[ Acer Aspire One ]
Acer Aspire One Netbook
Notes
I bought an Aspire One from NewEgg. It has an 8.9 inch display, an 8G flash drive, and runs a funky Linux - Linpus - that seems to be based on Fedora. It sits on the end table next to my cocktail glass. Handy for emergency web surfing.
A few random observations:
Memory upgrade
This is an adventure. My machine came with 1/2G installed. I added another 1G stick. tnkgrl has a set of blog entries about upgrades to to the Aspire One, including this video of a RAM upgrade.
Friends of the Aspire One
macles* is a blog site has a great deal of information on the Aspire One. It may take some searching, but it is a wealth of info.
There are also several sites describing installations of other Linux distributions on this netbook. Here's one example: Ubuntu - Aspire One Community
The macles* site suggest ways to upgrade the AAO's software, but some of this gets complicated. For just updating the installed software, it is much easier to use "Settings -> Live Upgrade" from the main GUI. This way you get software specific for the AAO, and don't have to fight dependencies or deal with alternate software repositories.
Enable advanced menu
There's an advanced menu availabe that has capabilities beyond what the standard GUI makes available. To enable a right-clidk menu, do the following:
From the file manager, open a terminal.
type "xfce-setting-show" without the quotes to bring up the xfce settings manager
click on "Desktop" and select the "Behavior" tab
under "Menus" select the "Show desktop menu on right click" option
Media Player
The Acer media player can play commercial DVDs. Of course, you have to attach an external drive. It won't play DVDs ripped to external drives (flash or hard) or in RAM. It won't play my home-made DVD slideshows from external media either.
macles* has information on installing the VLC media player, which will play all of the above, and much more. The installation from Fedora repositories (per macles*) was a bit of a thrash, and confused the Linpus OS about where it should go for other updates and upgrades. As an experiment, I restored the Aspire One to factory condition with the provided DVD. Then I went to the Acer Aspire One site and found a pre-built VLC there. It installed easily and runs just fine.
Acer Aspire One support and downloads
This is an (irritating) flash-animated site with FAQs, drivers, and updates. Look in the lower left part of the animation for the links.
Nice Keyboard, crappy touch pad
Like I said, nice keyboard, crappy touch pad. It is a surprisingly usable keyboard given its size. The touch pad is a disaster, and its mouse buttons are worse. I use a USB mouse.
Monster power cord
The power brick is small, but the AC power cord is a monster. The cord alone almost weighs more than the netbook. I'm looking for a wall-wart supply as a replacement.
[ Acer Aspire One ]