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I am a Linux fanatic. I like gadgets. A colleague tells me offhand that he needs to help a friend with a Linux netbook and I am all ears. Colleague cannot fix it (he is a windows nerd) and I am all too happy to help.

So now here I am writing this blog entry on a brand new Acer Aspire One.

And I am disappointed with Acer.

First Impressions

The first time I held this machine in my hand (yes hand – it is that small) I was wowed. It is a small laptop. It sports decent keyboard real estate – I can almost type at top speed while writing this – and it has a decent sized screen. My first impression is that this is more of a “real” notebook than the toy that the Asus EEEPC seemed to me the first time I encountered one.

First impressions are largely positive.

First Boot

It boots quick. This makes it ideal for trips on the train or in the back of a cab on the way to the airport. The interface is simple, Linpus has a simplistic user interface based on the XFCE window manager – it has some Gnome gadgets running under the skin to add extra functionality. It is definitely aimed at the less knowledgeable user who only needs to do the basics. If this were mine I would be loading Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Then I get to the reason for having this machine in my hands – the Huawei 3G would not install.

Problems in Paradise

I cannot initialize the 3G modem. If this were Ubuntu the 3G would have been a non issue. I decide to connect it to the wifi to check if there are maybe software updates to fix the problem – I cannot even open the network manager! nm-applet is not showing on the taskbar, and even when I insert a network cable I get no joy.

After rebooting with the modem in the USB port I get the installer to run, and when I enter the pin code I realise that gnome keyring is broken. Why this gnome utility asks to manage the pin code when it doesn’t work (possibly because this runs in XFCE) is beyond me.

I realize that this is not a fault with the hardware – the software is borked. I decide to tackle this from the command-line. No command-line. Eventually I try ALT+F2 and via the run dialogue get xterm to run.

I become root by typing “su” and start gnome-nm-applet as root from the command-line. Suddenly there is life in her. The LAN connection is recognised, and the WIFI at my house is detected. I download a stash of updates and after a reboot nm-applet is running, but does not detect the LAN cable.

*sigh*

At least the WIFI works, and I can connect to the Internet. More updates. Tons of them. I take the time it takes for them to download to tool around the innards of the system.

Some of the applications are worryingly out of date as well – FireFox 2 instead of 3 is installed as an examle.

Unneeded cruft.

Compiz is installed. It seems that some people get it to work, but all it did for me was kill xfwm, and I needed to tool around to fix that. With only 8Gb of storage space I am puzzled why this is included. Some other notables are mysql, some KDE apps and other odds and ends.

Why I am disappointed in Acer

The updates seemed to fix most things. But in order for it to be fixed I needed to drop to command-line, know how to become su, reset the user password with paswd and know how to start nm-applet from the command line. For a netbook aimed at the masses there is no excuse. That is bad work Acer! This netbook is one of the nicest ones I have used. It is a decent size, as decent performance, and on first impression has everything going for it.

Why Acer has decided to use a version of Linux that is so broken is beyond me. Why they allow these machines to ship in such a useless state is baffling. If I have to go by this experience with this netbook I can understand why the current trend is for Linux netbooks to be returned in favor of Windows XP versions.

Verdict

I would buy one of these if I was a frequent traveler. The fact that I could write this review on it, while updates are running in the background and other stuff was happening with the system and spend almost an hour and a half on battery pleases me. With the screen at maximum brightness no less. I did not feel the familiar cramping in my hands that you get with these tiny machines when you do a lot of typing. It did not get unbearably hot while sitting on my lap churning away.

One source of irritation is the layout of the mousepad and buttons. The buttons are to the left and right of the touchpad – and while this makes sense from a space saving point of view, it caused me to have to look at the touchpad while using it to make sure I actually pressed left/right click when I needed to. Scrolling also seemed to be a bit sub-optimal, finding the scroll area “sweet spot” on the touchpad takes some practice.

But if I was the one who owned this one I would have chucked Linpus out the door on its sorry ass.

Acer, get a clue – this is one of the better netbooks out there, you cripple it by not vetting the software installation properly.

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