The Linux version of the Acer Aspire One netbook comes with a customised version of the Linpus distribution pre-installed, which might not be to everyone’s fancy. Linux4one, a modified Ubuntu, could be a good alternative. Linux4One is optimized for the Aspire One; it includes drivers for the One, and comes with an interface derived from the Netbook Remix version.
It would be nice if there was a bit more info. How much slower then Linplus is it? Does it work properly with a SSD drive? I know the other link says devices work, but I have seen too many reviews that say “everything works…but the webcam.”
Eventually I’ll have to buy one of these things so I can play with it, but for my portable needs I like a bigger screen. And my wife wont let me touch hers to play with. She is quite happy with Linplus for the time being.
Just take her by surprise, that often works; if she doesn’t loosen up a bit try massive amounts of flowers, or foot massages; or make sure there’s a local power-down.
Ahh.. you know where it starts but not where it ends.. Would probably be cheaper and less resource-consuming just to buy another one
In the for-what-its-worth department, i’m posting this message from my AA1 running plain-Jane Fedora 10. Installed the live-cd version of Fedora 10 via a thumb drive. Have had no issues with any hardware at all, although my AA1 has a 160GB standard hard drive rather than SSD. Webcam and yahoo video chat (GYachE) worked out of the box without any fuss.
I too am posting from F10 that works out of the box (with the addition of broadcom-wl from rpm-fusion) on a netbook. Mine is the lenovo s10, 2GB RAM, 160MB, 1.6MHz and everything does work except that the battery applet crashes on sleep.
What is the big deal here?
The big deal is that Ubuntu (and others) have brought the “just works” culture to Linux. There’s a craze with having everything prefabricated, so the user doesn’t have to do anything at all. Even if a special AA1 version of Ubuntu doesn’t do anything that special, just the idea of it being there is tantalizing to some.
I’m not quite that bad. I am a little guilty of being part of that culture, since I use Mint, but if I had a netbook of any sort I’d probably just install Mint on it as it is.
A good thing IMO. I’m not averse to spending time messing with my AA1 (or any other computer for that matter) until it’s perfect for me.
Most folks just want to switch on and hit YouTube. If linux is to progress it *has* to “just work”.
After a brief flirt with Fedora 10 (which mostly worked OK but I had problems with WiFi), I’ve switched to OpenSuse 11.1 and everything works. It’s a standard install from the DVD image. It’s quick enough for KDE4’s 3D desktop effects. WiFi and Ethernet work fine and suspend and hibernate both work. I haven’t tried to install webcam drivers as I’m not interested in using it.
I couldn’t be more satisfied with it all.
I have the same experience, openSuSE 11.0 on my Acer One 150b (1,5GB RAM-120GB HDD), it had XP on it but the first thing I did , before windows defragments the HDD, I split the HDD in two and put SuSE on it in dual boot mode.
Linpus is really not bad at all. It starts up fast, battery is (relatively) good and all of the hardware works, including the (pretty poor) 0.3mp camera.
For some excellent advice on how to customise it:
http://macles.blogspot.com/
I have the 8GB SSD version and have it customized with:
– Custom icons
– Firefox 3
– OpenOffice 3
– Mplayer with front-end KMplayer
– Basket Notepad
– Videolan media player
– KMyMoney2
– Wine
– Thunderbird with Gmail IMAP account and with Lightning and GcalDaemon (Syncing heaven!!)
– Google Picasa (latest beta)
Strangely KDE apps seem to install easier than Gnome apps, which I usually run into dependency problems with.
Perfect setup for me… and I think it could be for a lot of people, so I thought I’d share it.
Edited 2009-01-06 08:10 UTC
I simply COULD NOT get the package manager to work on Linpus, and it took ten minutes to update the package list. There was definitely something wrong. I put Ubuntu on the machine instead; the trade-off was 1/3 of the battery life, but at least Ubuntu works properly on there and it required minimal tweaking to get everything working properly. Everything except the wireless worked out-of-the-box (wireless was an apt-get and a modprobe away). And yes, the webcam, suspend, and special keys worked out-of-the-box. I put the Ubuntu netbook launcher on it.
Unless this distribution gives me 3 hours of battery life like Linpus did, then I don’t see the point as probably everything will work out-of-the-box in Jaunty anyway, and nearly everything does in Intrepid.