After buying my Asus EEE PC 1000HA, I initially installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix on it. After learning more about (#!) CrunchBang Linux and seeing that they had released an optimized version for the EEE PC called CrunchEEE. I’ve been using CrunchEEE on my EEE PC for the last week and decided to do a review.

CrunchEee 8.10.02 has been released. CrunchEee is an ASUS Eee PC specific version of CrunchBang Linux.

eee-control is an easy-to-use utility for controlling Eee PC hardware under Linux. It can toggle hardware (WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) ON and OFF, lets you configure all hardware hotkeys, enables aggressive powersaving, and more. Almost all Eee PC netbook models are supported to varying degrees.Ubuntu9.04 and higher will support eee-control with out any kernel modification.

On this slightly belated, massively bloated show: We talk to the DPL about Lenny, Fab reviews CrunchEee and the newest CrunchBang and we also have the usual open source releases, news and some gaming-related stuff.

xPUD is certainly unique. In fact, there are some excellent ideas that are beginning to take place here. This is a Linux distribution that is built around two things that most people want, a good web browser, Firefox and a media player. Combine that with an unbelievably simple interface and you have an operating system that boots in 10 seconds and is functional from the start.

One tool to help you manage your secure shell connections is the GNOME SSHmenu tool. This helpful application adds a small applet to the GNOME panel that allows you to make secure shell connections with a single click.

The final 8.10.02 builds of CrunchBang Linux, CrunchBang Linux “Lite” and CrunchEee are now available. The new releases contain numerous changes and many fixes provided by the CrunchBang community.

For the past year my netbook of choice has been the Samsung NC10 as while it shipped with stock Intel Atom hardware like other netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9 and earlier ASUS Eee PCs, the Samsung was built very well and possessed a rather large and well laid out keyboard for only being a 10.6" mobile computer. Catching my attention recently though has been the ASUS Eee PC 1201N netbook.

The ASUS sneak attack. The most interesting story the media is downplaying is the ASUS announcement that it will have a ROM boot chip on all its motherboards, which will boot Linux instantly on start-up. When you flick the switch the machine is instantly on. (It's about time.) Of course, you will have to press another button for the machine to load Windows.