What's the pitfalls to getting an Acer Aspire One

[nerd0795]

I'm thinking about getting an Acer Aspire One at Future Shop (only store I can go to because I got a gift card worth a lot of money to Future Shop, which I'm extremely grateful for) I heard about the Acer Aspire One, I also went looking around in the store and I tried it out and I could type on it great and I really liked the track pad (The funny thing is I have HUGE hands) $300 w/ windows or more and around $250 w/ Linpus Linux Lite. I'm going to Future Shop tomorrow and I"m just wondering what's the bad things about the netbook? I'm pretty much going to be using for School (eg. Taking notes), working with GIMP at shool (I know it's not pre-installed), programming-on-the-go, YouTubing, and play a few games when the teacher ain't looking :P. I don't know if I'm gonna get the linux or Windows edition of it (I rather Windows since, I would like to use some Windows-only apps (WINE never works for me)such as Game-maker, Visual Basic Express and a few games by porting the data to a USB Drive for games).

This would be my first notebook. Technically this would be my first computer that I owned that wasn't a family computer.

I might also want to install Ubuntu on it since well, I've finally got the hang of Ubuntu and I've just learned that Ubuntu doesn't work well on some of the parts of my system and it's pretty unstable and slow :( that means all the work of learning it and I don't get to experience the full glory of the OS.

Speaking of which, I do have a system at my home which I will use for my more CPU intense tasks such as Blender, and yeah.

P.S Is there a program for linux that's an english letters to Japanese converter. I'm taking Japanese next semester. I would like to to take notes with my netbook (If i buy it) and I'm just curious would I be able to find a program that converts what I type such as ka or su to the appropriate symbols that works with Hiragana, Katakana, and maybe basic Kanji?

P.S2 Please don't mention that you think Future shop sux, because I don't want to be scared (more then I would already be) about bad customer service, and an endless void or warranty returns, yet they don't fix the problem.) I do know their warranties suck.

P.S3 Does the netbook come with manufacture warranty?

[gettinoriginal]

I'm thinking about getting an Acer Aspire One at Future Shop (only store I can go to because I got a gift card worth a lot of money to Future Shop, which I'm extremely grateful for) I heard about the Acer Aspire One, I also went looking around in the store and I tried it out and I could type on it great and I really liked the track pad (The funny thing is I have HUGE hands) $300 w/ windows or more and around $250 w/ Linpus Linux Lite. I'm going to Future Shop tomorrow and I"m just wondering what's the bad things about the netbook? I'm pretty much going to be using for School (eg. Taking notes), working with GIMP at shool (I know it's not pre-installed), programming-on-the-go, YouTubing, and play a few games when the teacher ain't looking :P. I don't know if I'm gonna get the linux or Windows edition of it (I rather Windows since, I would like to use some Windows-only apps (WINE never works for me)such as Game-maker, Visual Basic Express and a few games by porting the data to a USB Drive for games).
This would be my first notebook. Technically this would be my first computer that I owned that wasn't a family computer.
I might also want to install Ubuntu on it since well, I've finally got the hang of Ubuntu and I've just learned that Ubuntu doesn't work well on some of the parts of my system and it's pretty unstable and slow :( that means all the work of learning it and I don't get to experience the full glory of the OS.
Speaking of which, I do have a system at my home which I will use for my more CPU intense tasks such as Blender, and yeah.

P.S Is there a program for linux that's an english letters to Japanese converter. I'm taking Japanese next semester. I would like to to take notes with my netbook (If i buy it) and I'm just curious would I be able to find a program that converts what I type such as ka or su to the appropriate symbols that works with Hiragana, Katakana, and maybe basic Kanji?

P.S2 Please don't mention that you think Future shop sux, because I don't want to be scared (more then I would already be) about bad customer service, and an endless void or warranty returns, yet they don't fix the problem.) I do know their warranties suck.

P.S3 Does the netbook come with manufacture warranty?

Hope these help with your research Good Luck :P
http://blog.laptopmag.com/acer-aspire-one-an-in-depth-look
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne

[nerd0795]

Hope these help with your research Good Luck :P
http://blog.laptopmag.com/acer-aspire-one-an-in-depth-look
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne

Thanks. The funny thing is I was just reading those 2 pages at the time I wrote this.

If i get it, I'll post about it.

[3rdalbum]

I have an Aspire One.

Mostly everything works with Ubuntu, with a little bit of tweaking (nothing difficult). The SD card slots don't want to work for some reason, and I've heard that the microphone won't work, but that doesn't worry me.

I bought the one with Linpus, and unfortunately I couldn't get the package manager to work properly on it; I think the computer had been started up before I got it, and someone (probably at Acer) messed something up. Ubuntu is good but you get 2 hours of battery life as opposed to Linpus' 3 hours.

The netbook comes with 12 months warranty. After the initial 2 weeks DOA period you can get it fixed rather than have to deal with the retailer again; this is assuming things are the same in your country as are in mine.

Firefox unfortunately runs like a dog, so you might want to try a different web browser on it. It's a 1.6 GHz Atom processor but performance-wise it's similar to a 1GHz Celeron.

Getting the Windows version might realistically be the better option. It's relatively easy to fill up the memory on the 512mb version if you have swap turned off, and if you have swap turned on it will increase the wear of the SSD.

[albinootje]

I'm thinking about getting an Acer Aspire One at Future Shop (only store I can go to because I got a gift card worth a lot of money to Future Shop, which I'm extremely grateful for) I heard about the Acer Aspire One, I also went looking around in the store and I tried it out and I could type on it great and I really liked the track pad (The funny thing is I have HUGE hands) $300 w/ windows or more and around $250 w/ Linpus Linux Lite. I'm going to Future Shop tomorrow and I"m just wondering what's the bad things about the netbook?

I have a Acer Aspire One 110 since a few months.
I like the design, I like the keyboard, I like the fact that it has 2 card-readers and 3 usb-slots. (I use one SD-card for /home)

I decided to solve the high pitched fan problem via a software solution, rather than flashing the BIOS (I read that flashing the BIOS did not solve that problem for some people.)
Still I am not happy that that problem exists in the first place.

I've installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron on it (with the ume-launcher), tweaked it quite a bit by following a few howtos, but I'm not so very happy with the performance.
It's however a cool toy, and light and small.
I might move my more noise desktop-machine away, and make that a file-server, and then use a remote desktop on the AAO to have a silent desktop machine in the end :)

Ah, yes, and this one came with a 1 year warranty.

Also, I didn't try the webcam and microphone, and i need to find out why playing videos in smplayer, vlc, totem have a low color-depth.

[nerd0795]

The netbook comes with 12 months warranty. After the initial 2 weeks DOA period you can get it fixed rather than have to deal with the retailer again; this is assuming things are the same in your country as are in mine.


What does DOA mean?

Date of Arrival?

[graabein]

Too bad to hear about the slow Firefox... I don't own a netbook but if I did get one I'd mainly use it for trips. Browse the net, play some Freeciv and some videos from USB disk.

So what I want to know is how does avi and divx videos run on it?

[Stefanie]

i've got an asus eee 900 and no complaints here about firefox speed. first i installed ubuntu-eee hardy heron but it was dead slow. after a couple of weeks i installed plain intrepid.
if you install the eee-kernel (which is very easy) everything works out of the box: microphone, webcam, fn keys...
if it's true that firefox is very slow on the aspire one and that the hardware isn't fully supported i'd never buy it.

you can use scim to type in japanese. i tried it a couple of months ago and it wasn't difficult to setup at all. you might have to install a couple of packages though.

[Johnsie]

I've got an eeepc 701 and have installed Ubuntu on also an Acer One for a colleague. I'm not saying this is true with all versions of the acer one but the ssd seemed alot slower on the acer for some reason.

Ubuntu seemed to perform alot better on the Eeepc even though the Eeepc was lower spec. Mainly that seemed to be to do with the speed it was reading the ssd. I have heard there are models of Acer One that have different ssd though.

On the up side the acer is pretty good when programs are open but took a while to first open programs. The screen on the acer was bigger which is also good.

Personally if I had a choice I would go for an eeepc again.

BTW, regarding SSD wear. I think that problem is grossly exaggerated. I've been running Ubuntu on my eeepc for over 6 months and haven't experienced any problems. I've installed linux several times, dist-upgraded and all that. I've done a whole lot of other stuff and havent had any problems. I'm yet to find anyone who has had ssd failure because of wear.


BTW.... GET THE WINDOWS ONE FOR THE WINDOWS LICENSE AND INSTALL UBUNTU

[speedwell68]

I have an Aspire One A150 and I thought that Linpus sucked, so I rapidly installed the Ubuntu Netbook Remix and it works a treat.

[Rotaj]

BTW.... GET THE WINDOWS ONE FOR THE WINDOWS LICENSE AND INSTALL UBUNTU

+1, The windows version gives you a 6 cell battery(vs a 3 cell), 2X the ram, & 120Gb hhd for the extra $100

[speedwell68]

+1, The windows version gives you a 6 cell battery(vs a 3 cell), 2X the ram, & 120Gb hhd for the extra $100

That is the spec of my Linux version, go figure.

[RookieUbuntuUser58]

The pitfall for me was as follows compared to my choice. I decided to go MSI Wind for the 10" screen compared to 8.9", max size of RAM (MSI Wind upto 2GB vs 1.5GB for Aspire One), 802.11b/g/n on Wind compared to 802.11b/g on Aspire One, and Bluetooth on the Wind compared to none on the Aspire One. All this for $50 more (could get the Wind cheaper now too); not to mention the Wind is just as light. If those things aren't important go for the Aspire One its a solid netbook.

[Snogus]

Bit of a techie myself and worked with a fair whack of laptops. I hate Acer. The generally supply you with hardware that can only run the OS and then **** itself when you open a web browser (e.g. preloaded with Vista Home Basic and 512mb RAM, WTF!?!?). And if you buy a high end one you get this ugly little thing that is still pretty slow and costs more than a fuel derrick in the middle east.
The majority of Acer laptops i've worked with have also come preloaded with ****** software that bogs down performance, like a special "Acer File Manager", used about 64mb of ram on idle and was just a ****** substitute for windows explorer, and im pretty sure no one needs 2 windoes explorers (1 is more than enough in my opinion).

[smoker]

after weighing up the alternatives, i bought an acer aspire one with linux. after five days of use i can honestly say i have nothing to complain about. The Linpus os boots in under 20 seconds, probably nearer 15, and although it isn't readily customisable, can be with a little effort. i have it just the way i want, and have all the apps i need installed now. plenty good info and advice available here:
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/

having large fingers, i find the keyboard much easier to use than its competitors, and although the trackpad takes a bit of getting used to, once you have mastered it, it is a dream to use. the only drawbacks i would say are the measly 8gb ssd, though this can be upped by use of one of the two sd slots, and upgrading the ram is not as straightforward as it could be (entails taking the machine apart, rather than removing just a panel!).

on the whole, i am pleased with this machine, it is solidly built, light, and looks great. the screen is fine, and the boot time and operating system are great. i had planned to put ubuntu on it, but i have grown quite attached to linpus, so will stick with that, at least for a while!

[3rdalbum]

What does DOA mean?

Date of Arrival?

Dead-on-arrival. When you take delivery of an item and there's something wrong with it when you get it, or it develops a fault within the DOA period (usually 2 - 4 weeks depending on supplier), you are entitled to an exchange. After that period, you have to get the item fixed rather than replaced.

I don't think it's the law in every part of the world, but I think it should be. Some slimy suppliers/manufacturers will try and tell you to get the item fixed even if it's DOA. If that happens to you, get on their back like a rabid dog. Fortunately, most suppliers will voluntarily do the right thing.

Haven't you heard the song?

"So no-one told you life was gonna be this way,
Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA"

[nothingspecial]

My wife and I love our aspire ones so much, the desktop is now a media server under the stairs and the all singing all dancing vaio (they call it a laptop but it`s more like a suitcase) is nothing more than a glorified tv in the bedroom.

I got her mic working for skype. Volume is low but who`d want to listen to anything on those crappy speakers? Headphones are fine.

This (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne) page will sort out most issues.

[Sable683]

I've been using the AAO for a few months now.. got the windows version with the 160 GB drive... had it for less than an hour and put Intrepid Ibex on it and could not be happier. The only downside that I have noticed is that if there is a program that takes up more than the specified screen size, you cannot click on anything. Most programs run a full screen as 1024x768, the AAO has the set size of 1024x600. This can get annoying, but there are only 2 programs that I use that are affected.

[mustang]

I bought the windows version with the 120GB hard drive and 6 cell battery.

The keyboard is not an issue and you will get used to it really quickly. I have not tried the SD card reader, the webcam, or the microphone so I can't comment on those functions---you might want to do some extended research to check up on them.

With the 6 cell battery, I get 5 hours of battery life. The touchpad area is small but not annoying---you will get used to it. I dual boot both Ubuntu & Windows and I'm sad to say, Ubuntu doesn't perform terribly well. Firefox rendering (and window rendering in general) is pretty slow and this can be come annoying after awhile. On the other hand, everything runs smoothly under Windows.

One other note: if you intend to sit down and say, do some programming, on the Aspire One for a long time, you might as well forget it. Real estate sensitive tasks such as programming or excel become problematic on the Aspire One since the resolution is just so small and too straining on the eyes.

[Xyphoid]

I also bought the windows version with the 120GB hard drive and 6 cell battery. The black one (Very beautiful but Aaarrrggghhh fingerprint magnet :P).

After the initial automatic install and filling in my name and password it started up. I opened Internet Explorer....And it crashed and froze with an error message!! I didn't even bother to check why.

I downloaded Ubuntu and after an hour (some trouble getting wifi to work) it was up and running (Gnome, Compiz, Emerald). Handles my 480p anime very good. 720p is too much too handle. Sound, mic and webcam were working out of the box.

I've been surfing and watching movies for 4,5 hours now and my battery is at 10%. I am very happy :)

[MikeTheC]

@ nerd0795:

Well, let's see... The guidance system could malfunction. The heat shield could be cracked, and the parachutes might be three blocks of ice.

Oh, wait. You said "Acer," not "North American Rockwell. Never mind. ;)

[3rdalbum]

I now have it sitting in my bedroom hooked up to my TV, streaming my compressed DVDs and audio files across the network and generally being a good media centre PC!

I really like it and I'm just upgrading it to Jaunty beta right now. When a manufacturer releases a netbook with Nvidia's Ion platform that's when I'll replace my Aspire One... Sauerbraten is not playable with the Atom processor and Intel graphics!

[init1]

Too bad to hear about the slow Firefox... I don't own a netbook but if I did get one I'd mainly use it for trips. Browse the net, play some Freeciv and some videos from USB disk.

So what I want to know is how does avi and divx videos run on it?
I don't have a netbook, but my old laptop with netbook (1.6GHz CPU, 1GB RAM) specs plays vidoes fine.