Acer Aspire One AOA110 - New Operating System?

Hi!

I bought my mother a Acer Aspire One AOA110 (ZG5) with Linpus Linux a few years ago, when I moved to another country, so we could write emails and call via Skype without the fear to "destroy" my fathers notebook.

However, Skype doesn't work on the Aspire One anymore and it can't be upgraded. Now I wanted to install another Linux on the little netbook. But I was wondering if it is worth it. She only writes emails, very few texts with OpenOffice and then there is Skype. So I was wondering which Linux works and makes sense on the little fellow.

I was researching and came across PeppermintOS and found a tutorial. So I guess I'd give it a try while I am here visiting her. What do you think about PeppermintOS? Any better solution?

And now I have one other problem: I already copied all her documents onto a USB stick, also exportet the contacts from the mail program, but there is no way to export the emails she has. Is there any way to export the emails so that I can import them once the new OS and email program is up and running?

I hope she remembers her password for Gmail at least... ;-)

Would be grateful for any comment, tips and suggestions. Of course I could just buy a new netbook, but this one is running fine, just Skype doesn't work anymore.

 

Was doing some more research and came across LXLE. Seems also like a good option (http://lowendmac.com/2014/24-hours-with-linux-lxle-a-review/)

The email problem might be solved, my mother found here Gmail password and I logged in. Seems like all her emails are also online, so I don't really need to back them up before a new install.

 

This is skype's own site

IT LISTS THE LINUX SYSTEMS THAT WORKS WITH SKYPE.

Click on choose your distribution,


http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-linux/

Other members should answer your other questions

 

Thank you for your response! This is very helpful, because I thought that skype would run on any modern Linux distribution. I think both, Peppermint and LXLE are based on Ubuntu, so Skype should run, but I will do some research on that.

 

my options from most to least for linux will be:
- Linux Mint XFCE
- Pepermint OS Six
- Xubuntu
- LXLE

try them all and running well with my Aspire One 110.

 

Running Lubuntu 16.04 LTS. It works fine.

 

AnderJ - this post was started in 2015 - the chances of the guy/gal fitting Lubuntu 16.04
his 10" screen AOA110 ZGS with an 8 Gb Memory card for a 'Hard Drive' are pretty slim.

I - know as I, - Brian8gbSSD - still have that same/similar laptop (bought in 2009) gathering dust in my Shed.- but upgraded along the way... and now use a 14" Acer ES1-311 with a 1TB Hard drive.

 

Connect the USB bootable device and during power up keep pressing F2 to access BIOS. Highlight Security and disable secure boot mode. Now highlight BOOT and change BOOT mode from UEFI to Legacy. Change the boot priority order to USB. Press F10 and hit enter to install the OS. This same method we recently implemented on the acer predator 21x~ And this the same method for all Acer laptops.