Silly question first. You got the model with Windows XP and not the Linux model?

Of course the first caveat. Norton has a tendency to drag down a system and the system doesn't have a lot of horsepower to begin with. Norton claims this is the smallest fastest footprint product ever, so you can decide.

Probably the easiest thing to do is to get a 1GB USB key (you can pick them up anywhere these days almost free, and given a CD is 800MB that should be fine). On your desktop copy all the files and folders onto the key and install the software as normal. The installation files for most programs are really just a few programs in the root directory and then a directory or two of files.

There are other ways, mount your CD from your desktop as a drive on the Asus (free, takes a little work), purchase/borrow a USB CD drive (~$100)