolen goods, but also acts as a 'virtual safe' where you keep all your valuables complete with serial numbers and identification marks. Please make use of this valuable service - it is completely free of charge - and help to make South Africa an even better place.
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Thanks to the excellent and much appreciated work of a few clever Asus EeePC enthusiasts, and the enthusiastic encouragement of thousands of wanabe EeePC Ubuntu users, I now have Ubuntu successfully running on my new Asus EeePC 1000 40G. Starting with a clean installation from the ISO CD image of Ubunttu 8.04.1, I applied the 'adamm' and other patches summarized by 'elmurato' on forum.eeeuser.com and almost everything is working. The only remaining issue is that the built-in 'Array Microphone' system is not working. I can use Skype, complete with built-in web-cam, with the help of a plug-in microphone, but that is not a long-term solution. I expect that, within the next week, a solution will be shared in the forums.
The Acer Ferrari was worse in that neither on-board nor external microphones would work and because of the scarcity of Ubuntu Ferrari users a solution may never have been developed. So be warned; do not buy a unique product if you may require FOSS community support.
You can keep the assistant - I have my Eee.
UPDATE - 19/09/08
Due to work on the custom Ubuntu kernel by Adam McDaniel, the internal microphone is now working.
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My new Sub-Notebook PC, the replacement for my runaway Ferrari, arrived this week.
My first disappointment is that it was delivered without the just-as-beautiful assistant.
Five minutes of looking at the Xandros OS that comes pre-installed from Asus and I fully agreed with one writer who described it as a Fisher-Price toy OS.
Without hesitation I reformatted the 8+32GB SD drives and installed the copy of Ubuntu-Eee that I had prepared before the new notebook arrived. That was when I had my second disappointment - neither the Wireless nor the wired network devices were recognized by Ubuntu. It seems that the special version was designed for the earlier models of the Asus Eee PC. Learning more made me realize that the model 1000 is bleeding edge as far as development of a compatible version of Ubuntu is concerned. Many users are still experimenting with varying degrees of success.
While learning how to get Ubuntu to work on this new baby I decided to restore the Xandros back to factory default. The Eee PC comes with a recovery DVD that makes this a simple 10 minute procedure. You do, of course, require a USB DVD drive - not included with the Eee.
I battled with the "Easy Mode" Xandros user interface for a while longer - trying to find the underlying Linux, It took an Internet search to learn how to open a terminal window - Ctrl-Alt-T. Once in a terminal I could install the required parts that allowed access to the "Advanced Mode" user interface. The advanced mode user interface is scaringly similar to Windows 98. It is not surprising that Microsoft have chosen Xandros for a broad collaboration agreement.
Compared to Ubuntu, the Xandros repositories are out of date and incomplete. The menus were not customizable and, in my opinion, badly designed. But in spite of my complaints, it is a lot more usable than the "Easy Mode". The real killer however is the flakiness of the wireless network and the inability to mount another file system using SSH (it offers the aging NFS mounts instead). It also seemed much slower than what I expected - hopefully that is due to the bad wireless connection. I did manage to do a bit of work under Xandros - although 'bit' is too big a description. I have just downloaded Ubuntu 8.04.1 and I am going to tackle the installation of compatible drivers. If I can pull myself away from the fun games on Xandros.
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