Linpus Linux vs Xp

I am prepared to purchase an AAO, but am still resolving which one to buy. I really don't want one running XP or any MS OS for that matter. I use Ubuntu daily on my primary machine, so would prefer to use that, but after reading all the unresolved issues with hardware I probably will steer clear until fixes begin to surface. More or less I'm asking if the stock Linpus Linux is decent for someone who somewhat knows their way around Linux. I'd defintley get rid of the "acer" look and go for a stock xfce look. If anyone can comment on whether or not the Linpus is as fully functional as other distros of Linux I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

 

I have been doing research on the AAO as well and from what I have read, it is a full functioning distro, but you are "locked" on the quick jump screen. Thankfully there are a few ways to get past it and get to a standard xfce layout.

Try the following:
http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/how-to/ ... spx?step=1
http://jorge.ulver.no/2008/08/06/acer-a ... nd-tricks/

The second *should* get you to a normal xfce desktop. I'm not exactly a pro on linux (been looking into running it full time on one of my machines for about 3 months) but it is possible.

 

One consideration is support - I purchased the AAO as a machine to use for note-taking & portability - not as a home project. I've customized it (got rid of the Acer menus, added some software, etc.) but was expecting software (esp. security) updates from Acer for components and applications.

A sign of things to come is that Firefox2 (AA0's native browser) is coming to end-of-support (from the Mozilla foundation). You can install FF3 using instructions from this group (it's a bit of a hack, because you need to keep libraries around that are needed for other apps on the AA0). I called Acer support to find out what they proposed to do - the answer was "nothing". Oh, and the "2nd-tier support" informed me that one of their "Linux guys" told me that FF3 was really not very good, so I should stick with FF2. Yikes.

Now I have to decide whether I want to do s/w support for another platform in my house - or return the thing. Just a FYI.

Tom

 

Thanks for the heads up! That doesn't sound like the answer you were looking for. It seems as thought hey expected the distribution to be put on market and stay in the same state for the life of your computer. I'd rather have something than can handle application updates, and updates for the OS itself.

 

squeeez meee! i do work with different linux distros like red hat, ubuntu, suse, dsl... and what i have to say, is with a little work around and reading this forum there is no problem with linpus at all. i can install what i need, i can work with it just fine, and if there is any question i find an answer in this forum. it reminds me in my beginnings with linux and even unix years ago...
i had questions and i found answers. it's no doubleclick and go but u use linux already so you know ho to work with it.

and after all you still can go for installing another distro like ubuntu or so..

greetz from lake of constance(germany) klaus

 

More importantly...Linpus is a fully working distro, but the Linux community is working on other specialized, full-er distros that work with the AAO, so if it really is intolerable, a replacement should be ready in a few months. Ubuntu is close (just look on the forums for it's progress) and Kuki (supposedly the remnants of OneLinux.org) is in the works, and they are making it specifically for the One.

And like mentioned before, there is a whole forum dedicated to helping.

 

linux seem to be designed for the two opposite end of spectrum, the very top level user and the people who are very new to computers.

Personally, I am happy with my windows.

 

Yes. If what you want is a learning opportunity, it's here - sort of like fixing your own car.
If what you want is a service contract, that appears to be absent. Perhaps I'm mistaken, though - for Ubuntu (esp. LTS versions) there is a maintained security-updates stream; if you keep up with "apt-get upgrade" you will continue to have packages replaced and maintained. Perhaps Ubuntu is that answer - does it support the volume-merging (SD + internal flash) that Linpus does, and other things characteristic of a netbook?

Acer (with LiveUpdate) maintains Linpus - but as I've pointed out above is not interested in keeping this going (FF2 will be as good as it gets, and whatever stops as of 2.0.18 or whatever will be the last security update to your browser). Is there another maintenance stream being maintained for this machine, so that I *don't* have to spend time on a "little work around"? It's years ago that I enjoyed doing my own kernel patching to UNIX and Linux distros - it's no longer my passion.

Tom

 

Linpus is based on Fedora 8, and Fedora 8 will be EOL'd before the year is out. I'm probably one of the few AA1 owners who owns a camera that uses an xD card and hence needs a 2.6.23 kernel if I'm to use the Jmicron modules that make that card reading capability work. However, I use a USB card reader on my desktop PC, so using it on the AA1 is no problem. I recommend, without reservation, both Fedora 10 and Ubuntu 8.10. Both require a bit of tweaking (all of which is documented somewhere in the forum), and both do an excellent job for me. As always, YMMV