Replace Linux on an Acer Aspire One netbook?

[game_over]

Is it possible to replace Linux on an Acer Aspire One netbook, somebody at work has asked me to have a look, i've spent a short while looking around and can't see any obvious way to do it it's not something i want to spend forever doing.

 

The OS thats on it now is limited and rubbish, she mentioned something about Linux Mint.

 

It's only a bog standard netbook with 1GB ram, we have some other netbooks with similar spec running Windows 7 Starter edition and they run like ######.

 

Is there an easy way to do it? what would be the best OS that offers a Windows like experience?

 

It doesn't have a CD drive so will need to be done via USB.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Have a look at Lubuntu - it's lightweight and can be configured to be Windows-like.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

If you upgrade the ram to 2gb, any version of Windows 7 will work ok. I had a similar netbook back in the day that ran Windows 7 / Office 2007 perfectly once I upgraded the ram.
 
As for installing Windows, you will need to make an ISO of the Windows install CD, then simply use the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to make a bootable USB drive to install Windows from.
 
You should be able to press F11 or F12 i think on the POST screen to select a USB drive to boot from.
 
If you do install Windows 7, set it to hibernate by default when shutting down and the laptop will start up significantly quicker. I also wouldn't install any rubbish like a resource hungry antivirus program, Microsoft Security Essentials will do fine.

 

That?s basically how I had my netbook setup and it was perfect for general internet browsing, email and using Microsoft Office.

[HawkMan]

Not all net books can be upgraded to 2GB

[game_over]

Not really interested in upgrading it or anything like that I just want it to be a quick job, having a look at Lubuntu now

[riahc3]

Netbooks are great with a SSD and maxing out their RAM.

I installed Windows 7 Home Premium on a Aspire One and it ran great. Not sure if it had 1GB or 2GB but I was impressed.

[Dadwen]

Think the Aspire one Netbook can only take 1.5 gigs of ram (think the default config was 512 onboard and 512 chip and it won't see a 2 gig chip) been awhile since I messed with one but think that was the limit. *the one I had you had to just about take the thing entirely apart to switch the ram chip it in too (might be different revision or models not sure).

[REM2000]

  On 22/04/2014 at 11:52, riahc3 said:

Netbooks are great with a SSD and maxing out their RAM.

I installed Windows 7 Home Premium on a Aspire One and it ran great. Not sure if it had 1GB or 2GB but I was impressed.

 

I was the same, i know it doesn't help the topic but i have a MSI U135 Wind Atom dual core processor, upgraded the RAM to 2GB and gave it a 60GB SSD and the thing really flies, i stuck Windows 8.1 on it and due to the lower resource usage it really flies, plus the start screen helps with the crummy trackpad it has to start apps. 

[DConnell Member]

  On 22/04/2014 at 08:29, InsaneNutter said:

If you upgrade the ram to 2gb, any version of Windows 7 will work ok. I had a similar netbook back in the day that ran Windows 7 / Office 2007 perfectly once I upgraded the ram.

 

My old Acer Aspire One ran Windows 7 just fine with 1 1/2 gb. I added a 2 gb SD card for Readyboost which may have helped a little as well. 7 will run adequately in 1 1/2 gb. just don't expect a speed demon.

 

It was upgrading the memory that was the challenge - that particular netbook wasn't designed to be upgraded. I opened the "memory door" and found a blank chamber - no access to the memory slot. I had to completely disassemble the computer to get to the memory slot to do the upgrade. Fun. :rolleyes:

[neowin1338]

I am not sure which Acer netbook my girlfriend has but I installed xubuntu on it and it runs quite "alright"

[Matthew S.]

  On 22/04/2014 at 08:18, Uplift said:

Is it possible to replace Linux on an Acer Aspire One netbook, somebody at work has asked me to have a look, i've spent a short while looking around and can't see any obvious way to do it it's not something i want to spend forever doing.

 

The OS thats on it now is limited and rubbish, she mentioned something about Linux Mint.

 

It's only a bog standard netbook with 1GB ram, we have some other netbooks with similar spec running Windows 7 Starter edition and they run like ####.

 

Is there an easy way to do it? what would be the best OS that offers a Windows like experience?

 

It doesn't have a CD drive so will need to be done via USB.

I have the Aspire One model that came stock with xp(ugh) and I installed 7 Home Premium on it with no issues (was actually a hell of alot faster than XP) just need to creat a bootable USB thumb stick if you don't have a USB dvd drive.

[Buzz99]

Had a Acer One D255E and it ran well with 2G ram and W7 Home Premium.

[Raa]

  On 22/04/2014 at 10:48, HawkMan said:

Not all net books can be upgraded to 2GB

This series can, and they run reasonably well, even with MSE - I've had about 3 of them with this setup.

 

Edit: There aren't 'hundreds' of models, and almost every one of them can be upgraded with the right memory chip/s. Found that out the hard way!

Edited April 24, 2014 by Raa

[HawkMan]

  On 24/04/2014 at 11:26, Raa said:

This series can, and they run reasonably well, even with MSE - I've had about 3 of them with this setup.

 

How do you know? he only said it was an Acer Aspire One, which is pretty meaningless since there's hundreds of aspire One models. and many of them can't be upgraded past 1 or 1.5 GB. 

[game_over]

It only has 512mb ram so i didn't want to chance it, we have some 1GB netbooks with W7Starter and it's pretty bad.

 

I went with Lubuntu and it's running great.

[Ph1b3r0pt1c]

I have the Aspire one AO756-2840, that is upgradable to 8gb of memory. I took windows 8 off of it and threw linux on it, and I have not had a single problem with anything. With gnobuntu, everything worked out of the box.

[Auditor]

Acer make crap computer. I see so many low priced laptop on sales but the built quality and overall the audio really sucks. ASUS has much better quality in my opinion. Anyway on the topic, have you tried Elementary OS on it. it is very light weight and most of the time works out of box. 

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

My sister has one of these. I slapped in 2 gigs of ram, and the thing still works to this day. Works a lot better than it did with default memory. (512 MB) I slapped 7, along with office 2010 and MSE on it, and she absolutely loves it. It's not the fastest system in the world, but its not that bad either. I bet Linux would fly on it, but she's a Windows only person. Point is, though, it works and works well for what she uses it for. (y)

[LUTZIFER]

I had an Acer Aspire One many years ago, around when they first came out, which had Windows XP on them, and ran great.

I'm pretty sure mine only had 1 gig of ram, and I installed a early release of Windows 7, and it ran absolutely awesome, even with full aero enabled.

It ran way better with Windows 7 than it did with Windows XP. I actually did a dual boot so I could try it first, then removed the original Windows XP partition.

[gohpep]

I was going to recommend Debian with LXDE, since I don't like Ubuntu, but it's fine that you went with Lubuntu