Which OS do you prefer and why?

I'm currently experimenting with various distros of Linux on my One, having found the preinstalled Linpus a pain in the ass (I'd keep it if there was an easy and bug-free way of changing to a standard desktop mode). I tried installing Fedora 9 but it hangs very early on in the install, so gave up on that and tried Fedora 7 which I had kicking about on DVD.. which installs initially, but goes tits up after reboot for some reason.

So, I'm going to try Ubuntu and Mandriva next, maybe I will have something that works for me.. fingers crossed. So I would say my Linux experiences so far have been interesting, but very frustrating.. it's all part of the learning process I guess.

 

The main os I use on my one right now is Xubuntu 8.04. It takes some tweaking to get working, but no where near what gentoo took me to do. I cut my teeth on gentoo back in 2001 and have a soft spot for it. Being able to install just what I want and have it run just what I want without having to hunt down what the distro installs is nice. Plus it's a lot easier to stay on the bleeding edge of software releases. However, it seems gentoo is slowly losing developers as people stop wanting that level of control and spending a large amount of time just on upkeep. Some packages don't install correctly on it, and you might not have any luck finding out how to fix it. Plus the other distros can usually give you better performance.

I've been reading a bit on Mandriva lately, and it looks to be a pretty good distro to use. I haven't seen anyone do any write ups on running it on an aspire one, but I just read an article about them doing boot up optimizations and one of their test platforms for it is an eeepc 701.

 

Since I'm stuck with the SSD version, until recently I had the choice of functional but turgid XP, or a functional but dull Linpus. I chose Linpus as the best of a bad lot.

Then I figured out how to get a normal desktop:

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=4310

Now I'm like "who needs XP!?" Linpus is way faster and looks as nice, if not nicer.

 

I always end up running Gentoo Linux. It puts the C in Computer.

 

Try the Omega 10 beta (ftp://ftp.infradead.org/pub/spins/omega-desktop-livecd-10-beta.iso ). It's a Fedora derivative with

I loaded it last night and am very pleased so far. Note that I did tweak it (look around the forum for how) to allow the SD card slots to be used in situations where they were empty upon bootup. If you need to use an xD card in the right-hand slot, you'll want to copy the Linpus kernel (and all of its modules, of course) to your new install and run mkinitrd to create a new /boot/initrd.img file.

 

Maybe I'm the only person on earth who feels this way, but choice of OS is largely a matter of irrelevance to me. They all have strengths and weaknesses, and in my line of work I use at least three different OSs every day. At home I have Windows Vista, Fedora 9, and Solaris 10. You wouldn't believe the number of different systems I use in business.

I really can't get much enthusiasm for any OS, to be honest. In terms of functionality and reliably they seem largely to have converged. Most Linux desktop distributions if installed with default settings look and act much like Windows XP. Modern Windows systems (notably Vista) are designed to be run in a unix-like way, with multiple user accounts and minimal privileges. All are pretty reliable these days, and tolerably secure.

Five years ago the decision was much clearer: if you wanted something that looked nice and was easy to use, you had Windows XP. If you wanted something that was reliable and highly configurable, you had RedHat. If you wanted to spend all your time tweaking you had one of the trendy Linux distributions like Debian. If you had a Mac you had no choice. These days, it really doesn't make a huge difference, particularly if you spend your whole working day sat in front of a computer, as I do.

 

I installed Vista on my desktop a little over a year ago, dual-booting with XP, 'just in case'. Not once have I ever booted back into XP. I couldn't find anything wrong with Vista, and I found all the complaining to be mostly just anti-M$ bullshit, so I stuck with it. Originally I didn't think Vista would run too well on the AAO or any other Netbook for that matter, but after browsing these forums for a few weeks, I see that it seems to run just fine, so as soon as I can get my hands on one, I'll install Vista on it, probably vlited. Since I'll have 160GB's of space though, I'll probably create an additional partition or two for Ubuntu/Mandriva, and possibly OSX, as I've seen a number of people that have that as well, so I'm hoping it's not a horribly complicated process. I've never actually used OSX for more than a couple of minutes, so I figure the AAO should provide a good place to get some hands on time with it.

 

i prefer the default Linpus. Tweaking/hack the computer may be fun, exciting, but for me, I bought the computer to use. So Linpus is enough for me, the home page design is also easy to use, although this is not a formal linux with a classic desktop, i think this is ok, the only thing i will do is to enable the so call 'advance mode' thats the advance menu, and install few software. That will be good for me!

 

I use Vista Ultimate as it runs smoothly and gives me a better battery life than XP. It also makes the netbook look a lot nicer and gives you something to brag about to others as it's capable of running such a resource-hogging operating system so nicely. I've got the A150BW (120gb hdd, 1gb ram, white, 3cell)

 

I currently prefer OneLinux the customized for the AA1 Ubuntu because all the things I want work Out of the Box.

 

Running a vlited vista ultimate on the 120gb version, and am quite satisfied with how it runs on here. As to why, it just looks prettier, and some functionality I prefer over XP.

 

What did you remove for your vlite image? I installed vista Home Premium 32b last nite, removed the language packs, sample media, and most hardware drivers then added the AA1 drivers. Installed it has a 9G footprint. I want sure what i could remove and still keep os functions (i need networking and media player). I would like to trim it down to 4-5G foot print but could use some suggestions on what people commonly dump from Vista when makin a vlite install.

 

I prefer Windows XP. I have a Garmin GPS, and a Microsoft Zune that I use often and there just isn't any software available to my knowledge for those units on Linux. Also I have a paid for version of NERO, which you can also get on linux, but I'd have to buy it again.

I see people mentioning cost as a factor, but I think the winxp version with 120gb drive and one gig of ram is far more cost effective then the Linux version. I paid 350 for mine and the linux version is only 25 bucks cheaper, with only 512 ram and 8gb SSD. Doesn't make sense, at least buy the xp version and put your own linux distro on it if you want.

Linux is pretty cool, I am just not up to the technical challenge and for me there is quite a bit of a learning curve.. I don't need the headaches.

 

I can't exactly remember but I just found a guide online and followed that, being quite brutal in what I removed. If you want to know exactly I can have a look at vlite on my main computer when I get back at the weekend. My windows folder is 3.06gb.

 

i prefer linpus! i have XP for my job, vista on my personnal notebook! and linpus for my AAO and what a fun it is! i play with it like a child!

 

Very good, solid argument for XP.

My question is are you actually using your Zune, GPS and burning optical media from your Aspire One on a regular (or even irregular) basis? I mean, after the initial "wow I can do this" phase wears off. I don't suggest you made the wrong choice, or that your reasoning is invalid, I'm just musing as I originally thought as you did but changed my mind: there's doable and then there's desirable, and its easy to confuse the two in the initial enthusiasm for the netbook.

Actually, the GPS and Zune links seems rather ideal for a netbook, so XP really does sound like the right choice for you. The things I considered doing were mostly related to my work and I gave up on the idea primarily because the screen was too small to do these kinds of tasks in comfort.

 

Unless it runs AG3 and holds it's true form of 11GB :cry: no thanks It is not that hard to switch to linux but there is really no advantage for me at least

:mrgreen: So do you have any bench marks for these better fps and there engines? i would like to see

 

You are right, I do have two other machines with vista and I don't burn any media with the aspire one.
I do use the zune software on it, but I don't have to.

There are still other problems like networking between vista and linux. I know it can be done, I have done it although I had a hell of a time getting it to work.
If I didn't want to do any of these things and just used my aspire one for reading email and surfing the web and some office tasks, the linux version would be fine as well and would be faster.

I have tried several different Linux version and the one I liked most was Ubuntu, but I am by no means a linux guru and I have a really hard time trying to do get some things to work. When I ask questions in a linux forum people can be very helpful, but they assume that you already know the lingo and use the command line, the answers I get are about as understandable as a foreign language.

 

That's fair criticism, but it cuts both ways: trying to help one of my offspring set up her Windows PC for University connection I was asked by a helpdesk to navigate to the system directory. Can you find /system/ (or, even translating one step, C:\SYSTEM) on your Windows machine?

When the guy said "No, I mean C:\Windows\System", the clouds started to part.... It's a different language; which seems foreign depends on which one you are used to speaking.

The reasons people tend to give command line instructions, by the way, is that it's the easy way to tell you exactly what to do in a way which will generally work across similar Linux systems. It doesn't rely on you having installed specific GUI tools, and it's easier to cut & paste command line instructions than to follow through a long series of 'Now click on Menu, then on File.....' type instructions.

Actually, a few years ago when I was one of those people who everyone asks for help with computers, I used to use the command line for a lot of informal telephone-based Windows admin, as even on Windows it was easier than talking people through a GUI.

 

Which OS? Thats a loaded question. I really like Vista but on the AAO I think XP is the winner. I have both OS installed on my AAO and feel that 1.5 gb of memory is probably a little thin for Vista. Both OS work well and boot quickly but I will give XP the nod for the AAO.