Software Spot

I took the plunge and replaced the Linpus Linux OS that came with the Aser Aspire One with the lastest Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) release, and so far I'm very impressed. I have to say the that UNR 9.04 is an excellent replacement OS. The Ubuntu documentation provides a good starting point for installation details. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne Before I started with the installation I backed up the Linus Linux OS using partimage running from a bootable USB drive with SystemRescueCD, saving the disk partition image to a second USB drive. Once the Linpus OS was backed up I created a Ubuntu UNR bootable USB and ran the installation. Out of the box Ubuntu 9.04 runs great on the AA1. The Ubuntu documenation lists some tweeks to get the wifi LED working. Even after applying the patch I found that the LED blinks on and off randomly, rather than staying on to indicate the wifi is on. As I have the AA1 with the 8GB SSD I used the following tweeks to optimize Ubuntu for SSD perf...

Started taking a look at the Windows 7 public beta this week. The target machine for the install is my older PC, a Sony VAIO VGC -RA820G, that I have connected up as an HTPC . As this is a older machine I had held out form upgrading this machine the Vista I didn't want to upgrade or wipe out the existing XP installation on the this machine, so as a first step I created a blank 30 Gb partition for the Windows 7 installation using SystemRescueCD .  Installation of Windows 7 was very smooth, once everything was up and running it also downloaded the latest updates. The Aero interface was working right of of the box, even without installing latest drivers which was nice, and looks great. I decided to install the latest video drivers anyway. A quick search on the ATI website located the  ATI Windows 7 Beta drivers.  Installed without a hitch, so far so good. Like previous versions of Windows it nags you to install some Anti Virus software and suggests a few options including Nort...