EEEPC's power is in the network not the machine

It's official - I definitely am in love with ASUS' EEEPC. I liked the idea when they first came out and specifically trawled around Hong Kong computer markets to find one not long after they were launched. It's not the Apple Air or iPhone kind of aesthetic lust, I'm talking about true "in sickness and in health" type love when it comes to the EEEPC.

Indeed for someone to now take this device off me it really would have to be from my cold, dead, rigamortis-set fingers - and then only with a saw.

Go online and look at reviews. They fall into two camps - those who think it's great as a second machine that just happens to do a lot of funky things (see latest Linux Format June edition for a classic example) or those that just don't "get it" and wonder why the hell anyone would want a tiny-weenie machine when you can get a low spec dell for a few hundred quid now.

There is also a third camp - who are starting to realise that a linux based UMPC is a truly brilliant bit of kit and it's because of the network it sits on not the thing plugged into it.

I've had mine for about 5 months and realistically I've installed about half a dozen bits of software - 10 at a push. I can do docs, review spreadsheets, skype, web browse - hell even play games if I want and when hooked to a network I can do all of these things with all of the files I could possibly want.

My machine comes home and it auto connects to my home network, syncs to my media server and can play all my media files out of the box. I can check my mail and actually read it without squinting without firing up the laptop. I can connect from home to work via a VPN and mod some files for a client without leaving the sofa or the garden and be doing what is needed before the laptop has finished booting to a desktop.

At work I can use it for presentations and taking notes on projects without printing stupid amounts of documentation and hefting my laptop along with me.

It's not a replacement computer - it's a tool - a finely shaped, infinitely configurable tool. All the things I want in my phone but will never get because of the lack of keyboard, mouse and processing power and without it being much bigger.

The thing is I'm a techie, if I'm talking a walk down the street phone and wallet are it. If I'm going somewhere then it's satchel with camera, book, PSP and now EEEPC in place of a laptop.

ASUS have released details recently of a new version designed to hit off the people who think the EEEPC is too small. I don't know myself. Small is beautiful and in this case perfectly formed.