A friend of mine bought this netbook and asked me to add Linux to it. I installed Kubuntu "Lucid Lynx" 10.4.2 in dual boot mode. Lucid slid on like a silk glove. Everything worked "out of the box". Installed Skype and it worked well, too. The internal mic and webcam gave excellent results. It streamed a Tom Hanks movie from YouTube seamlessly in full screen mode.
I purchased the similar Acer Aspire AO521-3782 from Amazon as an Xmas gift for my wife. It, too, is running well and she loves it. She especially loves the portability of it, and its long battery life. She'll take it off the shelf, do her browsing and email, and the occasion photo session with DigiKam, plus watching videos. She can do that 3 or 4 times before the battery gets low and she has to plug it in. With the HDMI cable (Belkin F3U133-10 Hi-Speed HDNMI) I purchased from Amazon she can plug her Acer into our VISO HDTV and stream the movie to the "big screen"! I also bought her the car charger so she can take it with her and be able to recharge it while using it in the car. The last piece of equipment I bought for her Acer was the Samsung USB 2.0 8x DVD Writer External Optical Drive for Mac and PC SE-S084D/TSBS burner. It requires two USB ports to power it but it works VERY WELL with both Win7 and Linux.
This Acer, and my wife's, came with only 1GB of RAM, so one additional purchase really makes the Acer One's fast: replacing the 1GB stick with a 2GB stick: 2GB PC3-10600 (1333Mhz) 204 pin DDR3 SODIMM (CNF)
for $28 plus shipping. The speed increase when browsing, or running more than one app at a time (browser + email), I estimate to be nearly double. OF course, FireFox is always faster when you set up one pipeline for each tab you plan to open. I set up 8 pipelines. (URL is about:config - then search for "pipeline")
There is a known problem with the male power plug pin breaking off, so take ordinary care when inserting the power cord that you plug it straight into the power socket. Do not push it in at an angle and let the "hole guide it in". You'll catch the top of the pin with the plug and bend it. Acer Aspire One AOD255E-13639 10.1-Inch Netbook (Diamond Black)
its a great little netbook, I use it for doing homework and programming, other than that its not great for much else, the screen is too small to watch anything the speaker quality is okay but not anything special.
If youre looking for a small portable netbook to do some light work (word processing, web viewing, programming, etc) then this is perfect. Just don't expect to do any heavy computing
I recently got this little laptop as a gift after my main computer crashed and died. In short, I completely love the little thing! I rarely ever used CDs, so a netbook seemed to be the right choice for me.
The Windows 7 Starter program has a few niches that I don't enjoy, but are thigns I can completely live with (and could obviously change programs if I so desperately needed). The memory for this little baby is impressive. Its so small, I can fit it in one of my bigger purses and just go. The battery life is amazing as well, I can get it to be on for about four hours at a time sometimes.
The webcam and mic quality are perfect for talking to friends and family far away. Very happy with this product.
The only extreme downer is it's a little laggy with videos from Netflix. Youtube seems to work fine, but netflix and this laptop seem to not mix well.
This is taken directly from their support site "While the Aspire One AOD255 series supports a total of 2GB of DDR3 RAM, due to the design of the netbook the RAM on the Aspire One AOD255 series is not replaceable and Acer does not support upgrading or replacing the RAM."
This should be noted in the description, not that it stopped me since I was able to determine how easy it really is to replace the RAM. Not that I am going to do so, since it would void my warranty. ;)
For those who wish to void their warranty and install 2GB's of RAM, it should take you about 10mins tops to swap it out. ;)
I really liked this notebook at first. it was very uncomplicated, and I loved that it easily connected to my home wireless network, and I was sailing away fairly quickly.
I really dislike the office 10 starter, but I was planning to install my office 2003 when my external cd drive arrives.
After a couple week's use, I had put it in sleep mode, to return to my project later, but when I tried to "wake it up", nothing happened. After using the power button, I had to use the power button to shut it down manually, and then powered it back up, but nothing came on the monitor. I manually turned it off and on a few times, waiting until it had cooled enough, but though I could hear the motor going when I turned it on, the display was blank; I also didn't hear any of the usual sounds you might hear when booting up. So, I can't be sure what all went wrong, but I wasn't even able to retrieve any of the data I had put on it, nor could I uninstall anything or otherwise remove account information.
Fortunately I had bought it at costco, so I just returned it.
When you see this netbook at Amazon you also see "what other purchased". Well lots of people order the Crucial memory upgrade CT25664BC1067. However that memory is not for this computer. I know. I purchased it and it does not work. Using Crucial's web site the memory upgrade for this computer is listed below.
CORRECT MEMORY PART NUMBER: CT2035536
Module Size: 2GB
Package: 204-pin SODIMM
Feature: DDR3 PC3-8500
Specs: DDR3 PC3-8500 * CL=7 * Unbuffered * NON-ECC * DDR3-1066 * 1.5V * 256Meg x 64 *
INCORRECT MEMORY PART NUMBER:CT25664BC1067
In short, just not enough POWER! I know, I know, it's only a netbook and NOT meant to be some high level gaming platform. But, I need to do some HD video editing and playing in the field and also have the smallest device possible without getting into alot of money. So, I returned this netbook and purchased one with a N550 cpu and ion graphics for 100 dollars more and it does the trick!
However, if your looking for something to use Word/Spreadsheet, or just email and surf the web, then you can not beat this Netbook for the price (as far as I Know). Very sturdy and the outside looks very well designed. I gave it 4/5 stars to be fair because, again, for the price, it's still a good mobile netbook for basic applications and surfing.'
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