To supplement storage space with the initial purchase of the Aspire One (8 GB SSD version), I bought a 16 GB Transcend TS16GBSDHC6 card that integrates nicely into the left card slot. The pre-installed Linux Linpus just wasn't what I needed since I use many networking tools at work and at home. I initially ran Ubuntu 8.041 with the /home partition on the 16 GB SDHC card. I discovered Eeebuntu while searching for information on how to boot and run Linux off a SDHC card. The goal was of multi-boot installations of Ubuntu, with one install specifically loaded with the tools I use at work. The Acer Aspire One BIOS does not 'see' the card, so you can't boot from it using the [F12] startup key (More on the SDHC boot up further in this article).
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Member since:2006-09-22
No, most people stick with the OS that came preloaded with the device. It comes with a fully working Linpus install and, ideally, you shouldn't need anymore than that. If you don't like it and are not willing to put some effort to change it, don't buy the device.
Putting XP or OSX into the thing would also require some fiddling around, specially OSX.
Member since:2005-09-17
It comes with a fully working Linpus install and, ideally, you shouldn't need anymore than that.
Sure, you should never need OXML support for OpenOffice, or update Firefox and stay with an obsolete and unsecure version, or connect to any sort of LAN and share files, or update the bazillion OS components that have received bug fixes since the Acer Aspire One was released, or pretty much install anything, for that matter.
Should Microsoft be the maker of the version of Linpus that comes with the thing, people would be bashing them with no mercy. And IMHO with all reason.
Note: I have the Linpus version, and will not bother swapping the thing if it requires tweaks and headaches for another that almost works . I am happy with it as is, because it is merely a typewriter to me. Still I did spent more time than I wanted to going through the all the loops required to update Firefox, OO, or to install Skype, Pidgin, Thunderbird and doing other minor tweaks I dare you to ask my parents or non-savy friends to mimic.
The thing, as it comes, is just subpar.
Edited 2009-01-09 08:29 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
The guy who wrote the article is obviously an OS and hardware enthusiast who loves the Small, simple hardware, and also wants to use it for something more advanced that a typical user would care about.
What he did was undertake a journey to install a different distribution of linux with his own tweaks for work purposes, and he cared enough to document the process for others who might also be so inclined...
Thank goodness for people who do these things. I recently wanted to tweak my kernel and it really helped to find other people who had done the same thing... I was able to pop in, set the exact flags I needed without guessing, build it and now I am running my custom kernel, and it is sweet.
So thanks to all the people out there who experiment and document.
Member since:2005-08-18
Member since:2005-07-08
I bought a Dell Mini 9 in October with Ubuntu preloaded. Recently I downloaded the standard x86 8.10 ISO, used the USB Ubuntu installer (easy installation via synaptic) and installed ubuntu from a USB stick I had laying around (didn't even have to remove anything from the stick) All but the speakers worked entirely out of the box. I only had to add a single line to the bottom of a config file to get the speakers working (other audio was fine).
Windows on laptops typically requires tracking down and installing drivers, waiting an hour or more for windows update to install the latest SP and other updates. With this laptop it would have required an optical drive for initial installation.
Even the compositor worked straight away, and quite well!
Had it not been for the speakers not working and the need to disable swap, this would have been smoother and easier than even doing an OS X install. What's more is that OS X devs have specific hardware they're tailoring too, Ubuntu devs don't.
Well done I say.
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance."According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow."During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.
Member since:
2005-11-10
This is why people put up with windows or buy a Mac!
Hoops, more Hoops, and Hooray for mostly working? Sorry, I like the *idea* of linux, and it is a bit of a hobby, but this is crazy for a machine that ships with a linux distro already installed. How hard can it be to transfer the drivers, etc to other interested distro makers?
Anyways, nuff said.