Windows vs Linux on my AAO

I bought the 120 gb/1gb ram model, which came with windows xp. Ok, i didn't liked xp but i used it fairly. Mi first option was ubuntu hardy heron. It worked -to be honest- not quite too well. No wifi drivers out of the box. I managed to get everything working fine at the end, with quite an effort.

First problem: I know no one in real life that uses linux except for myself -live in mexico. So nobody understand how to make anyhting on my pc -not that i care too much though.
Second problem: The screen was kind of too small for the applications. This wasn't a problem with windows...
Third problem: I messed up my computer for installing intrepid ibex. It is great though...

Finally I managed to install windows vista. Just a few clicks and everything started to get good. I hate virus, i hate to use an antivirus, hate many things but... Actually, i think vista is the best option for a stable os on this computer. This computer was made for high mobility. You can't have that with an os that continiously has to configure, install drivers etc.

But i still hope that Intrepid Ibex -just like 20 days now- will be working as good as I expect, thanks to all the guys that make that possible.

 

IMO, the best OS is the one that lets you do what you want without causing you grief. If that's Vista for you, then all the more power to you and enjoy your AAO. For other's, it is XP. Others really like the challenge and will try other OS'es. Nothing wrong with that either.

I do recommend an AV though, for the same reason that we all have locks on our doors and windows. Yes, it's a bit annoying to have to lock/unlock but the potential alternative result of not using a lock is not as good as the minor annoyance (which becomes part of daily life and not really annoying after some time). For the minute resources an AV requires, I don't care, I would rather run that than watch my system go crazy from viruses.

 

Someone once said in one of those typical usenet debates, (I think it was mutt vs. pine) that people often grab all sorts of technical reasons to justify what is, in the end, an emotional decision.

As for me, I bought the 160 GB version and never even booted into Windows. I put Fedora on a USB stick and installed it.

I also put Intrepid on. Both are working without any issues, and there's very little tweaking that I had to do. WIth Fedora, of course, I had to, due to a variety of design decisions they have made in the last year or so, that assumes everyone wants Gnome. However, I'm experienced with those tweaks, so it was trivial for me. Remember, intuitive equals what you're used to using. (For example, people feel Windows is intuitive, but I remember back in the early Win9x days explaining to users that Yes, you do click the Start button to turn the macine off. )

On both Fedora alpha and Ubuntu Intrepid, the wireless works out of the box, though without LED lights. (This is a 2.6.27-x kernel thing--it now supports the card, but the old sysctl options for LED lights are gone and I haven't yet found their replacement.)

For *my* purposes and what I need in a traveling laptop, it's going to be better than Windows. As you say, if few people in your country are using Linux, it will be more difficult to find support, depending upon your Internet access. (I do know of another fellow in Mexico who just bought the Linpus version---Hi Joe, if you see this. He's on these forums and the Fedora forums.)

There's nothing wrong with choosing either one, though I wish companies made it easier to recover the Microsoft Tax. In theory, as I never even booted into Windows, I'm entitled to a refund from Acer, but getting such refunds from any company takes more time and energy than I'm willing to dedicate to it, especially as it's often minimal.

 

Yeah, defnitely "preference" is a matter more of familiarity than hard fact. I am still surprised though by the overwhelmingly positive response you hear from the few people who have put Vista on the A1. Conventional wisdom is that the minimum hardware for a smooth Vista experience is dual-core, 2GB Ram, and an above average GPU. The A1 has none of these things, you'd think it would brick up 'till Xmas, yet it works fine. You have wonder whether there is some internal switches that modify the install when MID-type mobile hardware is detected to slim things down and improve the performance.

 

There are 17 Linux User Groups listed in Mexico.... http://www.linux.org/groups/mexico.html

 

Ok i am aware of that. But I know no one here -in real life- that uses linux.

 

Ah, right. The point of a LUG, though, is to enable you to meet people who use Linux in real life

 

Of course, Mexico isn't such a tiny country that the fact that they're in the same country means very much. For example, (I live in NYC) if someone told me there was a LUG in Cleveland, Ohio, it wouldn't do me that much good. We don't know if any of those LUGS are near him.

 

Hi.

I am the proud owner of an Acer Aspire One since last Saturday and absolutely love it. I got the Linux version here in Mexico (8GB SSD) and so far so good I just needed to customize Linpus a little bit for the machine to fulfill my needs. Since I have a while being a full time Linux user I am very comfortable with the One running Linux, and since I use Fedora in my other machine I found it easier to just tweak the Fedora based Linpus than installing anything else from scratch.

I don't know (and really don't care) how it would perform with Windows, but the way it is now is just fine: it already has all the software needed to make it a portable calculator (Maxima, octave, and such) and an excellent Ebook reader (for what I bought it on the first place) along with some other productivity software I might need.

As for the support the forums are excellent, and despite the fact none of my relatives or neighbors use Linux, some of my friends do and in fact it is widely used in my school (so it really depends on the environment you move into if you find Linux users).

Thanks.
Joe.

 

Hey, great to know someone from around here! How much is it here the 8 gb ssd version? To state the facts, I have never used the Linpus distro, but I believe that in that distribution everything works really smoothly. Although I think it's going to be a little difficult to get to install it... I'm counting the days until intrepid ibex is fully released... by the way, where are u from?? here in queretaro, at my school, nobody even knows what linux is... ok, i have explained it to some...

 

Hi Charles.

I am from Mexico City and am studying in UNAM. I got the 8GB SSD version with an extra (not yet installed) 1GB DDR2 stick for it, all of it for $4000 MXN in Mercado Libre, and since the seller is from Mexico City too I picked it up myself.

Linpus Linux works very well in the machine (it is supposed to) so I decided it was easier to fit it to my needs than to install anything else from scratch. The only 'major' problem I am having with it is that it hangs when I turn it off leaving an external volume mounted. It is harmless for the machine, though, the hard reboot :lol: By the time I get tired of Linpus there ought to be plenty of alternatives, but for now it is fine (even the webcam works).

Good luck with.
Joe.

 

Hi, for stating the truth, i have to say that in this moment, windows vista exists no more on my computer. My computer was flocking with virus -although i actually one antivirus which i think was respectable (eset smart security). But I really always look to get the best of my computer, and windows was waaaaay too slow. I've installed ubuntu intrepid and everything is good for now... even the wifi works with the updates! And openoffice 3 has been releasead! -hated office 2007 and it's weird menus. It seems that linux finally won... or it seems. I always had some hopes on it

 

Just picked this up having seen that the original poster is back on Linux.

The physical location of a LUG isn't necessarily an issue. My local LUG, for instance, works very well for me since it's very much in my locality (some meetings are at my local pub). However, it also has a mailing list, and as a result of that mailing list people who are more distant from the 'centre' of the LUG have met up elsewhere in sort of 'offshoot' meetings. If there get to be enough people in another area, they become their own LUG.

So in your case, and if the Cleveland one was the nearest, you might well find from the mailing list that there were other members closer to you, who were just waiting for there to be one more to make it worthwhile arranging something more local!

The only caveat I would add about One users joining a LUG is that the implementation of Linux on the One is a bit weird - so you might have to put up with people borrowing your machine for half an hour or so and making all sorts of strange noises while entering all sorts of magical incantations onto your keyboard to see how it's been set up; then probably having a lengthy debate about exactly why it shouldn't be set up that way to start with. (They are extremely unlikely to spill beer on it, no matter how much they wave their pint glasses around it: there seems to be some sort of natural awareness rather like the one which works when you want to catch a ball which prevents techie toys getting wet at LUG events).

However, if you are clear that you'd like to know how to use it as it is, they'll always help out, and enjoy doing so.

 

I understand that Mexico has "relevantly small" online presence and that you may not know where to turn offline but as I remember it Ubuntu has one of the strongest Spanish communities for a distribution...with many of the blogs on planet ubuntu coming from latin America and strong governmental support behind open source in countries like Venezuela (you got to like Chavez at least for that).

The Ubuntu Spanish Language forums have a couple hundred thousand posts! http://www.ubuntu-es.org/index.php?q=forum

I think you can get pretty good support....

 

Hi, I would like to run Maxima, Octave & Emacs under Linpus, but when I tried to install from a Fedora site via my USB drive, I got something from the RPA program about libraries not being complete. What is worse, right now, I have lost access to my USB from AAO and I don't know why. I am in a panic because I don't have much tome and I was hoping to use this this weekend.

 

.Library compatibility seems to be a problem with a variety of applications folks want to install on their AA1s. I'm running Linpus, Fedora (10 and Rawhide) and Ubuntu (8.10) on my AA1; Fedora and Ubuntu work fine, but only Linpus will read an xD card in the right slot.