Xandros on Asus Eee – “Easy mode” vs “Advanced mode”
The Asus Eee runs on Xandros, which is a Linux-based operating system which branched off from Debian.
“Huh?”, you say?
In layman’s terms, the Asus runs on something that isn’t Windows or a Mac interface.
The factory default settings use what they call “Easy Mode”, which is a tabbed view of the desktop space with easy access to common applications:
I actually quite liked the Easy Mode because it did everything I needed it to do… which was basically launch Firefox and OpenOffice. But I was curious about what this “Advanced Mode” was all about, so I followed some instructions on enabling Advanced Mode on the Eee. The result? I unlocked the KDE interface, which is what I’m using for openSUSE in my full-sized laptop:
For someone who is used to the KDE or Windows desktop, this is much less frustrating. I was able to get rid of some of the stuff I never intend to use, like the games and the somewhat puzzling CD and DVD writing programs (the Eee does not come with an optical drive, but I suppose it can accept external ones).
With the full KDE desktop, the startup and shutdown times are a bit slower, but still much better than a traditional laptop:
| Startup | Shutdown | |
| Eee – Easy Mode | approx 29s | approx 9s |
| Eee – KDE | approx 41s | approx 17s |
| Toshiba M300 – openSUSE | approx 1m 39s (but 1m 48s for the hourglass to disappear) | approx 55s |
| Toshiba M300 – Windows XP | approx 1m (but 2m 15s for the hourglass to disappear) | approx 34s |
The time comparisons are actually quite surprising because I didn’t expect Windows to be faster than openSUSE (the first time for Windows and openSUSE mark when the start menus became accessible).
You can very easily install openSUSE on the eee! I did it yesterday, borrowing an external dvdrom from our system admin at work. Its quick too, although a little bit bulky. If you want I can post the boot and shutdown times, but just from memory boot into KDE is probably less than a minute and shutdown is about 30 seconds, but these are guesses. Running openSUSE allows you to take advantage of the one-click install, which I love!
Here’s the stats:
Boot into KDE in 1 minute, 1m15s for the session to finish loading Opera and Kopete
Shutdown from click of the button takes 30 seconds.
I’m still greatly impressed. I replied to the comment you left on my site, with a link to an openSUSE article. That article has a link to a zipped file which is a flash drive boot image for the EEE. I don’t have the bandwidth to download the 700 odd mb, but if you don’t have a dvd rom it might be an option.
Great blog btw :D
I’m happy to have found another Eeenthusiast! I’ve been using mine in Advanced Mode for about a month, and I love it. I’ve used Ubuntu in the past, but Xandros is very easy to warm up to. It’s my first experience with KDE, and I dare say I’m enjoying it more than Gnome.
If you have a desire to play around with your Eee and you’re looking for ideas, I’ve been keeping track of all my Eee adventures on my blog. Feel free to take a look!