The file manager thing is down to the 'simple' interface being a bit cobbled together, even after a year of eee iterations. My 901 had that problem after a certain update, but anyone who can type in 'Eee file manager disappeared problem' to the Firefox searchbar is going to learn a tiny amount of terminal linux (which is no bad thing at all, in fact every command you learn makes you feel that little bit more comfortable and makes the OS feel far more your plaything to bend to your will, as opposed to the strict or semi-strict alternatives MacOS or Windows) and get the problem solved in no time. I still boot mine to simple as I can then just launch the one app I need in record time, should I need to (i.e. on a son to move train but can see a wifi sign and need footy scores) or for a few seconds more I can get the full desktop. Still faster than windows.
The Eee is something I've not felt since my ST, the 16-bit era... a specific platform with a few differring models, and an OS that is utterly pliable to your will, full control... but be careful using it. This thing has character, and the good things, the things that match or surpass a £100 OS, make up for and inspire you to find a solution for the weaker points of the default full-mode settings.
Again, a n00b can google for full mode unlock on the 901 (where it is hidden), can learn quickly how to boot to full mode as default, and understand why, and gain insight invaluable in understanding the OS throughout. I'm enjoying sifting repositories and wondering how better to configure synaptic to do so, and browsing forums for hints, and wondering about how cheaply I can get a linux box and have it as a music server with Amarok, on my lcd I currrently use the 360 on for that purpose. I'd jump on a Eee Box, at this point. With a 1tb USB drive full of w4r3z, pR0nZ, mp3s and t0rr3ntZ.
The age of home computing as a proper exploratory hobby died when the utimate geek machine, the PC got to a certain point. Anything but a spread sheet on a PC was (morally speaking) a hack of sorts, not twenty years ago. I think it was the advent of CDs a a storage medium that swung it to Microsoft. Being a fully customisable platform saw is contorted into this shape and that, and it is now realising its potential. For a hundred and fifty quid, you can knock together a machine with parts from Maplin which will run the media production Ubuntu nicely and far outstrip in performance anything music production IT wise from the eighties or indeed nineties. Or just like the audiogeeks who spend hundreds on a metre of speaker cable, a gaming rig for two grand is no problem if you have the cash, and it will probably remain totally current for a good three months. Or at least until the next game worth buying, not torrenting, comes out. Whatever specific purpose (or light multifunction) you want a PC for, you can get one. But it's not like when you got your Amiga. Or even your Amstrad.
Nah, the Eee is different from the rest of PCville, including the Acer and MSI(Advent) models (Dells I've no clue about). The others I've used, and are very nice indeed. Tiny versions of the 15" cousins around the 400 price bracket, they do their job well, but they are simply shrunken versions, whereas the Eee has a charm and character not unbecoming of a better Mac, or an Amiga, or even a ZX81. It has identity, learning the OS is like learning Workbench. Open Source software lacks polish in the same way the 16 bit ST/Amiga Format cover disk software used to, and that was the stuff our hobby was built upon. In spirit, this is the direct follow-up to those 16-bit machines, I reckon. Just as the DS or Wii were 'another path' for the games industry, the Eee allows you to justify purchase on th basis of having a hobby machine to learn and tinker with, but which is ultra-portable and can rise to rather more occasions that the very light user will ever know.
Unless it breaks, no regrets at all on the Black 901 Linux version here. And I spent £270 on it. My wife's got the Windows version. Wouldn't trade now, even ignoring my greater storage capacity, which is juuuuust right capacity wise. Got a $40 160gb usb drive anyhow, for my pr0nZ.
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