Why would anyone use Windows on these netbooks

I wiped win 7 off the day I bought it and installed Kubuntu and never looked back it runs about 10 times better and faster , Kubuntu (Ubuntu) is definetly the Linux for windows users , its very easy to set up , even setups your wifi for you , even if your used to files in explorer its simpler , I remember when I started Linux back in the early 90's file management wasnt fun especially when installing packages , but its done for you here and there s plenty of info on how to manually install now adays!

Just saying anyone want to speed up there experience and get the most out of this lil cpu , wipe win 7 , and get Linux!

 

+1 from me, even Linpus runs better on them than Windows.
HH.

 

I'm running ubuntu 10.04 on my zg5 and I have not looked back bye bye windows !

 

I still have WinXP on my Acer Aspire One (first one I bought). It works great. I have Win7 on my newer Acer Aspire One. I agree it is not an operating system for netbooks; too limited.

 

If you want even faster performance, you should consider using Crunchbang Linux.

 

People annoy me when they start banging on about why would people use windows etc....

my AOA150 originaly came ith linpus on it, which was fine, but the reason the machines didnt last with any flavour of linux on was there was too many machines getting returned and exchanged for windows netbooks.. even though it cost more..the makers of net books started loosing money on it...

linpus was too restrictive for me to use and i tried several flavors of linux on it. ALL of them all had issues with wireless connections. so off it went and windows 7 was installed (business site license) .. it has worked perfectly (as in STABLE) ever since.

Sometimes raw speed or performance is not the most important thing, but stability is. in my case, windows 7 is more stable on my A0A150 than raw performance.

I use several different os's on difrent machines for different functions. My servers are all linux, I have a laptop & a desktop running ubuntu as well as a laptop and desktop running windows. Some things are best done on windows, some things linux.

And no matter what anyone says, you cant replace a windows machine for linux, there are some things that don't have a real linux alternative like Photoshop... and don't even dare say GIMP !!

 

PeppermintOS Two is IMHO the IDEAL Linux distribution for the AOA110L (aka. ZG5) and AOA150

MUCH lighter/faster than Ububnu/Kubuntu, but based on Ubuntu 11.04, so has easy access to all the Ubuntu software.

And is laid out VERY similarly to Windows, so the transition will be painless for people coming from Windows.

Tutorial for installing (including links to screenshots etc.), can be found here:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=9782.0

and unlike the poster above suggests, wireless works "out-of-the-box", and if you take malware into account, it's one hell of a lot more stable than Windows .. there ARE however a couple of things that need "tweaking" in PeppermintOS, but it's all in the tutorial (and before you say it, Win7 Starter/XP needs tweaking too, like adding AV/AM, applications, and drivers, etc. .. not to mention probable hardware upgrades in the case of the 8GB SSD models)

[EDIT]

Why on earth would anyone need the full blown Photoshop on a "netbook" (not to mention PS Portable will run in WINE anyway) .. Windows 7 (even Starter) is far too heavy for the AA1, particularly the 8GB SSD models.

The original idea of a netbook included the use of an SSD rather than a hard drive to make it more resilient to hardware damage "on-the-go", and considering it was intended to be online most of its life, being resilient to viruses and malware would be boon too, so they chose an SSD and Linux .. Windows 7 and a HDD turns it into an easily damaged mini (but poor performing, by comparison) laptop that has it's poor performance impacted further by the need for AV/AM .. Can't see the point myself.

The mistake Acer made (and the reason so many were returned) wasn't the choice of Linux and/or an SSD, it was their poor choice of Linpus Lite which was overly restrictive/simplistic, and already out of date .. and the fact their Linux support was non existent didn't help

I'm firmly with the OP .. Why would anyone use Windows on these netbooks.

 

Well, on many of the early A0A150 machines, the wireless card is not stable on linux. in fact the only stable drivers for linux for it are in the linpus build but as to date I have had no joy extracting said drivers to include in a linux install on my netbook...

I last installed ubuntu 11.10 on it, and although wireless was more stable than it had been in the past, was still not as stable as windows 7....

And to end the comment on malware, In the last 10 years, I have spent a total time of 0 hours and 0 min cleaning my windows machines of virus. this entirely due to good computer practice and up to date virus protection...

nowhere in my post did I say i had photoshop installed on my netbook? adobe raw needs a higher res than my a0a150 will support anyway... I do however have and use an adobe application to covert my Nikon RAW images to DNG files. I have never found any app work as well in WINE or any program work in an emulator as well as it would in its native OS. with maybe the exception of spotify.

My netbook gets used for browsing on the go and email, but these days my smartphone is taking over these functions, so most of the time it only really gets used to download and check images from my camera to view on a larger screen when out on a photo-shoot... for what I use mine for, stability is the more important thing over power. and in my case, my netbook works much better on Windows. Why would I sit there and mess about for hours getting things to run under WINE when I can just run it on the os it was intended to run under?

Its horses for courses, to ridicule someone over choice of flavour of operating system is pathetic and people need to growup and / or mature... even if that choice is an Apple OS.....

 

As for wireless, see the topic I linked to .. Wireless has NEVER been raised as an issue .. am I not entitled to point out that at least in the case of PeppermintOS, your comments about wireless drivers were at best misleading and at worst just plain wrong .. would that be fair on people looking to change ?

Linpus Lite never had any "special" wireless drivers that weren't available for other distributions .. though as proprietary drivers they may not have been included in all distributions by default .. nor are they in Windows .. but they most certainly are in PeppermintOS

Windows Malware .. Good practices *may* and I highlight *may* keep you malware free in Windows, but you can't seriously be telling me it's a non isssue ?

I didn't ridicule you, or anyone else for choosing Windows .. I just pointed out it was probably a bad choice for the AA1 .. am I not entitled to an opinion ?

Why bring up Photoshop as a crutch for your argument at all then ?

I can't argue with that, that's your choice, except to repeat that the full PS is not really intended for (or at its best on) a netbook anyway .. and that you're happy to spend hours installing software, AV/AM, and updates in Windows .. what's the difference ? .. actually why use WINE at all when there is, in nearly all cases, a (free) Linux native application that will do the job, specially on a netbook.

Now that seemed to be a backhanded attempt at ridicule.

 

Hi! I'm using pinguy os 10.10 on AO-722-C6Ckk but the problem is the built-in bluetooth doesn't work also when i play songs the built-in speakers give sound output even if i put headphone on the port, its very annoying.

Anyone has got any idea how to fix those problems?

 

Bluetooth tends to be a little hit and miss with Linux. It all depends on what function you want to use and which distro you're using. Linux Mint has been the most successful at using Bluetooth for file transfers in my experience. Using Bluetooth Internet tethering works in most distros though.
The easiest way to control the sound issue would most likely be to use Alsa Mixer to set the speaker volume to mute when using headphones. Chances are, Pinguy OS isn't configured to recognise the hardware triggers when headphones are plugged in.

You might get more specific Linux solutions over at Linuxquestions.org.

P.S: Pinguy OS 11.04 is now available and might solve some of your issues

 

I've been using Linux (ubuntu/linux mint) for about 3 or 4 months on my Acer Aspire A0751H and i must say it was completely unusable for those few months. Slow response, ton of work right after installation just to get it to work. I'm fan of linux but the only way to have a working netbook was to use windows 7 and i'm happy with the performance (after a few tweaks)

edit: oh yeah, there was NO hardware accelerations under linux too.

 

Strange since the zg5 (AOA110 and AOA150) works fine with Ubuntu.
Although Ubuntu is not exactly a zippy distro to begin with. I prefer Crunchbang as a much faster distro.
I've never been able to use Windows. I can never find anything that I'm looking for. .

 

Windows 7 x64 runs great on my wife's AO722, which has 8GB of DDR3 RAM and an 80GB SSD. Not all netbooks are underpowered. Sure, the AMD C-60 isn't an i3, but it isn't exactly a slouch for what most consumers use their machines for.

 

From XP to Win7, both my AAO's and my Samsung netbook have run all Windows variants without a hitch, even x64 where the hardware permitted. Having said that, the few times I tried Linux, I had nothing but headaches. The Android x86 project on the other hand, proved to be very useful indeed.

 

For me a netbook is just that, a highly portable machine to surf the net and check my mail. I would never try to do any photoshop work or similar, the screen is just too small and the hardware cannot handle it properly. So when I'm on the road I just use it for that and to store the files from my camera.

I've had my AOA150/ZG5 since 2009. It came with XP which worked ok for a while, but soon became annoyingly slow. I tried several different linux distros and ended up with Linux Mint 11. (Tried Mint 12, didn't like it). Works perfect for me right out of the box. At least with this old machine I think Linux is the way to go.

 

...currently installing windows 8 preview on my li'l ol' AOA150

just for the LOLS..

 

back in the days of when I first got my AOA150, on the acer aspire one forums, there was plenty of threads regarding wireless on the aoa150's... on the whole wireless was ok, but put it under heavy load, and it would fall over... FACT. thats how it WAS ON MY MACHINE. Others did not have issues. Because of it, I gave up on linux on my netbook.

its as much a non issue as you want it to be. if you want to follow links on emails you get offering dubious services, or you like to surf the internet for pirated software videos or music, your gonna be caught out...

Microsoft security essentials does a really good job these days. its quiet, small footprint, updates regular, not too many false positives. and since I have been using it not had a single infection of nasties on any of the 4 windows PC's in our home... its something I just dont worry about any more.

The question was raised and you dismissed my response as folly....

because if adobe released photoshop on ubuntu then in all probability there would be one less Windows pc in my house.....

and that you're happy to spend hours installing software, AV/AM, and updates in Windows[/QUOTE]

come on now, Hours..... after initial set-up maintaining the AV software is no more than letting the automatic updates do its job.... no different than the updates i get most times I power up ubuntu... ..

true, and for that very reason I have a Windows desktop PC I use specifically for Photoshop.

Guilty as charged !!... its an apple thing...

 

Acer Aspire One 522

I think I'd like to take the leap and wipe Win 7 and try Peppermint Two. Anyone see any reason why I shouldn't on this netbook model?

 

I cut my teeth on Linpus when it came with these netbooks. I remember the days when we all had to look up how to do things from the old forum. We used to have to disassemble these things to upgrade the ram on them...or the hard drive...which I did. This was my first delve into Linux.

Thanks to the Linpus start...which was really just Fedora 8...I am now pretty familiar and completely comfortable with pretty much any flavor of linux. I remember how foreign it seemed at the time. Now I laugh at my ignorance. I even got Ubuntu 8.04 to work on mine at one point. My how times have changes. Linux just got better and better.