Decided on a One, but which OS?

Hi,

This is my first post and it's probably in the wrong forum, but after weighing up the pro's & con's of the various netbooks, I'm swaying towards an Acer One (mainly due to the huge HDD as I'd like to use it to store my music library).

However I'm unsure whether to go for the Linux version at £249 or pay the extra £25 for the XP version @ £275 plus delivery?

I've always used Windows so am a little uncertain of Linux, but I'm not too worried for day-to-day use as it'll mainly be for surfing and typing the occasional doc, and I've read plenty of user comments from Win guys that the Linpus OS is easy to pick-up. However as mentioned above I want to be able to store my music collection, which is currently sitting on my iPod classic (configured for Windows).

So how easy is it to transfer this to a Linux OS and will it still be able to sync correctly and everything (I've seen Amarok seems popular) - I don't want to plug my iPod in and lose everything! Though I've never particularly liked iTunes so not using that isn't a major problem for me!

On a side note, my 15.4" Acer laptop is now broken thanks to a replacement AC lead with a straight adaptor tearing the power socket away from the motherboard (I think!), so does the One come with an L-shaped adaptor?

Thanks for any advice!

Andy

 

Take Linux - better stuff. You gonna love it or hate it - in that case always you can change OS but there is a great chance you can learn yourself something new

 

Get any of them and install Mac OS X

 

I'd love to SbM, but maybe I should get used to Linux first! :lol:

Any advice from anyone on the charger and music questions?

Cheers,
Andy

 

£25 is good value for Windows, if you like Windows. I have the Linux version, not to save £25, but because I prefer to use Linux.

You can sync music to an iPod using, e.g., GTKPod, but I think it will struggle with DRM-protected files if you have these.

If you're familiar with Windows and don't mind carrying on using it, I should stick with it and stump up the small amount of money.

On the other hand you might think getting to grips with Linux is a useful learning experience. It would be a mistake, in my view, to think that what you know about Windows will carry over into using the Linux version. They are very, very different in just about every way. If you _don't_ want a learning experience, _don't_ buy the Linux one.

My charger connection is L-shaped, by the way.

 

Amarok is a killer application when it comes to music. That alone would lead me to suggest that Linux is the way to go. If your collection is large have it stored on a mysql database.

Cheers.

 

Amorak won't sync DRM-protected media with an iPod. So far as I know, nothing else that runs under Linux can do that either.

That doesn't bother me, because I wouldn't touch anything with DRM with a long pole. But it could be a deal-breaker for people who have spent too much time in the iTunes Store.

 

People actually pay for digital music? Very strange indeed.

Cheers.

 

gotta go vista

linux is fun for about a week and then you think why the **** am i using this?

 

My gut feeling is that you'd need to put a pile of extra RAM into it for it to run Vista remotely well. Linpus is well matched to a machine that has 8Gb of storage and 512 Mb RAM. With a hard disk and 1.5Gb RAM you're approaching something that stands a chance of Windows XP booting before the universe implodes. But, of course, that's going to cost a bit more, have a shorter battery life, and generally be slower at most things. But 1.5Gb is really rock bottom for Vista.

Linpus is absolutely fine for Web surfing, word processing, e-mail, all that kind of stuff. It will be about as fast as that kind of hardware is ever going to be, give decent battery life, and be pretty stable. If you want more than that, the choice becomes more difficult. Personally, I wouldn't recommend Linux (Linpus or otherwise) to anybody who wants more than this basic functionality, unless you're willing to put the effort into learning how to make it fly.

But when it flies, it really flies.

 

Thanks for the replies. I don't have that much music at the moment anyway, and about 3 DRM-protected albums, because I never got around to copying my CD collection in the 9 months that I've had my iPod. I am planning on copying several friends music collections though that certainly aren't DRM-protected

I'm swaying more towards the Linux version now firstly because it's cheaper and secondly because it means if I do want to learn it then it gives a little more scope. I bit of searching around indicates that it shouldn't be too difficult to install XP if I do change my mind!

Thanks for the answer regarding the power adaptor too!

Andy

 

And then you think: "Because it is fun"

But seriously - let us look at the philosophies of some Operating systems

Windows -who's your nanny ?
The user wants something that works for most of his needs and runs on a reasonable variety of modern hardware. The user is not really interested in the inner workings of the system and is already happy if it all just runs. Due to the user not being that interested, one must assume that he sometimes needs to be protected when he wants to do something advanced (e.g. the Vista are you sure you wanna do this" screens).

Linux (and several other *nixes/BSD) - "What is thy bidding my learned master ?"
The user wants something that can be customised for almost every situation and almost all hardware. The user is either:

• willing to read manuals and likes to feel in control of his system - or at least feel that it is theoretically possible to be in control if he wanted to.
  or:[/*:m:38hlm26f]
• assumed to wish to do only a limited number of predefined things in an efficient way with as little bloat as possible.[/*:m:38hlm26f]

Apple - Oooh - shiney.
Things must look pretty. Things must work. The most efficient way to guarantee they work is to control the hardware it is supposed to work on; so no dozens of competing manufacturers here.

Simply pick the one that appeals most to you. Or use several

 

I went for the bog standard 8gb hd, 512mb ram, linpus.

Although I am quite enjoying Linux (first time usingit), it does feel restrictive after the hand-holding experience which is windows.
Before anyone has a go at me, Im not knocking Linux, just stating how very, very different it is.

If Id had the choice at the time of buying, I would have gone for the Windows XP one, and Im thinking of changing to XP anyway.

Actually, thats a point - will it run ok on this bog standard AA1, or will I need more ram for XP? (really not bothered about Vista lol).

 

The Linpus distribution for the One is very restrictive out of the box, but Linux itself is not. Try installing Ubuntu, for instance.

 

Exactly. You won't like Linpus if you have always used Windows. Try installing VLC (to actually play media files) on Linpus if you've never used Linux before; you'll want to install Windows as soon as you realize that you have to use command line to do it.

Vista runs EXCELLENT on my 1.5GB One. It actually has more RAM than my desktop and HTPC which both run Vista (1GB RAM in each). The problem with running XP or Vista on the Linpus version of the One is that the SSD is actually the bottleneck for good performance. You'll want to either boot off an external USB hard drive, swap a ZIF drive for the SSD or buy an XP version that has the 120GB or 160GB drive.

 

D@mn all this choice! I'm now swaying back towards the XP version, even though it's slightly pricier, as I figure I can easily install Linux in future if I need to.

I wish I could afford to buy both and decide with them in front of me! :roll:

Andy

 

Not if you ever used DOS
Your comment however inspired me to open a debate topic on this - so kudos

 

If you want to run Windows then you can't really use the SSD, you'll need to replace it or buy a version that comes with a hard drive.

 

Sorry, I should've said, I was going to go for the 120Gb HDD version!

 

Define `excellent'. If you've been running Vista on 1Gb RAM machines, then 1.5Gb probably feels quite roomy.

I've got nothing against Vista -- I use it on my desktop PC. But I'd be amazingly surprised if Linux wasn't faster and more efficient than Vista on the One. Of course, if you don't know how to get the best out of Linux and don't want to learn, then there's not even a discussion to be had, so far as I can tell. The difference in price certainly wouldn't be enough to perusade me to by a cheaper version if I had to learn a whole new OS to do so.