Community Matters

In an interview with Laptop Magazine Jerry Sheen, Asus’ CEO, finally confirmed some of the details of the EeePC that I was most curious about.

First and foremost, the EeePC 900 won’t be based on an Intel Celeron M but instead on the Intel Atom processor – the platform codenamed Diamondville. That should be great news for the power consumption of this little system, while still providing very respectable performance. There are of course no benchmarks available yet, but I expect the new system to perform better than the existing EeePC 701 model. Interesting comments on the comparison with the competing Via chips: “Diamondville is the better choice, because it uses the 45-namometer [process]. And pricewise it is very competitive. In my planning I will continue to use Intel’s Diamondville. And for the VIA one I think from the power point of view, Diamondville is still better.”

Equally important, Mr. Sheen confirmed that there will continue to be a Linux based version of the EeePC. Interestingly enough, he explained that the low end model with an 8GB SSD will run Windows XP, while the higher end versions with 12GB or 20GB SSD will be Linux based. I couldn’t be happier with that positioning.

And he confirmed what was already announced at CeBIT – the 8.9 inch 1024×600 display.

Finally he announced that the system would be available in April or May, earlier than many people assumed it would be – that’s great news. I can’t wait to get one (and what will I do with my existing one? why, my three year old twins always wanted a computer…)