A few days ago I wrote a post titled “Will the EBOX have a chance?” (The Eee Box is an inexpensive Linux or Windows desktop made by Asus.) In that article, I said this:

There may be a lot less Linux desktop competition than Windows desktop competition, but there are still a surprising number of inexpensive Linux desktops, such as the gPC. Unfortunately, none of those cheap Linux desktops have done particularly well, so how is the EBOX going to be different?

At the time I noted a few things that the Eee Box had going for it:

- The Eee PC has done very well, so its momentum may push the EBOX forward
- The EBOX looks very nice
- Asus may be able to do the software better than other companies have done it. For example, many people complained about bugs in the gOS that shipped with the gPC.

Still, I was not entirely convinced that the EBOX would succeed. Now that the Eee Box specifications are out, I can add another point to the list above, one that may make a big difference:

• Can be configured to have enough RAM (1-2GB) to compete with modern desktops

Why is this point such a big deal? If you look at the previous attempts such as the gPC, they tried too hard to target the price-concious market. Because of this, the gPC and other earlier attempts at a cheap Linux desktop did not appeal to tech-savvy people. The Eee Box, however, between its looks and better specs will appeal to a larger audience. That is the answer to my question “how is the EBOX going to be different?” I will be very interested to see if this is enough to make the Eee Box successful.