BOP LUG

We started the meeting with a brief look at the Acer Aspire 4315 Linux notebook provided by Dove Electronics. This is a nicely finished 14" notebook with Acers typically good keyboard and touch pad feel and layout. It was great to see more manufacturers starting to make Linux powered systems available for purchase, effectively eliminating the Microsoft tax, but unfortunately, we feel this system was let down by a few factors.

The notebooks specs are as follows...
CPU - 1.86Ghz Celeron,
RAM - 512Mb,
HDD - 80Gb SATA,
ODD - Combo Drive,
VGA - Intel X3100 (8Mb),
LCD - 14.1" 1280x800,
Distro - Ubuntu 7.10,
RRP $599

The Bad...
Low specs. This notebook is clearly on the lighter side of hardware with some of the lowest spec'd components available today.
QUOTE from official documentation provided with the notebook,
E Key - disabled due to limitations of Linux **
Wireless Key - disabled due to limitations of Linux. However, wireless is working and can be disabled/enabled within Linux **
Modem - disabled due to limitations of Linux **
Microphone - disabled due to limitations of Linux **
END QUOTE.
You gotta be kidding right? There are no limitations in Linux such as Acer are trying to say, the hardware manufacturers indifference towards Linux is the ONLY area where there is a limitation and today, there is absolutely no excuse with Suse providing totally free of charge drivers for any hardware vendor that wants Linux drivers written for their hardware.
Combo Drive??, didn't OEMs stop providing these with notebooks way back in 2006? What's wrong with providing a full DVD writer?

Part of the instructions include downloading and installing automatix, which is alright in itself, but 3 times out of 3 attempts, the system broke and failed to start after installing only a few packages with automatix.

The Good
No Microsoft tax
The 14" notebook is light and feels sturdy.
Keyboard and touch pad have a good feel, though the desktop switching feature is all to easy to activate by simply moving your finger across the touch pad and this could be confusing for a newbie.
Acers basic instructions for initial setup are easy enough for a new user to follow, though a typo error "apt-get install -f" that should have been "apt-get -f install" could avoid a number of unnecessary support calls.
LCD Backlight responded well to the Fn keys as did power management with 8.04 loaded. If you think Vista wakes up fast from sleep, then you've never experienced Linux. This machine, though slow by comparison to a 2.4Ghz Vista notebook with 4Gb RAM wakes from sleep in a fraction of the time it takes Vista to do the same.

Extra thoughts
The Acer Aspire 4315 with a street price of ~$700 is a huge improvement over the Asus EEEPC with a street price of ~$100 less. You get more for your money by a country mile and the system is versatile enough to be used by college student or a non-power user as their main machine. Sound worked reasonably well, but the volume was seriously lacking. DVD playback is possible with the addition of unsupported codecs that may have legal implications in some countries, though we tried a classical music DVD without encryption and found the display too jerky to be classified as watchable.

Acer partitioned the hard disk with the first slice being a 4Gb swap and the rest as root. We think it would have been better to use a different layout and our 8.04 install uses 12Gb for /, 2Gb for swap and the remainder for /home. Why do OEM's continue in the fashion of Microsoft and use the worst possible layout for hard disks of one partition does it all? Surely they know that data should never be on the same partition as the system?

We tried to run an external monitor after installing 8.04 but as soon as X started, the system refused to see anything other than its built in LCD panel. Unfortunately, we did not try an external monitor with the Acer supplied image, mainly due to the system breaking 3 times after installing software with automatix. Checking out the xorg.conf file shows a rather sparse set of instructions and settings and with a little tweaking, dual screens should be possible.

Ubuntu 7.10 has been reported to have a hard disk cycling issue that can prematurely kill a notebooks hard disk well before its warranty is due to expire. We do not think this is a good choice for notebooks based on this one particular issue. At the time of testing, Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron had been released, so we removed the earlier Ubuntu 7.10 and installed 8.04. The system ran faster and more reliably and all but the wireless worked after a straight install. To get wireless working, we installed ndiswrapper from the Ubuntu CD and the AR5007EG driver. We could find a proprietary modem driver that may have worked with the internal 56k modem, but due to the driver needing access tot he intel HDA Audio, we did not pursue this option beyond a precursory look and we did not test the Mic with Ubuntu 8.04.

Surprisingly, despite all the points where one might put this system down, it does grow on you. We think the nice clean lines and overall feel have something to do with it, coupled with the peace that can only come when you're running Linux on a system that's never seen the filth of Redmond.

A word to Acer and all other OEM's considering making Redmond free system available. Thank you for finally making a Linux system available for puchase through retail stores. In the future, could you please stop treating Linux on the desktop/notebook as second rate and give us the same level of hardware and interoperability as you would to a windows system. If you're making 2.4Ghz notebooks with 2Gb Ram as standard for windows, with ATI or Nvidia Graphics and 250Gb Hard Disks, give us the option to NOT HAVE a windows sticker and a discount to match the removal of the Microsoft tax, or a working Linux image matched to the hardware. Please have all the drivers available for download from your support site if necessary, or do like Asus do, provide what is necessary on the support CD/DVD that comes with the hardware.

We like to think that Linux is like the Porsche, Maserati, or the Aston Martin, in other words, the classic Exotic sports car, and Windows is the equivalent of the average family saloon car. To use the raw power of Linux, you really have to know how to "Drive it", just like the exotic cars, but unlike the true exotic sports cars, this one is fully tame able. We see Windows as being like a typical family saloon car, everybody can drive them without much thought, provided they don't mind putting up with its clutter and bloody incessant and unnecessarily excessive security warnings and imposed limitations.

Answer this question, would an Exotic owner/driver be happy with an 850CC Fiat Bambina? I think not other than for a fun spin with the "kids toy", but most of them would be happy to operate an average family saloon for day to day operation. What I am saying is, give us a normal system with that has not been tainted by Windows or Microsoft.

In a world without walls and fences, who needs windows and gates?

Mike Pavletich.