The James Kilgour BlogA Life Blog.

I’ve just received my new Acer Aspire One; the most popular Netbook available. Netbooks are a new category of personal computers, that only evolved with the launch of the Asus Eee PC a few months ago.

My Acer Aspire One only took a few moments to set up, and I’m pretty happy with it. I can browse the internet, write Office documents, play games, chat on messenger and even install more open source software (after a small tweak is applied to enable the advanced mode).

The OS is Linux Linpus Lite, which is very easy to use; perfect for even the computer illiterate. The system is very quick and responsive, and the built in Webcam is a nice addition. The keyboard is almost full size, and really easy to use; (this was a worry of mine). However, for the advanced user, ‘tweaks’ need to be applied. This is something Acer has done to the extreme, locking the OS down.

The Netbook is an interesting development; Intel has said that is pretty much a ‘fad’, but I disagree. What could be better for checking your emails or a little bit of internet shopping while in a cafe or on the train (where WiFi is available).  The experience on the Aspire One is 100 times better than on a 3g phone; this is the real internet-YouTube and the BBC iPlayer, things which don’t work that well on a mobile, or even on the iPhone.

JK