The Best

Okay, I want to know, by your opinion, what's the best O.S. that you have successfully installed/run/tested and used as default on your Acer Aspire One. I think it should be important to state if you have the 110 or the 150 because i know the ssd drive changes a lot of things. So far, I've tried Mandriva KDE 2009, Fedora 10, Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10, I don't seem able to install linpus because it always hangs on the loading screen, also tried windows xp and windows vista.

 

I gotta say that XP is definitely the right choice for me. It runs great and is probably still the most widely used OS in the world so you can find virtually any type of software you want for it.

 

XP because I'm most familiar with it and because Acer officially supports it so all LEDs, quick buttons etc. work.

Took a few tweaks to make it perform well on the SSD version but now I almost forget that I'm not at my Quad-core desktop rig sometimes

 

Same as those above..

For me it's mostly because of the navigation software side. there's so little for Linux. I use Oziexplore, Memory Map and garmin mapsource.. Even use my netbook in the hills when doing ground/land surveys due to work.(yep have a ppc to as well) has made my life far easier using my netbook in this way. Before I would use the PPC then transfer data to laptop and finish off now just use the netbook.... EXCELLENT..... I even use the netbook for satnav


regards
Andrew

 

I hope you know what your getting yourself into with this "religious" question. I have no favorite OS yet since my One is still en route...

 

:lol: Hmmmm good point wars have been fought over less.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

Actually, I don't think there is a best operating system, except for the individual using it.

I far prefer Linux:
- I understand it and can tweak it as I want it far more easily than Windows
- more or less anything can be changed by changing an easily-understood text file somewhere, rather than an opaque 'registry';
- the software is written by people you can contact and who will change things for you (perhaps the attitude is exemplified by the fact that in Open Source, feature requests are treated as bugs - if it doesn't do what a user wants, then it needs fixing).
- A standard is a standard; you want to know how something works, you find the standard. Under Windows a standard is someone else's problem.
- I don't have to tie up my machine resources running virus checkers and firewalls.
- It's stable: I haven't rebooted my main machine for months and the One has rebooted very little. You don't need to reboot half a dozen times to install a driver or anything.
- Installing anything mainstream is drastically easy - find it in the package manager and tell it to install itself.


But, for a lot of people, the familiarity of Windows and the fact that money pays for more development makes it worthwhile them shelling out for all the software features they want, without having to go to the trouble of learning anything themselves. I still use Windows at work, and still know more about it, several years after I consciously stopped bothering with it, than the vast majority of my colleagues. They don't expect it to do anything out of the ordinary, they reboot it every day, and they are happy with it.
Even a very bad implementation of Linux like Linpus is better, to me, than Windows. I enjoy finding out how to make it work to the best advantage, and once it is working as I want it I know why - I don't put up with inadequacies because of ignorance.

To me, it's a bit like automatic and manual gearboxes on cars: I hate autos, and never feel fully in control if I have to drive one. Other people prefer not to have to train their brains to work the third pedal. It's a personal thing, and all the things I like about Linux other people find make them feel insecure (what, no virus checker? no big company to help you out if you get stuck?), just like those who don't like having the extra pedal to think about.

 

unfortunately though, most people dont buy computers to 'make them work' the way they expect, but instead they buy them to actually use them.
the number of posts regarding Linux on this forums is staggering compared to Windows.
but you're right, depends what type of user you are.
however you should realise that users like you (and me) are a tiny minority.

 

Now a totally different question entirely is which OS runs best on the One. From the forums you can draw that:
-XP runs good (standard install w/ hardrive...not so much with a SSD)
-Vista/Windows 7 runs iffy (if configured properly and upgraded ram)
-XP derivatives run nicely if configured properly
-Ubuntu runs effectively with a few simple fixes (8.10 requires the least tinkering, and is one of the most efficient "get it done" distributions
-Mandriva 2009 works well, according to it's users, also with minimal adjustments
-Fedora 10 (I have no idea how well it works, but it does nonetheless)
-Ubuntu Derivatives work but usually require a little more modification
-Kuki Linux has the most promise since it is custom made for the One and should have no hardware/software issues. It is still in development.

...That's about everything isn't it...Other than that, it's what the user prefers.

 

Barring potential rare requirements, on the AAO, there is no question that XP is best (imho). Of course, if you enjoy pain...

 

The best OS is the one that allows you to work with the fewest problems/annoyances. I've got the AOA150-1570. For me right now, it's either Fedora 10 or Ubuntu 8.10. Acer's Linpus has two advantages: fast booting and xD card recognition, but I can't stand the default UI. I thought of using the Linpus kernel with Fedora 8 (to get xD card recognition), but decided I could get by just fine with my USB card reader. I'm waiting for a version of Puppy Linux with a 2.6.27 kernel; Puppy 4.1.1 doesn't work as nicely on my AA1 as it does on my desktop PC. WinXP stays on my system for situations where I've got to have WIndows; I rarely boot into it.

 

Well, yes. And if they don't work they way people want them to, there are two options: accept how they work with limitations, or learn how to make them work better. I don't like limitations!

I've spent most of the last week trying to solve an issue with a Windows-based system at work: presumably everyone else will now assume it 'just works'. If we hadn't found the obscure issue with Windows networking (failing to meet standards, again), everyone else would presumably have accepted a half-crippled piece of software - and critical monitoring information would have been corrupt.

That's true: there are about 2.5 times as many posts in the Linux areas as in the Wndows areas; about a 70/30 split. However: of users of the AAO, how many have:
- never used Linux before?
- never used Windows before?

Given Windows' general market share, and the fact that even those with a strong preference for Linux often (a) have to use (or have had to use) Windows in other environments and (b) tend to be fairly good at fiunding solutions to issues, I'd actually expect a far greater bias towards the Linux areas if both systems were equally 'good' on the One (as non-Linux uisers would tend to be asking for help far more than non-Windows users).

The proportion of posts to topics is also fairly consistent, implying perhaps that the amount of help it takes to solve a Windows problem is very similar to the amount it takes to solve a Linux one - but most people are very used to Windows and don't need the hand-holding that new Linux users require.

So I think the numbers of posts actually don't back up the idea that Windows is easier on the One!

 

Long, but nice analysis. Windows appears easy since that is what is used most often. I am willing to bet that most "Windows users" don't even know how to fix a lot of their problems, or even change some of the settings (I know I don't).
True, I myself have just started learning linux, so I can't say much about that either, but I can say that the community does a much better job at even attempting to solve problems; much better than any tech support I have ever called.

 

Actually, it just occurred to me - if the number of posts did reflect how easy the OS was to use, then we should all be using OSX on the One - but looking at many of the recent posts, I don't think getting it to work fully is all that straightforward!

Or perhaps we should try OS/2 - there are no posts about any issues with OS/2 at all :twisted:

 

LOL! I'm sure *somebody* out there will try to load OS/2 on it as well.

 

I have installed Linpus linux lite on my aao. I'm very happy with it now. Though, i sincerely hope i will find something to manage my ipod... By the way, thanks to all of your responses, it gives me -and i hope more users too- a wider spectrum of choices on which os fits best on this netbook. I think there's only one os that i haven't installed: osx. But i won't get into trouble installing it, i know for a fact that you can't get wireless going. It would be great to have it though. Ok, i know there are a million linux flavors and i miss solaris and all of that...

 

My AAO is also en route (should have arrived by now :evil but my I have played on my big laptop with a lot of OS's. If OSX worked flawlessy with WLAN on a stock AAO, I'd stick an apple sticker on it and keep it but my favorite OS is probably Ubuntu because it's quick and it's good. I have had a play with Linpus on another AAO and it's overly bogged down and I actually like tinkering with the OS in ubuntu to get stuff working. So, I'm going to be on Ubuntu on my AAO.

 

That's what it comes down to in the end. You know how to tweak Linux because you're familiar with it, while I'm able to do a much better job of tweaking XP because that's what I have been using for the past 7 years and before that Win98, Win95, Win3.1 and Win 3.0...

To you, the Linux configuration files make sense.. to me they're like trying to read a foreign language. To you, the Windows registry is "opaque" - I actually know what most keys mean and how it's structured. I don't speak Linux. I do speak Windows and AmigaOS.

I currently don't run any anti virus software on my Netbook. Waste of resources. Just do a scan over the network or online every now and then.. but as long as you don't visit suspicious sites, don't use Internet Exploder and don't open email attachments from people you don't know, you're safe. If you're online without a firewall, you're bound to run into problems whether you're on Linux, Windows or OSX.

Regarding support, I find that when you've paid for something, you usually get much better support and more help if you need it. The standard response in Linux newsgroups and forums tends to be "RTFM"...

You're not quite up to date on Windows. With Win98, you had to reboot constantly. This stopped being an issue with Win2000 in 1999.

You assume that Windows users are ignorant? Or that Linux is better because you have to work harder to make it work the best? Maybe some users actually have real work to do and don't have the time or energy needed to sit down and learn the ins and out of every little configuration file and fight the computer to make it work the way they want. It's kind of like those web developers who insist on doing everything in a text editor because that's the only "real" way to do HTML.. Those are the kinds of people who will never make a living out of web development. It's fine for your own little hobby projects at home, but when you've working in a team with strict deadlines you have to work with a WYSIWYG editor even if the code it spits out isn't as "pure"...

 

Well, yes; as I had been until a few years ago. All those wonderful registry codes, re-hacking them individually after any reinstallation, what fun. Then I tried something else.

You're not English, then? I reckon it could be irksome for people more familiar with other languages to read a fully commented Linux conf file; it's so hard to understand somethinG like this:

Code:

# KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than
# one request per connection). Set to "Off" to deactivate.
#
KeepAlive On

When did you last visit a Linux forum? And when did you last get a meaningful response from an email to Microsoft support about (say) a registry key which didn't refer you to a knowledge base article - the Microsoft equivalent of 'RTFM'?

You're not quite up to date on Windows. With Win98, you had to reboot constantly. This stopped being an issue with Win2000 in 1999. [/quote:3bq56jl9]

Funny - I was using a Windows XP Pro SP3 laptop at work last week and the Adobe Acrobat update said it required a reboot. Why do they do that if they don't need to? - it just annoys people. You'd better get on to them - they need your up to date knowledge.

Oh, and the IT helpdesk said a reboot was the right way to reset all the network connections when we were trying to troubleshoot that issue I mentioned; what's the quick way, if reboots aren't necessary? It could have saved me a lot of time to have something like a 'service networking restart' command available.

You assume that Windows users are ignorant? [/quote:3bq56jl9]

I just assume, on the basis of observation, that they have a tendency to settle for inadequacies rather than spend time trying to find out how to solve them: to say they haven't the time to understand the system so they spend loads more time doing things inefficiently. That's a choice not to know.

As I said, I spent a good deal of time lately trying to sort out just such an inadequacy and eventually succeeding - and this is in a 600-staff part of a 6000+-staff institution, not some little home business. Of the two of us who got to the bottom of the issue, one prefers Macs (though the massively multi-processor unit on which he does his main research work runs some flavour of *nix), and I prefer Linux. I do think there is something about Windows which encourages a 'don't bother to understand' mentality, and something about some other systems which encourages understanding, exploration and as a result eventual higher productivity and enjoyment.

 

*sigh* I knew this would turn into a flame war...Its starting out subtle...but its getting there. I'm pretty sure this thread was about what is best for the One...regardless of OS. Linux and Windows can share can't they...at least have some decency about it.