OK, for reasons I won't go into, I have decided to stick Xubuntu onto my EeePC.

Hilariously, the installer gives you some suggested specs "for best results". These "suggestions" are actually non-negotiable - if you don't have them, then the install won't happen. One of them is that you need over 4Gigs of disk space - which, for those who know the EeePC 701, is a bit of a problem....

You also need an internet connection - so my "straight to install" rather than "try me first" also fails as the wireless connection hasn't been set up....

So, back to the start. Created the USB live disk and used that to boot my Eee. As mentioned, I then had to head back to the Try Me option to get the wireless up and running. The other issue - the hard drive size - needs a bit more geek effort.

The HD size issue I did a quick Google on and discovered this -

http://gobitech.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/install-ubuntu-1104-on-asus-eee-pc-701.html

So, based on the info there (the 12.04 stuff is near the bottom) I had a go at editing the relevant file. I found it easier to open a terminal . then use sudo and nano as my text editor - bearing in mind that I am installing Xubuntu, rather than the straight Ubuntu with its Gnome tools.

Then, back to installing....

Success! I now get the revised "suggestion" of 3.0Gb (I have of course already got the wireless up).

Kudos to the gobitech blog! A neat bit of work sorting that out.

From here on in, I go with my usual EeePC selections - a single partition, Ext2 file system (i.e non journalised) and no swap space. I go for these because I believe that excessive writing to the SSD card shortens its life - and journalised filesystems and swap space increases writes. This is of course debatable, but I stick to this system.

Installing one of the Ubuntu family (or any other main distro) means installing a mountain of stuff I don't want on an Eeepc - it won't be connecting to a printer for example or to a scanner. Nor will I be editing pictures...
So I shall be doing some serious editing once the system is installed.

The command line is the ideal place to see how large the installed system actually is - bearing in mind that the installer wanted 4.4GB of free space!
The command line command is  df -h and when I run it on the installed system I find that 2.1 GB is used and, incidentally, there are 280 updates....

I am off to firstly cleanse the system of drivel (e.g fonts that I do not use, printers etc..) then look at the updates...

Will post later !