Eeebuntu: Linux Distribution for Your Asus Eee PC

I'm always on the prowl for solid Linux distributions that work out-of-the-box on Asus' flagship netbook product, the Eee PC. While I had been using Ubuntu Eee (now called Easy Peasy) to get super-popular Ubuntu Linux, I felt the need for something new, so I decided to check out Eeebuntu, another widely used Ubuntu variant. The first thing that I liked was that there are 3 distinctly different download options for Eeebuntu. There's Eeebuntu Standard (a full desktop with a full productivity suit, music manage software, photo management software, etc) Eeebuntu Netbook (a smaller install with a special user-interface aimed at small screens) and Eeebuntu Base (an extremely basic, no-frills install aimed at user-customization). I opted to download Eeebuntu Standard for my tests.

Installation

As far as I can tell, the installer is virtually identical to the default Ubiquity installer used by stock Ubuntu. As such, it's simple and easy, and takes about half an hour to get everything going. Super smooth.

First Impressions

First of all, Eeebuntu has some great custom-branding going on, from the boot splash to the login screen, and it's all just looks really polished clean. Eeebuntu has gone with a nice blue color scheme and a funky wallpaper that looks cool and professional but still inviting.

One major difference from stock Ubuntu is that Eeebuntu includes the Avant Window Navigator turned on by default. AWN is a MacOS-like dock app that can function as a complete taskbar/panel replacement. I really liked this, as it gives the distro a unique bit of visual polish that is also functional. My only problem is that Eeebuntu chose to include AWN and a regular GNOME panel, which means even on all the smallest screen, a large part of the GNOME panel goes unused, since no window list is necessary. This is really pretty minor, but does seem like waste of screenspace, especially on the 701 models. I ended up turning off AWN and adding a regular window list to my GNOME panel to make the most of the screen space.

Quirks

One feature--or possibly a bug--is that by default your home directory is mapped to the desktop. For some people, this may not be any issue at all, since many users choose to use their desktop as a home directory. For those of us like to keep a clean desktop, though, this presents a problem. Luckily, I was able to find an easy solution in the Eeebuntu forums that simply entailed editing an easy-to-find text file. Disaster averted!

Hardware Support

Thanks to a custom kernel and other community work, virtually everything just works right out of the box, including suspend/resume. Function keys for volume and screen brightness work flawlessly. I have heard reports that it takes a bit of configuring via the included Eeebuntu Config custom app to get wifi toggle working, but I haven't tested this as I practically never turn wifi off.

Software Selection

The Eeebuntu Standard installation includes a lot of a great software by default, including the full OpenOffice.org productivity suite, Firefox web browser, F-Spot Photo Manger, and the Banshee media management software. It also comes fully loaded and ready to handle your iPod, as well (as I don't own an iPod, I couldn't test this functionality). Unfortunately, the project the decided to omit any application for taking pictures from the built-in webcam. Thankfully, Eeebuntu is fully compatible with the standard Ubuntu software repositories, and several apps like the fun Cheese are available for quick download and installation.

Conclusions

To date, I've installed Eeebuntu on three Asus Eee PC's including a low-end Eee PC 900 (4GB SSHD, 512MB RAM), higher end 900 (16GB SSHD, 1GB RAM) and an upgraded Eee PC 701 (4GB SSHD, 1GB RAM). I've been happy with the performance on each of those, especially the ones with a gig of RAM. The OS feels downright snappy! I love it that my hardware is fully supported, and I get all the power and flexibility of the very latest Ubuntu release. All things considered, Eeebuntu is a great-looking, fully functional Linux distribution for your EeePC that I can wholeheartedly recommend as a replacement for the default OS.