[LUG] Asus EEE Box and Linux

[Brock Nanson]

I've been looking at this unit:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=32440&vpn=EBXB202-BK-X0023&manufacture=ASUS

I understand it can be purchased with an ASUS flavor of Linux.  I'd like 
to get one of these with a solid state hard drive for use as a web and 
mail server.  Power consumption is minimal and it appears to be powerful 
enough for this use.

Has anyone played with one and managed to load a more mainstream Linux 
distro?  Any idea how best to do so, given they don't include an optical 
drive?  I question whether the ASUS distro would offer the security and 
compatibility with Exim, Apache etc. that Red Hat or Debian would.

Brock