Review: Acer Aspire Revo R3600 (Linux Edition)

The Acer Aspire Revo R3600 is a very small, practically silent unit. The Linpus version comes with 1GB RAM, NVidia ION Graphics, Intel Atom 230 processor, 160GB HDD, 6 USB ports, HDMI port, eSATA port, VGA, ethernet port, built in card reader, microphone and earphone sockets and wired USB keyboard and mouse. The unit can be mounted on the rear of a monitor or TV (bracket supplied) or attached to a stand (also supplied) for desktop or floor use.

The Linpus system is on a 4GB partition, with an additional 2GB for tools, diagnostics etc. The system can be connected to a conventional monitor via VGA or to a HD compatible TV via HDMI.

The Linpus OS is underwhelming, allowing you a choice between email, web browsing, viewing images, listening to music or Skype. I was very quickly aching for more.

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 from a USB stick - the installation took around 20 minutes, but then booted into a fully functional system with the standard Ubuntu toolkit of OpenOffice, Gimp, Firefox 3.5 etc. After
enabling the NVidia ION driver (ver. 185) I was able to enable desktop effects with Compiz. All the hardware was detected and fully functional "out of the box", including the wireless adapter which I struggled to get working under Linpus. I then installed the ubuntu-restricted-extras package which enabled MP3 playback and MPEG video  along with Flash and other restricted codecs.

The result was a fully functional system, quick and responsive and for the price - wow! This would make a great inexpensive family PC. It is so quiet that when attached to a TV it makes for an ideal Media Centre, and will play 720p HD video with stereo sound over HDMI very well. Plus you can connect wirelessly to your music collection and play or stream audio. I added XBMC's ppa and installed it giving me a fabulous interface to play video and music via my JVC flat panel TV and attached speakers.

I can see this unit (with a user-friendly Linux pre-installed, not Linpus) being a very marketable option for cash strapped families who need a fully functional home computer. The fact that it comes with OpenOffice and everything you need to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, edit photographs, play music, surf the web etc. without having to purchase additional software makes this a no-brainer. It would also be a very good way of enabling cheap community access to a wired or wireless infrastructure. It is easily upgradeable in terms of memory (max 4GB) and HDD requiring the release of one screw and voiding the warranty!

The Acer Aspire Revo is also now available with an Atom 330 processor (dual core) here for £169.99 (model R3610) and I'm seriously thinking of buying one for my mother. The unit blew me away - and the NVidia ION graphics allow for both the smoothness of HD video and the enabling of great eyecandy effects. This unit makes (with Ubuntu pre-loaded) a great first, second, or media centre computer. With the addition of a USB tuner you would have full PVR functionality and with 4 USB ports free you can attach printers, hard drives, DVD etc. The addition of a eSATA port allows for further expansion options.

In short - I like this unit. It is heartily recommended.Technorati Tags: acer, acer aspire revo, review, karmic, desktop replacement, affordable computing

Desktop Computing Made Easy...

One of the best how-to tutorials for getting the most out of your new Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) system that I have ever seen is posted here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1310795

Many thanks to TrakerJon for a fabulous post that will really help a lot of people. Enjoy!

Has the Koala got Karma? Experiences with Ubuntu 9.10

My experience so far with the latest (64 bit) version of Ubuntu, Karmic Koala (or 9.10 for those of you with a purely numerical bent) has been largely positive, but there are a few niggling annoyances. Having done a clean install on an AMD quad core machine with 4 GB RAM and NVidia graphics, I was gratified that the whole process took less than 30 minutes and booted with little fuss. The NVidia driver was easy to install and soon I had my desktop back with Compiz enabled and nice eye candy.

Then the crash reports started. I was told that my system had suffered from a major kernel problem and would probably need to be restarted to avoid instability. However, every time I did restart, the same crash report cropped up. Some Googling put my mind at rest - this is a known bug, and the system continues without crashing. However those new to Ubuntu or Linux may be very disturbed by these messages and Ubuntu should have done more to allay fears. I note that recent updates seem to have improved this problem, and maybe even fixed it.

I like the new Ubuntu Software Centre, though my experience of using it to install the Drivel Journal Editor was less than positive and I could not get it working at all (see post below). Gwibber 2 is an excellent Twitter client - though I am using TweetDeck on my MacBook and would like to use it under Ubuntu. Adobe Air does not work on my machine - though to be fair this would seem to be an Adobe problem rather than specifically Ubuntu. Evolution still has a nasty bug that vanishes all deleted items when expunging trash, while leaving the trash.

On the whole I like Karmic. It is fast, responsive, stable and clean. I have no hesitation in recommending it to people for business and home use. Technorati Tags: Karmic, Ubuntu 9.10, crash reports, bugs, 64 bit

Drivel Sucks, BloGTK waits, but Scribefire Rocks

Trying to get a decent blog editor working in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) has been hard work. The one that looks most promising on paper is Drivel - fully featured and supporting Blogger 1, 2 and Atom. It is also available in Karmic's repositories and can be installed from the new look Ubuntu Software Centre. Wow! Let's give it a go!

It fails to connect to Blogger2/Atom and segfaults with Blogger 1. Simply does not work. Nada. Nuffink. The version of BloGTK available in the repos does not support the titling of posts using Blogger. Version 2 will, I am reliably informed. I'm also informed that it crashes a good deal.

That leaves Scribefire - a clever and easy to use plugin for Firefox that allows you to post to your blogs directly from your browser. It is very nice and to prove it - this post!

Evolution Bug

Evolution is a great email client and PIM for the Linux platform - and may one day be a viable alternative to Outlook in Microsoft Office. But not now.

There is a bug in Evolution which causes all deleted items to disappear when expunging junk - and even worse, the junk in the junk folder stays there.

I have had my bacon saved many times by searching for mail in my deleted items folder, and the last thing in the world I wanted was for all my deleted mail to vanish. Checking on the web it seems that this bug has been known about for over 2 years. Nothing has been done about it and that is why Evolution can't compete with Outlook for business use.

Get it sorted, and push Linux forward.