Last week, we reviewed the Aspire One, Acer's entry into the netbook market. The small but powerful device comes preloaded with either Linux or Windows XP, and we reviewed the Linux version. Even though most people will never need to go beyond the default Linpus Linux offering on the One, more advanced users will quickly hit the wall Acer set up: it has more or less completely locked down the Xfce 4.2.2 installation on the One. This bothered me - this is a powerful machine, so I want a powerful operating system. I went for Ubuntu 8.04.1 - read on for a few thoughts on how well GNOME's user interface fares on a small-screen device such as the One.
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2006-01-18
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2005-06-29
Thank you, Thom, for this eye-opening little article. Very well written and supplemented with screenshots so we can get a good idea of your points. I'm quite impressed.
I wonder if using Matchbox as an alternative interface in Ubuntu would fare as well -- or better -- on such a small screen. As far as I remember, it's still in the Ubuntu repos.
Member since:
2006-01-02
I find that Gnome does a good job of converting high resolution monitors into 800x600 mid-90s monstrosities. KDE 4 is moving in this direction too and I don't like it. I don't understand why we have to waste so much screen real estate with crappy widgets. And here's a case where it actually does matter. I'm glad you managed to make it work, but I'm honestly surprised, because in the past, I've had trouble making GTK stuff fit on a small screen (my first Linux experience was on 800x600 in late 2004 [old monitor] and half the dialogs wouldn't fit on the screen).
Member since:2005-07-20
That is how a high-DPI screen is supposed to look. If the font is set to 72pt size, the character cell should be exactly one physical inch. Not more, not less.
If you want 6pt fonts, then set the font to 6 or 4 or 2 or whatever you like.
And yes, I do go around telling old people that they are doing it wrong when they set Vista to 640x480 on their 20" monitor.
Member since:2006-02-28
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It's not the fonts...I can deal with that. It's the layout of everything else. It's just so big and you can't do anything about. I didn't get a high resolution screen so that I can look at the moral equivalent of 800x600. Other environments let you adjust font sizes and the like so that, if you so choose, you can make it look like 800x600, but Gnome basically decides for you that clearly you want to have terrible use of screen real estate and the only option is to hack the themes yourself. And that still doesn't fix the problem of apps that waste empty space.
Member since:2005-07-20
The Gnome components should be the same size no matter what your screen resolution is. I agree with the Gnome defaults. Start out big, that way everyone can read it, then let them make it smaller.
Get a thin-frame theme, there are several. Make your task bars smaller. Set the font sizes smaller. All of that can be changed.
Member since:2006-01-02
There's no way to fix the themes without editing a config file in /usr/share/themes. There's almost no documentation for theme configuration, or it is well hidden. You have to use trial and error. Compare that to KDE or Windows where you can easily control theme settings. Especially on Windows you can control the sizing of various components.
Member since:2005-07-20
Member since:2005-07-07
I have no idea what you mean when you say "apps that waste empty space". That doesn't mean anything. Maybe you mean the iconbar in GNOME applications? No that can't be it, you can turn that off in the Appearance preferences.
Member since:2008-06-07
Here is what I use on my Ubuntu laptop just right now (screen resolution is 1280x800):
1. Clearlooks Compact theme for GNOME (google it).
2. Fonts "Sans" (or "Monospace") of size of 7.5 points with "best contrast" rendering.
3. Toolbar buttons - "Icons only" setting.
The result is more compact than Windows.
Member since:
2008-04-15
Member since:
2007-03-28
Oh please! This is small? Check out this one:
http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2008-August/027326.ht...
2.8" is small! ;-)
Kind regards,
Member since:2008-04-15
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2008-03-27
This is they way I have my laptop set up, I have a single panel, but instead of the single-icon menu I installed the SLAB menu and I am currently using that. I heard there is a new version of it in Ibex so I am anxiously waiting for that as it is more similar to what Linux Mint uses. 
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2005-07-08
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2005-10-12
I went with for the 1GB RAM 120GB HD version, which means my Aspire One came with Windows XP installed. I just finished installing Ubuntu 8.04.1 and the updated madwifi modules. Sound (speaker) works, webcam works, blinking lights work. I don't have an SD card to check out the card readers. My preferred font is Liberation Sans, but I also went with 9pt. Next up: finding a suitable travel case.
Member since:
2006-11-18
@Thom Holwerda
I also prefer Trebuchet MS for desktop usage, but default X11 hintstyle (which is set to 3) looks very bad with any font, to make it look really good You need to set hintstyle to 0.
You may also use Trebuchet MS instead of other ugly fonts such as Arial on web sites using ~/.fonts.conf settings.
Here is the difference between htinstyle 0 and 3:
http://toya.net.pl/~vermaden/gfx/hintstyle_3.png
http://toya.net.pl/~vermaden/gfx/hintstyle_0.png
Regards
vermaden
Member since:2006-07-30
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It was fixed long time ago mate:
http://osnews.com/story/19770
... but thanks 
Member since:2005-06-29
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2005-07-06
Has anyone tried a tiling wm like awesome or wmii on a netbook? Systems with limited screen real estate always seemed like the most obvious place to use a tiling wm to me. I have been thinking about getting an aspireone, eee 1000h, or msi wind, but am still waiting.
Member since:2007-08-29
I ran ion at 1024x768 for a year or so and it worked okay.
Screenshots at 800x600:
Tiled stuff: http://apex.homelinux.net/img/1.png
Firefox: http://apex.homelinux.net/img/2.png
It really needs more horizontal space, but netbooks have that.
Member since:
2006-01-14
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2008-08-22
My preferred course of action was to 'unlock' the default Linpus installation. While this unlocking process is documented quite well on the AcerAspireOne.com community website, it's not a single process per se; you need to unlock several things, and Acer hasn't exactly made it easy. Somewhere in the process I made a mistake, and before I knew it, I was receiving HAL errors that proved unfixable.
You might want to try this:
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1256
Member since:
2007-11-09
I really don't understand why would anyone bother about touching the linpus once it's possible to make it work in non-restricted (geek) mode. To me, this linpus linux is the best distro i have seen lately : fast (i can't believe how fast it can boot), effective, functional. no need to search google, forums to make fundamental things. a lesson for all the freaks at debian, ubuntu, etc.
Member since:2005-07-07