Acer’s soon-to-be-release 10-inch Aspire One netbook will be available with a choice of Linux or Windows XP pre-installed. This is despite earlier announcements that the company planned to only well Windows XP-based 10-inch Aspire One machines. It also flies in the face of critics who have suggested that Linux has been a failure on netbooks, despite its initial success on the Asus EEE PC. <\/p>\n
Acer’s original 8.9-inch Aspire One netbook shipped with a choice of Windows XP or the company’s own brand of Linux, called Linpus. Arguably one of the worst-named operating systems in the world, the Linpus Linux distribution was nevertheless among the best OSes shipped with netbooks. <\/p>\n
The 10-inch Aspire One will be available with a choice of Windows XP or Linpus operating system as well as with a hard disk drive or solid state drive (SSD). <\/p>\n
Because of rapid increases in SSD storage capacities, the SSD version of the Aspire 10-inch will be available with a 16GB SSD drive. And unlike the original Aspire One, the 10-inch version will not have two memory card slots but just the one.<\/p>\n
The hard drive disk-based Aspire One 10-inch will ship with a 160GB hard drive as well as 1GB memory, making it significantly more powerful than the 16GB SSD version. <\/p>\n
The 8.9-inch Aspire One has proved very popular with consumers who have been quick to embrace the ultra-portable form factor. <\/p>\n
The 10-inch Aspire One is expected to be released in mid-February internationally. Local pricing and release dates for the Aspire One 10-inch are not yet known. <\/p>\n