My first year

I bought my AA 150 a year ago, and decided I might as well summarise the road i've travelled. Please indulge me!

I was attracted to the small size (but not too small), and the way it started up quickly (as compared with XP on my desktop), with apps ready to go. However I seemed to be limited to them. Then I found an article on "Ten Tweaks" from Register Hardware, then Macles, and then this forum - which has been very helpful. I had difficulty getting my mind attuned to Linpus, but there is a lot of expertise here which was a great help. I also, when I had time, read through the various forums from the start to get a feel for how things progressed. Eventually I hit on Aresby's thread on Dual Booting, which started in December 2008. I was particularly impressed by his comment in July 2009 that having done all that work he had not found the need to use Linpus at all.

That set me off to work through the various threads on installing XP on my AA1. It took quite some time, but I got there and, all of a sudden, my netbook had changed from being an intelligent hard disk to a real functioning computer. The next step was three weeks ago when I noticed that my local Comet were selling their display 20" iMac. I've watched my children, their spouses, my elder granddaughter and my wife convert to Apple over the last eight years, and so I have now done the same. The problem with the iMac is that it won't handle Lotus 123, Approach or Wordpro, which systems hold all my records over the last 14 years, (also a number of other programs I seem to rely on) - but my AA1 with XP will. So, having noticed a recent thread on using the AA1 as a desktop replacement, and having consigned my desktop PC to the local tip, I have used the VGA connection on the AA1 to drive my Advent LCD monitor and I am now surrounded by computing capacity.

I just wish that Acer had somewhere in their Quick Guide said "FIRST THING - install XP and here's how to do it", and had not labelled the VGA port "Connects to line-out audio devices (e.g., speakers, headphones).

Thanks for your patience

Ian Camero