Cool ultra mini laptop, not much for music

  • Thread starter Thread starter ofajen
  • Start date Start date
O

ofajen

Daddy-O Daddy-O Baby
I just got an a brand new ultra mini laptop. It's actually a work machine, just a tiny little thing I can carry around the Capitol when I'm lobbying and still edit and create documents and do email. It's called the Asus Eee PC 8G. Weighs just two pounds and is very small, but with a complete keyboard, 1 GB RAM, 3 USB ports, Wifi. It's smoking fast because it runs a custom Linux distribution. No standard HD, it just uses an 8GB flash drive.

Anyway, it would be handy for remote recording except that from what I gather, good multitrack audio software for Linux doesnt really exist. I could use a USB interface and do live 2-track recording, but I already have a MicroTrack that does that quite nicely.

Cheers,

Otto
 
danny.guitar said:
Good call. You know what kind of CPU it has in there? Doesn't matter much though cause Reaper on its own doesn't need a very fast CPU at all.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip about Reaper! Somehow I assumed it was Windows only. Shows what I (don't) know about Linux!

Here's what the tech specs say:

CPU: 900MHz Intel Celeron-M ULV 353, Dothan-512 ultra-low-voltage, 90 nm

Chipset: Mobile Intel 915GM Express Chipset with GMA900 GPU

Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA 900 graphics processor using shared RAM

I'll check out the Reaper option. :)

Cheers,

Otto
 
pipelineaudio said:
if its linux, throw reaper on it
Click to expand...

The Reaper site only talks about Windows OS, except that a Mac OS X release is expected in early 2008. Is it actually possible to run Reaper under Linux (without running some bogus Windows emulation)? :confused:

Cheers,

Otto
 
pipelineaudio said:
Well its a sort of windows emulation but it is NOT bogus, it was made by audio guys FOR audio guys

The open-suse and jacklab guys would feel a little offended I think :)

Check out this webpage:

http://www.davehayes.org/2007/04/27/howto-reaper-on-ubuntu-linux-with-wineasio/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. That is definitely not a "bogus" Windows emulation and I meant no offense to either of those projects. However, it requires far more tinkering than I would consider on this little machine which is mainly for my work. OTOH, they're so cheap I may get another one for play and that one I could change around quite a bit.

Cheers,

Otto
 
I was trying to get one of these. With 900MHz VIA chip (which is power-efficient at a cost of performance) I wasn't intending to use it for music, but for other purposes it is ideal. And it means I can keep the laptop I do use for music in its normal place instead of having to borrow it each time I travel.

Note that it (the most common, 4G version) does only have 4GB of (solid-state) disk. Apparently about 1.4GB of that is free with the default OS installation, but it does have an SD slot, and three USB ports.

Anyone know if the battery is replaceable? I haven't yet been able to have a play with one of these...

And I'll have to try Reaper in WINE. Morrowind actually runs twice as fast as in Windows, albeit with a number of graphical glitches.
 
jpmorris said:
I was trying to get one of these. With 900MHz VIA chip (which is power-efficient at a cost of performance) I wasn't intending to use it for music, but for other purposes it is ideal. And it means I can keep the laptop I do use for music in its normal place instead of having to borrow it each time I travel.

Note that it (the most common, 4G version) does only have 4GB of (solid-state) disk. Apparently about 1.4GB of that is free with the default OS installation, but it does have an SD slot, and three USB ports.

Anyone know if the battery is replaceable? I haven't yet been able to have a play with one of these...

And I'll have to try Reaper in WINE. Morrowind actually runs twice as fast as in Windows, albeit with a number of graphical glitches.
Click to expand...

It can pretty much handle everything except music stuff, which would allow me to lean up my music machine a bit. I have the 8G version which has over 5 GB extra space and 1 GB of RAM. The battery is removable and in theory replaceable, but I haven't seen any listings yet at the retailers. I'd actually like to have a spare battery or two, since I sometimes have long periods of hanging out in the Senate gallery with the laptop, but no place to plug in power. Alternatively, I'll buy one of those external 9V battery packs they sell for portable DVD players.

Cheers,

Otto
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top