[SATLUG] Acer ASpire

[pixelnate]

On Sat, 2007-11-24 at 19:57 -0600, Walt DuBose wrote:
> Has anyone ever loaded Linux on a Acer Aspire laptop?

Yep. I bought a 5920-6470 (a gemstone model) at Circuit City
(http://tinyurl.com/27e8fn) at the beginning of the month and it has
been nothing but perfect with Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Two things to watch out
for: 

1) The top left extra button that looks like a thumbtack will turn the
wireless on and off. I spent an awful lot of time trying to figure out
why my wireless wasn't working only to find out I turned it off on the
keyboard.

2) There is a bluetooth button, 3 buttons under the wireless button for
bluetooth, but there is no bluetooth card installed. The card and
antenna can be found online though, and you can install it yourself.

The "Web" button launches firefox, the "Mail" button launches Evolution
in Gnome and starts a new email in Kmail (in Kubuntu). The volume knob
works perfectly in Gnome, but there is a documented bug in Kmilo that
prevents it from working by default in KDE.

Overall, I would rate my experience as a good solid 9. The industrial
design is not quite as slick as Apple, but I don't think I would rate
them a 10 either. I was expecting many weeks of troubleshooting hardware
and other than my dumb move turning off my wireless I have had none. I
strongly recommend the new Acer Aspire line for use with Linux.

Some hw high points:
Santa Rosa chipset, including X3100 integrated graphics,
Intel wireless 4965,
Dolby sound including subwoofer,
15.4" screen at 1280x800,
2Gb of Ram, accepts up to 4Gb,
200Gb hd,
low price; it is listed at $829 at Circuit City, I bought mine for $680.

> My wife and I just got a really good deal on them.  We will keep M$ on
> one and want to load Ubuntu  on the the other one.

I would ask why in the world you would keep Windows (Vista) on it? I
tried Vista, but really could not work with it. IMHO, Linux is much
better suited to the laptop than Windows is. I hope you enjoy your Acer,
I am.


~Nate
Sent from my Acer Asprire.   ;^)