July 4th, 2009 Hardware, Software | comments_icon7 Comments

Asus Express Gate – fast OS or useless toy?

splashtop_icon Took me a while to get to it (says something about how appealing idea is) but today I tried Express Gate function on my newish Asus motherboard.

Express Gate (aka Splashtop) is light Linux distribution integrated with hardware to provide fast boot into light shell with basic networking functions.

express_gate_logo

What it does

Express Gate is Linux based OS with limited functionality:

  • web browser (Firefox based);
  • some games (online, probably Flash based);
  • image viewer;
  • instant messaging (Pidgin);
  • VOIP (Skype).

Unlike usual OS distributions it requires some degree of hardware support so mostly comes bundled with such.

As I remember early versions were running from flash chip integrated on motherboard, but that was later changed (probably to cut costs) to hard drive installation. By the way installation is Windows-only but at least manual mentions option of installing on flash drive.

express_gate_interface

Experience

Express gate does boot quite fast comparing to average Windows installation. Still do not expect anything instantly – it takes quite a few seconds to boot shell itself and (subjectively) even longer for browser.

Network support is good, connection to my D-Link wireless router was properly detected and worked automatically.

Biggest downside turned out to be poor screen resolution support. There was no 1440×900 to choose and even switching to 1280×800 of same proportion asked for reboot but came up at default low resolution anyway.

Overall

Express Gate does more or less what it promises – fast boot with basic browsing and communication. While this might be nice option on netbooks and notebooks, for desktops it is solution in search of a problem.

Short of setting up dedicated PC in kiosk mode I see no advantage of using it over simply booting into Windows.

Link www.splashtop.com/

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7 Responses to “Asus Express Gate – fast OS or useless toy?”

  1. Donace says:
    July 5, 2009 at 13:54

    I suppose it would be a good thing to have if somehow you mess up the windows installation. I.e virus scans etc. I mean right now I use windows ‘live’ (ie boot of a dvd) but this could be useful for troubleshooting.

  2. Rarst says:
    July 5, 2009 at 14:32

    @Donace

    Yep, if it actually had virus scan, etc. Which it sadly doesn’t as well as no option to add any software to it.

  3. p1ague says:
    July 22, 2009 at 09:03

    I am reading this in the splashtop browser on a laptop, and I agree, can’t imagine any use for it on a desktop, it seems to me a handy thing for when I pick up my laptop just to look something up on IMDB or something, which happens often enough that I like the idea of it. EXCEPT – in my experience the touchpad is by far the worst functionality I’ve ever seen. It’s not the touchpad itself, it works great in windows, but something about splashtop can’t do it right, the mouse pointer jumps around randomly clicking things every time you touch it. As long as you KEEP your finger on the pad you can move it smoothly, but every time you lift up (like when you reach the edge of the pad, which happens constantly with touchpads) it jumps and clicks everything between where it is and where it teleported to. For me, that makes it very nearly broken. If I have to get out an external mouse every time I want to use the quick-boot functionality, it kinda defeats the purpose.

  4. Rarst says:
    July 22, 2009 at 09:22

    @p1ague

    Yeah, it seems to have crappy hardware support. And updates doesn’t seem to be frequent either so these issues stick. :(

  5. The DataRat says:
    November 5, 2009 at 01:23

    “solution in search
    of a problem”

    To the extent a problem exists, the solution is called
    “Sleep Mode”.

    Why completely shut down your PC ? Even with a laptop,
    how often do we ~really~ carry it around ?

    Most of the time, laptops are actually utilized as
    PORTABLE COMPUTERS. Very few folks transport the thing
    more than one place on a typical day.

    [ Notable exceptions: Salesmen, etc. ]

    Even battery endurance represents a non-issue most of
    the time. Typical usage patterns are transporting the
    laptop to one locale, plugging it in, and working all
    day from there.

    For 90%+ of us, sleep mode is the quick-start option !

    The DataRat

    .

  6. Rarst says:
    November 5, 2009 at 18:13

    @DataRat

    Another thing I never got used to is sleep mode. :) On other had I am primarily desktop user and its easier (and better for reliability) to let it be on.

  7. p1ague says:
    November 6, 2009 at 05:54

    Sleep mode is good for when you want to turn it quickly BACK on, but if I want quick access to a single piece of information from the internet when I am not and haven’t been using it lately, the solution, short of having an iPhone or any of the numerous better devices handy, requires a quick cold start. I do use hibernation far more frequently on the notebook, so that speeds up access a bit anyway, but with hybrid sleep, putting it into sleep mode would have the same effect (plus eat up some of the battery–I don’t leave the cord trailing to where I store my computer, I instead keep the cord near where I sit to use it). It’s admittedly not much of a solution, because I think the last time I used it, I posted that last message :P

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