Programming on an Asus Eee PC

[Spencer E.]

Hey everyone, I was just recently introduced to the Asus Eee PC and I've been seriously considering buying one just to bring around with me when I need to do work and such. I especially think this would be perfect for programming a robot especially to carry around the competition (being only 2 pounds and all). It's also a really cheap laptop starting at $249.99 US. Now what I'm wondering is if it's possible to run MPLab and the C18 compiler on the system, seeing how it runs Linux, or if anyone has had experience with one of these systems. Thanks in advance!

[Binome]

They run linux stock, but you CAN install XP on them, and use the standard mplab toolchain.

[frewre06]

It is my understanding that the Eee runs windows xp (at least theoretically) . You would have to install the OS yourself as I don't believe it is sold pre-installed. It would be difficult to code efficiently on a screen and keyboard as small as the Eee's. That and with the memory and processor resources of the Eee, XP would be significantly slower than you might like.

That being said, it should be possible to write and upload code with the built in Linux/Unbutu (I think the Eee runs an Unbutu hybrid) tools. Though your programming skills could be put to the test as you would have little to no support that the IDEs that C18 and EasyC offer.

-S

[Akash Rastogi]

And you can always use a portable hard drive on those things.

[Rohan_DHS]

Desktop virtualization (something like VMware..I'm not sure whether or not it works with Linux...I would think it does) are perfect for this problem =)
You can continue running Linux, if thats what you prefer, and run Windows from inside Linux.

[Lucretius]

We're using 3 EEEs, communicating using WiFi, collaboratively coding in Gobby.
I couldn't get MPlab to install, so we ended up using Gobby, a customized makefile, mcc, and the Linux ifiloader.

Edit: We're running the mcc compiler under Wine.

[Foster]

You should be able to run Wine on it and then run the MPlabs compiler using Wine. There have been some posts on how to do that. This is a Linux IFI loader that you can use to download the code.

Let us all know how you make out with your development

[Rapt0r9]

We have switched to an EEEPC this year. I have installed XP Pro and MPLab and the whole procedure took a little over two hours. They are really neat machines and everyone on the team is amazed by it. I have assumed possession of the PC and currently am typing this post from it. My only gripe is that the screen size and resolution are bad and the keyboard is extremely small, but for what it is worth, it is a great little machine to carry around.

[GGCO]

I too am seriously considering buying an EEE PC. From what I heard is that it runs Eclipse, so I think you could program FRC with it.

[haroony341]

will these computers be able to code for the 2009 controller?

[Kingofl337]

I wouldn't try to run labview as thats hard on my MacBook Pro, but WinRiver should be ok.

[Lowfategg]

The eee pc is not a weak little computer. The CPU is ok and the ram is also very good if you upgrade it. Also the flash hard drive is very fast at loading large files. If you install a SD flash card you can expanded the storage space as well. But with a 9" screen eee pc coming in the future I would wait and buy the new model coming out around the end of this year.

http://eeepc.asus.com/global/news04152008.htm