Comments on: Asus Express Gate – fast OS or useless toy?

By: karim

karim — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:08:35 +0000

on asus express gate right now, i guess its ok to use if you;re about to leave you home and you need to quickly check something online and you;re in a big hurry. (but these days you;ll probably just use an iphone for this, as you go), So quite useless still.

poor concept, peeps just buy a SSD boot into windows faster problem solved.

By: Ewan

Ewan — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:04:27 +0000

The Express Gate has been extremely useful. I’m glad to have it to hand. I use it to very quickly check something on the internet (usually an email or bus / train times), not sit down and have an all day session. I also run my catchuptv account from it, and watch DVD’s connected to my 25″ LED screen. There is no difference in the quality viewing catchuptv or a DVD between W7 OS or Express Gate.

Is very useful, and Im glad its there!

As with everything in life, there are lovers and haters. Leave the lovers to love, and the haters to fill with rage and torture themselves ;)

By: thom

thom — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:33:09 +0000

Glad to have come across this article. I just had to replace my old 1005hab today and I was debating on keeping the splash gate option. From the information and opinions I have been reading here, I think I will just go with a full wipe of win/splash and do a Linux upgrade. Thanks all

By: Stu

Stu — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:35:48 +0000

I sam using the express gate now as I need to check email and its telling me that firefox is now out of date and GMail wont run properly. Now I enjoy the Gmail experience but if I cant use it fully then I cant say its going to work for me anymore

I actually find it very easy when working away in strange environments to quickly get it working.

If the image was updated regular and skype was installed I would be well happy.

the other thing is from a business point of view I like it as I can really screw windows 7 down from a domain point of view so the guys can run 3-4 apps that they need and only browse the company websites where as the have a little more freedom through the express gate and can do their own thing in a browser.

I am on the fence right now but would be convinced by a nice quick release schedule. I was keen on an open source version coming out but that seems not to be the path that they’ve chosen to take

By: Rarst

Rarst — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:30:42 +0000

@henry The best thing for banking (and other secure things) is two-(or more)factor authentication. Setting up special environment adds more hassle then increases security (as for me).

By: henry

henry — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:44:57 +0000

ps I’m talking about saved passwords yes they are encrypted but that if a trojan/keystroke logger is operating under windows but cannot with a flash distro? the other potential safety of flash linux is if anyone is sniffing you their interest might be more piqued by the myriad auto logins to potentially risky web sites when you only want to login just to do one banking transaction – hope that makes my previous (unread before sent ~ d’oh!) post less nonsensical :)

By: henry

henry — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:37:35 +0000

i am more interested in the fact that net banking could be fast and secure on a (potentially) compromised windows account. especially if the splash top distro is loaded from a flash chip.

this is only going to be of use to laptop expressgate users as driver support lacking in areas like external wifI and SSD etc, but dor those of us with laptops that boot into a browser successfully :

1. how can i quickly find out if its on my hard disk or flash (without hd disconnection)?

2. yes there are no firefox add ons so does anyone know if there are any major security concerns with the distro’s version?

3. under what circumstances would it be safer (or not) to say use net banking in expressgate over windows?
yeah your mac address is showing but considering that any of the growing train of user id most windows users constantly transmit (from youtube to google to IM etc) will not be traffic each side of your banking this has to be in expressgate’s favour doesn’t it?

regards.
henry

By: Rarst

Rarst — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:30:04 +0000

@Aaron

No it doesn’t run from the hard drive, and no it can’t write to your hard drive

It does (in some versions, as in the one I had) and it can (another issue if it is exposed to the user).

so it in fact is the most secure way of web surfing there is. not to mention that since its linux, you really don’t need an up to date browser or even a firewall.

Linux does not magically fix issues that outdated browser might have. Browsers should be updated on any OS.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:48:04 +0000

it’s great on battery, it’s super secure, it’s a really quick boot. It’s perfect for quick web surfing at school and what not, and online shopping/banking.

The only problem i have with it is that there is no way to disable certain touchpad functions, so every time I tap, I click something, which i hate.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:44:33 +0000

@Rarst No it doesn't run from the hard drive, and no it can't write to your hard drive, so it in fact is the most secure way of web surfing there is. not to mention that since its linux, you really don't need an up to date browser or even a firewall.