Eee PC to adopt special low-end version of XP

This one is interesting. In an otherwise unrevealing review of what it's like to run Windows XP on the low-end Asus Eee PC (verdict: Better than expected), APC offers up this interesting bit of info: Asus is prepping a special edition Eee PC that will be preloaded with a cut-down version of XP which is expected to be available within the next eight weeks. Emmanuele Silanesu, National Retail Manager for ASUSTeK Australia, told apcmag “we’ve been working with Microsoft on a special condensed version of XP which has just passed the R&D tests this week”. The pared-back image, which includes the Microsoft Works suite and will be based on Windows XP Home with SP3, “will be approximately 1.5-1.8GB in total depending on Windows updates” Silanesu says. And then there's this... The best Eee PC for XP will likely be the new 900 series. These will sport a larger (9 inch) screen running at 1024x600 resolution, with RAM and solid state drives both doubled (to 1GB and 8GB respectively, in the Windows XP edition). Parked under the hood will be the much more powerful Intel Atom processor. That will turn the Lilliputian laptop into a far superior notebook on its own terms as well as a more suitable platform for Windows. ASUSTeK Australia’s Emmanuele Silanesu says “the launch date (for the 900 series) is looking like Q3”with the price “around about $599” for the Linux version, which will have either a 12GB or 20GB solid state drive. “We’re not sure at this stage what the final config will be”, says Silanesu. This I'm not so excited about. We can already buy very capable laptops for $599 and they're not hamstrung like the Eee PC. (They are, however, bigger and heavier, but this is a classic tradeoff.)