Acer Aspire One Linux OS
Submitted by srlinuxx on Thu, 08/28/2008 - 04:28.
Last week we looked at one of the better Netbooks around - the Acer Aspire One. Today we'll look at the highly customized Operating System in the Aspire One, which claims to make Linux user-friendly for the common man.
We'd seen a similar OS early this year in the first Eee PC 4G. Let's see if this one's any better.
Appearance and Features
The Aspire One OS is based on Linpus Linux Lite, which runs the Xfce 4 desktop environment (i.e. GUI). The default home screen has gone through a major makeover. The home screen consists of four sections --Connect, Work, Fun and Files.
Such an arrangement gives easy access to commonly used applications. One thing I liked instantly is the Search bar above these tabs, which allows you to easily search the Internet or the desktop. Also, I might add that Acer has done a good job in making the interface look attractive.
Acer Linpus Lite/Xfce is matured without qt and gtk+ ? Chinese ?
With Windows, 3rd party software all works.
With Linux window manager, you have to have toolkits to use the gui apps. Linpus is more chinese character oriented?
So, Acer also has to make sure the laptop has specialized repository to support their customers. Same as Asus. Without repositories for Linpus, their laptops will die unless XP or Vista is sold to replace Linpus.
Or else go with cloud computing Acer style; use apps online in Acer data center. Service(SAAS) revenue may add more profits on the Acer bottom line. Ajax apps may have much less bugs than Linux reusable files; after all Java sued Microsoft to get a unified Javascript to do bug fixes easier.