I've run (mainly) ubuntu linux on this laptop for about 18 months now.
It came with a 120gb hdd and 1gb ddr2 memory (which I upgraded cheaply to the maximum 2gb - accessing the spare slot was easy). The optical drive is a DVD-burner.
The restore CD that came with the machine gives no partitioning options, and will blow away all partitions and install vista on one big C drive. gparted (an old version in feisty) managed to shrink this NTFS partition down, and although windows complained and wanted to check the disk next time it booted, it was able to fix whatever it didn't like, and I've had it multi-booting with grub quite happily ever since.
Unfortunately there seemed to be a problem with linux kernels between 7.04 feisty fawn (2.6.20) and 8.10 intrepid ibex (2.6.27).
I tried Gutsy and Hardy on this laptop, and experienced freezes where - at fairly unpredictable times after boot - the whole machine would freeze up - I couldn't restart X, I couldn't SSH onto the machine, the magic Prt Sc incantation did nothing - a hard reset by the power button was the only option. I couldn't find anything useful in the logs. So I stuck with feisty for a long time.
I tried several other linux distros such as fedora and mandriva, and had the same freezes (I even had systemrescueCD freeze up on me with a > 2.6.20 kernel, and had to use a version based on an older one). It seemed there was something about the kernels after 2.6.20 that this laptop didn't like.
The good news is that as of Ibex, the problem seems to have gone away - it seems to work pretty much flawlessly with an up-to-date kernel (currently Linux 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Thu Jan 29 19:24:39 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux).
So with ibex the webcam works out-of-the-box, as does the SD card reader, most of the Fn keys I've ever wanted to use (volume, screen brightness etc...), wifi, audio (including the mic), twinview using the VGA out with the nvidia driver, compiz, CPU frequency scaling etc... - there's nothing I can think of that doesn't work. Oh - I've never tried the TV-out (which is an s-video connector), or firewire.
Here's the output of lsusb showing the onboard ports and the built-in webcam:
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 05e1:0501 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd WebCam, Chipset DC-1125 similar to 174f:a311 - Asus F2F, F2J, F3J, F3T, G1, Z53JA
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
I've also run PC-BSD (1.5.1) and opensolaris (2008.05), and they seem to work fine (no freezes - so looks like it was a linux kernel issue?) - although the atheros wifi doesn't work in solaris out-of-the-box.
I've also tried 64-bit distros (this didn't fix the freezing up problem), but not since it started working again with ibex - I've no reason to think an up-to-date 64bit kernel would have any problems.
here's the /proc/cpuinfo for mine:
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 76
model name : Mobile AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3400+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 800.000
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow up pni cx16 lahf_lm extapic cr8_legacy
bogomips : 1607.30
clflush size : 64
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc
(n.b. the 800mhz is because of CPU Frequency Scaling - I think it's 1.8ghz at 100%)
Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend one of these as a linux laptop.
I've already written my review in the product description really - if most of that would be better in here, I'll move it if anyone asks.
I could add that I've just had mine repaired under warranty - it needed a new motherboard it seems - ASUS arranged a courier to collect it from my door, their contractor did a brilliant repair job on it (replacing the very well worn facia with a nice new one while they were at it), and delivered back to me - and it didn't cost me a penny. Pretty good.
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