In early June, Asustek Computer and Intel announced at Computex Taipei that they would soon be releasing a low-end $199 subnotebook PC, the Asus Eee PC 701. It appears to be on schedule, and when it arrives in customers' hands in late August or early September it will be running a variation of Xandros Desktop Linux.

Congratulations to all the new Christmas owners of the year's hottest subnotebook, the ASUS Eee, putting Linux square in the mainstream and right in the hands of the masses. Here's a collection of tiny – but dead useful – hints and tips to help you get the most out of it.

We recently acquired an ASUS Eee PC (if you want to know more about it, a lot of reviews are available on internet). The first thing we did when we put our hands at the ASUS Eee PC was to test its security. The ASUS Eee PC comes with a customized version of Xandros operating system installed, and some other bundled software like Mozilla Firefox, Pidgin, Skype and OpenOffice.org.

Over the years of reviewing ASUS products we've seen a number of interesting motherboards but the one we have our hands on for review today is one of the most interesting we have ever seen.

Yes, we know that the Everex CloudBook subnotebook has been delayed from arriving at the shelves of Walmart, but that doesn't mean that you can't get in on the hot gOS experience right now. As it turns out, it's perfectly possible to grab the gOS from the CloudBook and load it up on the Asus Eee PC, which so happens to be the CloudBook's direct competitor.

ASUS have released a cheap subnotebook. It is far from state-of-the-art tech-wise, with 512Mb RAM and a Celeron processor. It has a 4Gb hard drive and no optical drive. Its screen is 7” and runs at the odd resolution of 800x480 and the operating system looks like something Fisher Price might have designed. Why would you buy it? What on earth can you do with this?

It took about a week to get here, but it finally arrived, my Asus Eee PC is here. First of all I had to curb my excitement as the batteries took some time to charge – up to two hours. So why did I buy this? Well I have to admit to a wee bit of technolust. But avoiding technolust was the very reason I did not just go out and purchase one as soon as the Eee PC came out. After I had one in my hands for 3 minutes, I knew that I wanted one and that it would be useful. How useful? Well, let me tell you.

Asus will finally launch the desktop version of its elfin Eee PC early next month. Once dubbed the E-DT, the unit is set to retail as the Ebox, we understand.

Until recently I thought Linux was just the domain of enthusiasts and cost-conscious corporates, who for whatever reason, wanted an alternative to Windows. I never thought Linux had a contribution to make to mainstream computing. However, after purchasing a ASUS EeePC, a Linux based subnotebook, I’ve realised that I was wrong, very wrong.