Trying Linux on Acer Aspire One A110

As a newcomer to UNIX I thought it might be useful to set out my early experiences in the hope it may help others.
I bought a basic Acer Aspire One (AAO) A110 (512 Mb memory 8Gb disc) about a year ago. I was impressed with how quickly it loaded and how easy it was to use for email and surfing. I was depressed about how fiddly it was to change/modify/update successfully.
After breaking the system such that it wouldn't load and then managing to get a working system back using the recovery USB, I decided I had the confidence to perhaps try out other versions/types
of UNIX that would run on the AAO.
I came across this excellent step by step post in the forum which spurred me on to experiment.
How to : Install Ubuntu Netbook Remix and special kernel
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=9335&p=60269&hilit=install+ubuntu+netbook+remix+and+special+kernel#p60269
This post really is self explanatory and easy to install - but I found it took a long time to load - so I installed the Special Kernel for the AAO as mentioned in the post – the latest link I have for this is
http://www.aspireonekernel.com/
This improved things a bit, made the wifi light work and, if you had an SSD in the right hand slot when the system loaded it worked subsequently for that session – but if you didn't then it would not be recognised.
I liked the system a lot, found it easy to use, easy to install new packages and to keep the system updated and I didn't have to resort to typing in silly little boxes. However over the period of a week the time to load, to the point where the the system responded immediately to an input, grew to two and half to three minutes and this seemed to be defeating the point – approaching windows standards.
I decided that, having got this far, and having backed up my email and calendar info (easy in Evolution the default email), I should experiment with other versions/types. I decided to stick to Ubuntu since that was what the 'special kernel' was written for. Checking posts on the forum it's easy to find names of other versions and by google-ing these names it was easy to find information on the software and to get a download. Some sites even give step by step guidesa to installation. NOTE – these downloads are a different type to those in the Netbook Remix download. They are .ISO files and need a program Unetbootin to make your USB, downloaded from
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
I found it surprisingly easy install and to try out different types of UNIX – you need a bit of time because the large files take time to download, time to make USB and, once installed, time to update. You can easily run different types on the same computer if you have a big disc – at switch on the system asks which one you want to load – but only having 8Gb I thought it best just to install one at a time.
The ones I tried, and a summary of my experience are listed below;
UNR based on Ubuntu 8.10 I think
this was the first one that proved too slow to load.
UNR based on Ubuntu 9.04
Faster but unstable – wifi kept dropping out / not recognised
EasyPeasy
Failed to recognise wifi, kept freezing
Linux4one
No wifi, Firefox in Italian – was going to be trouble?
Crunchbang
Very fast to load but not very intuitive interface – with an icon based program launch bar it would have been good for me.
Mint 7 Gloria
So far I found this the best fit for my basic system and for me. Loads to effective point in just over a minute, wifi works no problem, easy to install new applications (I wanted Keepassx for passwords on UNIX and Windows) and very good responsive web site. Usual problem with card slot but not an issue for me.
I am sticking with Mint for now but don't be afraid to experiment for yourself – you just need a 2Gb USB memory stick and a chunk of time.
1 WEEK LATER
Unfortunately installing a printer scanner proved problematic on Mint 7 - (hplip ony supporting upto Mint6) so reverted to UNR but installed 9.10 - much faster on the A110 and istalling HP printer scanner very easy - shame about the interface.