hay guys, im not a linux user, but having had my n900 since january, id like to have a go with a linux based os,

i have a little net book, a acer aspier one, running xp, what im thinkng about doing, is putting ubuntu on to the net book,

would ubuntu be the best os to go for, if not then what do you sujest, how difficult is it to create a bootable usb install, i have a usb hdd i can use

thanks for any help

snake

I hate to disappoint you, but if you have an N900, you ARE a linux user.

(also if you have a Tivo, many music players, several phones, etc. etc.)

If you want to put Linux on your netbook, Ubuntu has an excellent netbook version. They will even detect your current XP, repartition the disk and allow you to dual boot into Ubuntu or XP. I put it on my Asus EEE and it works very, very well.

http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook

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hehe yea fair pont, never thought of that, i downloaded that netbook ubuntu this morning just not got around to putting it on yet

I have an Acer netbook as well (ZG5) that came with XP. I made the jump to full Linux some months back and have never looked back.

I've toyed around with some of the more popular distros, Linux Mint 9 was first, then its KDE version, Peppermint, openSUSE 11.3 (in the hopes of running MeeGo under the Plasma Desktop), Jolicloud 1.0... Tried even MeeGo as a full install for a few days.

Now, I've finally settled with "just" the Ubuntu 10.04 netbook edition.

I've noticed that with most Linux distros it really is mostly a matter of one's preference regarding desktop environment, particular programs etc. No one distro is that much superior to the other, just some differing approaches to achieve the common goal: easy and fluent end-user experience. And regardless which one you choose, you most likely will come out happier than a Windows user. Snappy feel, ultra-customizable desktop environments, tens of thousands of packages to choose from and cross-compatibility with most other OS's make Linux a tough platform to beat.

With Ubuntu you can't really go wrong. It's probably not the hippest when it comes to looks, KDE fans will scoff at the UI and Arch Linux fans will shake their heads since it's "so boring and easy". But for the Linux n00b it's perfect! No wireless card issues, N900 ad-hoc tethering works flawlessly, Chromium/Firefox run as usual (might have to download/install jre/icedtea package to run some java sites) and the list goes on. If you run into problems, ubuntuforums.org is the place to go. Every question, problem, idea has already been asked/presented, so all you have to do is a quick search.

To create a live USB try http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/

(in Linux you can use "unetbootin", does the same thing)

Once you've created the live USB, you have to change the boot order in your Acer BIOS, so prior to Windows initializing, press F12 (or F2) to change the boot order to USB.

I don't have much experience with Linux dual booting with Windows, as I went full Linux right away. Linux dual booting with another Linux otoh is usually a cake walk (with the exception of MeeGo ).

To keep track of the latest and greatest of Linux distros, check out http://distrowatch.com/

But consider yourself warned, once you start trying out different distros, you will very quickly find yourself dual/triple/quadruple-booting different distros all the while creating a live USB/DVD yet for another version... Let the fun begin!

I always recommend Ubuntu.. it's a great OS and no complaints.

Course.. I'm running MeeGo currently on my Acer Aspire One netbook .

I would argue that without lifting the covers, one is simply a user of an appliance - operating system simply does not matter. Like you said, many of us use Linux every day without even knowing. This is good design.

To answer the question: Frostbyte has pretty much summed it all up but it'd be a good idea to pick your Linux distribution based on the wiki: Acer Aspire One - OS Compatibility

hay guys, having a few problems with this, trying to make the bootable usb drive, however it wont select my usb hdd, does it have to be a flash/pen drive?? cheers snake

some distros are picky about usb stick vs. cd/dvd (openSUSE 11.3 comes to mind); most of them should work off both. might be obvious to you, but make sure you are burning/writing an image of the .iso file, not just copying it to the cd or usb.

some older PC/Laptops have BIOS's that don't have USB boot option, so in that case, do it via CD/DVD. http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

your aspire one should boot from live usb without problems (F12 to change boot order). it might help if you remove the usb flash and reinsert it before rebooting.

Ubuntu is getting easier to use with every release, atleast the installing of applications has become more simple, either with the software center or a service like getdeb...But for some things you still need to open up the good'ol terminal

The choice between the major Linux distros boils down to this:

Ubuntu: if you want to enjoy the OS and lots of applications without much headache

SuSE: if you're happy with what comes included in the box

Fedora: if you're ready to tinker with the OS

Debian: if you're ready to tinker even more with the OS (or if you want to build a stable server)

MeeGo: if you have a netbook (but there's currently not much software)

Gentoo: if you're ready to trade in lots of time for compiling applications just to get a totally optimized and up-to-date system

Centos: if you want to smell business air without wanting to pay a business price for Redhat Enterprise Linux

LFS: if you are bored, have too much time, and want to build your own Linux completely from scratch

Anyway, I'd recommend Ubuntu any day.