aao arrived tday, few questions

hey guys, first of all i say a big thank you to this site and the members who have put some very good posts up that have answered some of my questions before i even posted them!

although, i like to confirm things more than once to ensure i have the correct information and am going in the right direction!

laptop - acer aspire one , 120gb , 1gb ram , linux (pre-installed)

i paid £150 brand new, which i thought was a good price. anyhow, what i need clearing up is as follows :

1: i want internal bluetooth / 3g sim card internet / gps .... although ....

i have studied tnkgirls videos and i must say, what fantastic mods indeed, well thought out and explained. however, for a beginner on the acer aspire one, how easy is this to do? also, what parts are needed?

2: i have got linux pre-loaded onto my aspire one, at first, i thought to myself.. ill put xp / vista / win7 on my laptop... obviously a cut down version of one of them on it, so it will run fast..

however after thinking what i want my laptop for, which is to take to university and if i ever go anywhere on the go, i think that this linux is good enough for internet access / messaging and any word documenting that i may need to do. it seems to be fast enough at booting and whilst online its fast enough at browsing..

this is where you members come into place... who disagrees with using the linux and thinks by putting XP / Vista / Win7 (one or more?) of these onto it will enhance my experience?

i am a xp / vista lover... my pc is xp, my main laptop is vista, now my aao is linux... im unsure if i wanna goto win 7 or stay with linux...

even though i prefer windows as ive been on it all my life and cant be bothered to learn how to code or w.e .....

i am totally undecided on the OS..

can anybody point me in the right direction on both of these?

sorry if im babbling and if this shouldnt have been posted where it is, i am new to this forum and its my first post.. also i hope you guys dont think im just leeching on the website as have been on this site for the past few weeks now, looking at various mods and stuff for a AAO..

thanks in advance, mike.

 

Easy on a scale of 1 to 10 = 2. The mPCIe connector has a pin spacing of .8mm and you have to solder 52 pins. See "How To" - viewtopic.php?f=43&t=13518&p=85007#p85018

 

um....i'd say each to his own....my own being any form of windows except vista...i'm running a very cut down version of xp pro at the moment...fast as lightning...

Its difficult to offer advice on the OS, but for ease of use i'd say windows. all OS have their limitations, but from what ive heard, linux has more of them than windows....

one man's meat is another man's poison, so its up to you......

HOWEVER, if you remain undecided, why not dualboot....i was running xp, xp (nlited), and win 7 at one point

welcome to the world of the AAO....its in a class of its own believe me

 

Easy on a scale of 1 to 10 = 2. The mPCIe connector has a pin spacing of .8mm and you have to solder 52 pins. See "How To" - viewtopic.php?f=43&t=13518&p=85007#p85018[/quote]

thanks buddy, i guess its a no go for me then!

would their be any place that i could take my laptop to, and ask someone to do it for me?

if so, how much do you think that would be ? dear or?

as i really want this mod on my acer aspire one, as i will be using it for university and when im on the go, which is pretty much all of the time!

 

hey man thanks!

i must say i am a windows lover myself, always been totally for XP

however i have used vista now and dont mind it... although i have read on a few threads that vista is to be avoided on these and use XP for speed and stuff..

how cut down is your XP?

if it was up to me, ide install a very basic XP, meaning no drivers at all, no extras, just what is needed.. then add only the AAO drivers that are needed.. although ive never tried to use that nlite (for cutting down xp i beleive?)

 

nLite is a great utility to create a custom version of the Windows installer. I have used it many times and have tailored images for several of my machines, all work with no issues that I can see from daily use.

I personally did not make a choice on whether to go windows or Linux, I did both and more!

I am currently running a quad-boot system with the original Windows XP that came with the AAO, Windows 7 RC, Mac OSX and Backtrack 3 which is based on Slackware Linux. Then again, I did mod the AAO with a 320GB HD so that does help a bit.

Oh, by the way, if you are interested in adding Bluetooth to your AAO, one of the easiest ways of doing it is by adding a USB connector to the CN11 header. You do have to take the unit apart and remove the HD from the system board to get to the header, but the solder job is not to hard and you can route the cable and connector back to the empty 3G module slot pretty easily, that will allow you to plug your Bluetooth dongle into it and get at it alot easier later if you want to swap it out for something else. Search the forum for CN11 to see pictures and pinout specs.

Good luck in your future mods!

 

thanks for your input mate, appreciate it!

in your opinion which do you think is better out of the Windows 7 and XP on your netbook?

i think i am going to go for windows 7 just to try it out and if i dont like it then downgrade to XP but a cut down version..

you prefer the windows 7 or xp? (speed , reliabilty) on the netbook..

thanks again!

 

Everybody has opinions... Dual boot is an excellent solution, with whatever flavor of Windows floats your boat. However, the version of Linux may be a more important decision. After fighting with Acer's Linpus for 4 months, I finally switched to Ubuntu -- what took me so long! Aside from fast boot, Linpus is a truly wretched Linux distribution, and Acer doesn't seem to be at all interested in supporting it.

By far the best starting point I have found is the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference, by Keir Thomas: http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html

I've been using various versions of Unix for 15 years, and I am learning new things from this book.

 

thanks pal, i can see myself going for windows as already after using my netbook for around a week now, i feel restricted in what i can do... (possibly because its the acer linpus linux?)

this version of linux has really put a dampener on me using linux so far, as its really not that good!

i think i will dual boot xp , windows 7 and give linux another go... however i can probably see myself using a cut down version of XP or posibly windows 7 as ive heard good news on it..

anyone recommend windows 7 over xp / vista??

cheer guys apreciate the feedback

 

From experience, I can definitely recommend Windows 7 over Vista. Vista is a resource hog and on the AAO, without an nLite version stripping it to hell, it is just not practical. For speed, XP is the quickest of the three on the AAO with Win7 coming in a close second.

Personally, I would recommend a dual boot XP and Win7 to start with. For Linux, consider a distro that will boot from a USB flash drive or external USB HD, so you can try it out and see if you like it before you repartition your internal HD and add Linux.

Hope this helps.