I think it is a strong competitor, especially considering the casual market. People are used to the form factor, and for a few bucks more you get winxp, which makes me cringe but is a plus for the casual market. Depending on the EU pricing I will probably rather go for the eee-pc than the new N810. I own a 770 and bought it for 350 € when it came out. I skipped the N800 and was waiting for the new tablet, but I can't justify approximately 450 € for a keyboard and better surfing experience (that's all I want and need).

This is why I said that Hildon could *arguably* be seen as a failure. In short, where are the apps? GNOME and KDE apps number in the hundreds, or even thousands. How many complete apps are there for Hildon? (and I'm not talking about best-intention projects that start but never actually complete, and live in eternal alpha/beta status). I can only think of one that I actually use: MaemoMapper. The others apps I use are ports: Mplayer, Leafpad and FBReader. Oh, I use Navicore, and I guess that's an original program.

I'm not a developer (that should be clear by now ). I speak from an informed end-user perspective. And it seems to me that Hildon was a step in the wrong direction. I realise Hildon was based on GTK but it's too far removed from GNOME and GTK on x86. The original devs should have taken GNOME, and Nautilus, and adapted them. Instead they wiped the board clean and started again. This was a mistake, IMHO, and we're seeing the consequences now -- it's difficult to port applications, and not many developers rising the challenge of developing from scratch.

They didn't wipe the board. They use alot of stuff that is FOSS. And you don't have to develop from scratch. You have to change the gui. (But it's not a complete redesign) The callbacks can remain as they are in most cases. There just aren't that much developers for Maemo.

At least there is a unification process going on at the moment. OS2008 will be closer to mainstream gtk+, and Hildon is getting integrated into gtk+ as well so that it's actually going to be available on the desktop. Applications could then be written from the start with dual Hildon/non-Hildon support. (And if the Vala compiler project continues then there's a nicer-than-C-or-C++ method of writing apps too.)

Actually the Intel MIDs integrate Hildon aswell ans Hildon will be just antoher GNOME library.

For me: I am definately gonna get an EEEPC as soon as it arrives. I am going to maybe use less N800. No offence but there are so much things I want to do with my portable device and N800 just doesn't deliver what it's supposed to. I need flwaless streaming video in my portable device. Then I need support for all sorts of video formats. Also I need PIM functionality. Maybe some nokia smartphone and EEEPC just the right combination. Allthou I am waiting for Chinook to bring some more features I need, but my hopes aren't exactly very high.

I was all about the eeepc, but with newegg pushing it at $400, I just cant bring my self to buy it. Im going for the n810 instead. Maybe I'll sell my n800 to see if it can cover a lesser model of the eeepc, but for now, its not for me.


also, i want a black one.

For short trips out of town, I usually take my N800 with me (for email and Web surfing). For longer trips, I would also take my Sony VAIO (to work on MS Office files). EEE PC is not really PORTABLE--by that I mean you can not put it in a regular sized pocket. If I wanted something small to replace my VAIO, it would be a UMPC running Windows XP or Vista

If you're just doing Office, why would you need Windows at all? OpenOffice can do everything MS Office can (you can even continue to save the files in MS Office formats like .doc, if you want). I agree that an N800 would not quite cut it as a laptop replacement, but the Asus Eee would be perfect for you at this point in time.

Speaking of the ugly bricks running Windows that are currently referred to "UMPCs" - you know, those 800 dollar things that don't have a physical keyboard and little battery life - the Asus Eee is really going to kick their asses in the market, isn't it?

If OpenOffice really does MS Office stuff, I'll take a look. But then again, my VAIO has 11" display (good for video), is very thin and weights 3 pounds and change. I see no need to change right now.