AA1 150 10" Questions

I have an 8.9" AA1 with 16gb SSD and Linpus. It developed a hardware problem last week, which may or may not be repairable. Because of the bigger screen and an attractive sale price from a local source, I'm seriously considering getting an AA1 150, which comes with a 160gb disk drive and Windows XP. I have a complete backup of my AA1 on a flash drive. Can I use it to install Linux on the AA1 150? Do I need to reformat the disk first? If so, how?

Better yet, has anyone created a dual boot AA1 with Linpus and Windows 7? I assume that the basic instructions from "How to dual (or triple boot) your Acer Aspire One 110 or 150" http://jargongeneration.com/AcerAspire/dualbootXP/index.php are basically applicable to Windows 7.

Linux would be my primary OS, with Windows XP or 7 available for those rare times when only Windows will work. I'm not unhappy with Linpus, having tweaked it to add additional software that I need. I have always loathed Windows (XP being the least bad version I have used), but sometimes you gotta have it.

One more question: Is the AA1 150 with spinning disk as reliable as the AA1 110 with SSD? I have seen some complaints about dead hard drives and fragile screens. My netbook spends a lot of time on a motorcycle, so this is an important consideration.

 

The A150 has a different Wlan and Lan card then the A110. So your Linpus image would not totally work, plus I don't think there are new drivers either that easily installed at least none that I've come across. Linpus is a pretty awful Linux distro anyway. I would recommend either Ubuntu or OpenSolaris, especially OpenSolaris if your a programmer. I would be more then happy to walk you threw a complete install of either one. I can't believe you manged this long without a real linux distro, I played around with Linpus for all of one day before I ejected it into the Stratosphere.

Yes, the hard disk version is very stable and much faster then the SSD counterpart.

Don't forget to install 2GB for Windows 7, it will need it. Though Windows 7 is faster then Vista it's still slow on the Acer, so much so that it will turn you off from using it. My opinion is stick with the XP that comes with the machine.

 

I think I've fallen in love with Ubuntu after 48 hours of experimentation (including multiple installs to an 8gb SDHC card). However, after running updates, I now have only 2.5gb of space left on the SDHC, so I'm wondering if I should go with a 16gb SDHC or install on the HDD, with Ubuntu/Windows partitions and dual boot.

It appears that the Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackelope) installer is designed to do just this. However, I'm holding back because I don't want to risk hosing XP. Ubuntu will be my primary OS for the AA1, but there are times when you just have to have Windows, so I don't want to lose it -- or go through the hassle of recovery. If the Ubuntu install and partition on an existing XP HDD is 99.999% risk free, I'll probably go that route, but I need some reassuring.

 

I took the plunge today, and installed on the HDD, with a 36gb partition for Ubuntu and 2gb swap space. First I defragged in Windows, then installed; when booting from Windows, it ran chkdsk. Both the Ubuntu documentation and the installer are excellent.