Apparently I haven’t been the only one installing Ubuntu on an Eee PC recently. If you’re thinking of picking up an Asus Eee PC 1000, but don’t like Xandros and don’t feel feel like installing another operating system yourself? ZaReason is selling the Eee PC 1000 with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron preloaded for no additional cost. For $599 you can choose between a model with Xandros or Ubuntu. You can also pay a bit extra for a RAM upgrade or a USB DVD-RW drive.
LinuxPlanet reviewed a ZaReason Eee PC 1000 running Ubuntu and came away impressed. Well, mostly. As is often the case when you install an off-the-shelf operating system on a computer with a non-standard resolution display, some program menus failed to fit properly on the screen. You can sort of get around this by holding the alt key and clicking your mouse on the offending window to drag it up and down so you can see any buttons (like OK or Cancel) that were hiding below your screen. But it’s kind of annoying anyway.
But overall, LinuxPlanet says the computer ran well. Compiz effects worked and the system was up to date enough that it included Firefox 3.0.1 out of the box.
They also sell the MSI Wind Desktop (rebranded as the “Breeze”) which is the only place I’ve seen it for sale as a complete system.