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I'm also completely sure that you're correct that only a tiny fraction of new non-server PC sales come with a flavor of Linux that isn't ChromeOS.

A tiny fraction, but still large in absolute numbers, and rapidly growing. For example, check this out.

I guess you've never heard of crouton? I've got an Acer Chromebook 14 (aluminum, 14", 1080p IPS display, great keyboard/trackpad) for $250 that's running Ubuntu (xenial). Battery life is great and performance is fantastic for the light duty I use it for.

Acer announced their stackable Revo Build about a year ago, around the same concept.
Unlike the HP system, the Acer system is user-extendable.
Acer was also first (of HP and Acer) with a inductive charging top...

But it is basically like a NUC... with a not very fast CPU, no discrete GPU, no RAM expansion etc.

http://www.acer.com/ac/en/CA/c...

So Microsoft has added a monitor to the design.

And what I would be interested in has some dismal reviews, it has a long way to go to get any sort of following. http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/co...

Good Points+
Silent operation.
Bad Points
Reviewer left no comment -say what? And it goes downhill from there.

Better yet, skip the Chromebook altogether and get something like the Acer Aspire E11 and then install your favorite flavor of GNU/Linux. I bought one for $199 at MicroCenter, installed a 128 GB Crucial SSD ($79), 4 GB of Crucial DDR3L memory ($39), and an Intel Wireless-AC card ($19), and then installed Ubuntu 14.04. It cost under $350, everything worked right away in Ubuntu, and now I can do whatever I'd like with it.

It's ironic that it doesn't run Linux well, given that [a] Linux can be installed on everything from mechanical watches to dead badgers, and [b] Google insists on the non-release of Windows drivers for their Chromebooks.

Me? I went Ultra book, but only because I could get the Acer Aspire S3 for dirt cheap.

I see some of you are speculating about what should be the value of the refund for a Windows licence:
- http://static.acer.com/up/Resource/Acer/Docs/IT/20110110/Windows_refund_process_flow_rev_Nov_11th_2009.pdf

That is according to ACER Refunds in Italy, dunno if that's the same in the rest of Europe.

As it is a PDF (1 page) I'll give you some pointers:
- Seven Home: 25e
- Seven Starter: 20e
- Seven Home Basic: 35e
- Seven Home Premium: 40e
- Seven Prof 70e
- Seven Ultimate 90e

Acer makes an open game console. It's called the Aspire X1, it's about the size of an original Xbox 360 and can use its gamepads, and it runs all PC software. And unlike the major consoles, it has multiple app stores: Steam, Impulse, Desura, and GOG. There's even an adapter called the Retrode that lets it play classic games made for the Super NES and Sega Genesis.

Let's make PCs the fourth console.

Hell no.

PC gamers dont want the same kind of restrictions and dumbed down games that appear on consoles. Several manufacturers tried to consolise PC's before, they've all failed because of this reason.

Acer makes an open game console. It's called the Aspire X1, it's about the size of an original Xbox 360 and can use its gamepads, and it runs all PC software. And unlike the major consoles, it has multiple app stores: Steam, Impulse, Desura, and GOG. There's even an adapter called the Retrode that lets it play classic games made for the Super NES and Sega Genesis.

Let's make PCs the fourth console.

I think the "swing" has more to do with the fact that we're near the end of the current generation of consoles

Among the three major console makers, only Nintendo has announced the end of the current generation with the Wii U. For fans of the genres popular on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, it might be wise to check out the fourth console: Acer Aspire X1.

In my opinion, some of the swing toward PCs comes from the fact that the primary advantage consoles have over PCs, namely the fact that their typically* larger monitors lend themselves to cheap local multiplayer,** has become less important over time as publishers have realized they can sell more copies to each household by eliminating shared-screen multiplayer in favor of Internet multiplayer.

* Owning a home theater PC is still atypical in 2011.

** Screen-peeking is not a disadvantage in cooperative multiplayer or in complete-information genres such as fighting games or Bomberman/Custom Robo style games.

Plenty of eyecandy to spare.

And they do it all wrong. If Ubuntu is going to use Compiz by default they should setup the cube. Set fire to close windows. Genie for min/max (airplaine, beam, something cool). I understand why some people don't like eye candy though. Unfortunately Unity provides none of the really cool eye candy or configuration (by default) and every conceivable problem.

For what it's worth my 8.04 machine with 1.5G RAM +compiz +compiz-addons is far more responsive under load than Unity is on an Aspire 5250-BZ873, both running similar compiz effects.

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/LX.RFN02.122 Not quite $600, but close. Even if it's not half price for non-Apple laptops, it's no secret that MBPs are way overpriced. A quarter of the price is the shiny Apple logo.

21" monitors seem to be fairly standard for desktops these days, yes.

Thank you. That takes care of two players, but not necessarily four.

Most decent-sized HDTVs have a VGA input.

I've talked to a few Redbox customers in August 2011, and many of them appear to still use a CRT SDTV as the primary living room TV. Most people don't know that VGA to SDTV cables exist.

Hooking up a PC to a big telly is a piece of cake.

But the public doesn't know this. I've done a lot of asking around on Slashdot about a PC using a TV as a monitor. It appears a lot of people disagree with you that it's a piece of cake (see 1 2 3 4 5). And one still has to buy or build a gaming PC for the TV room whose case has a decent spouse acceptance factor, such as the roughly Xbox 360-sized Acer Aspire X1 (AMD CPU, NVIDIA integrated graphics). A typical tower PC case like the one seen in the article lacks this factor.

Both of my netbooks seem to be alive and kicking. Oh, I get it, "dead" as in, I cannot buy any netbooks!

Yeah, it's "dead".

I use an Acer AspireRevo 3610 nettop running XBMC as my media PC. Has direct HDMI output, it's totally silent, and some of the newer nightly builds of XBMC support GPU video decoding. XBMC has plugins for watching youtube, Hulu, etc through it easily as well.

Not really sure what else to say, highly recommended, it makes a great media PC. You should be able to find the 2GB RAM model for somewhere in the $300 range.

The post couldn't even get the model number correct. The link to the actual product on Acer's page mentions that the PG model has a multi-touch screen and the DG model is the polarized version which allows for 3D.

Wow, you're clearly misinformed. Most netbooks come with Windows XP OEM preinstalled or Linux. There's no downgrade trick. Here...

Dell
Asus
Acer
Samsung
Toshiba
Sony

If you want something in that class with a decent keyboard, check out the Acer Aspire One.
Bought one for 329 euros a few days ago, and its keyboard is really good (I can type blind with it .. that's how good it is).
Only stupid design decision is to put the page up/page down keys directly above the cursor keys.

Apart from the Linpus distro which is a bit touchy when it gets to updating some libs, I don't regret the buy

They can start with removing that This site is best viewed with Microsoft I.E. 6.0 from their web site and start eating their on dogfood by run linux on their web servers.

so much for betting big on linux...

They can start with removing that This site is best viewed with Microsoft I.E. 6.0 from their web site and start eating their on dogfood by run linux on their web servers.

so much for betting big on linux...

Haven't seen a Vuitton PC yet, but you can get a Ferrari laptop.

My office mate has one of these bad boys. He loves it except that the built-in sound card is only partially supported under Ubuntu :/ There is probably a solution though, as he claims to have not really researched the problem much.

To be fair, that's probably the fault of the OEM you bought from loading tons of crap and free offers on top of the system. A clean install of Vista Ultimate on an Aspire 5100 (1GB RAM) works just fine for me performance wise and I like it. I'm seriously doubting your claim of a 6 minute boot time too. Something is definitely wrong if you weren't exaggerating, and it's not with Vista.

I know you're trying to be funny, but here's my funny anecdote. I got a Vista laptop over the weekend. It was dog ass slow, so I installed Mandriva (I was planning to install it before I bought it). I took me a few hours to get the network card drivers working, but after that, I had a full 3D desktop with wireless capability. So, while it took some of my time to get my machine working under Linux, but I figure I've already saved that much time in how much quicker my machine operates then when Vista is running. And I don't even get a 3D Desktop in windows, because it thinks my computer isn't good enough, and only ships with home basic.

Again, Acer haven't said they're switching away from Vista (because they aren't). I don't know what the CEO's game is, and neither do you.

The first pulldown box under system software, "Linux Software" is listed before "Windows Software" :)

http://global.acer.com/support/download.htm

Link(s) please? I don't see anything about Linux on Acer's website (which appears pretty broken at the moment).

That's the real catch. After years in a coma, UPnP is getting more popular in NAS that can advertise and stream multimedia content to Digital Multimedia Adapters directly connected to Home Theater gear, whithout the need of a controlling PC/media server.

I recently tested Maxtor's Shared Storage Plus with a 37" Acer LCD TVwith integrated media gateway. Just plug the two devices to the same network (or hook them to the same wireless router) and you get on the TV a list of photos, videos and music you have on the hard drive. You can choose the desired content using the remote control - in a Media Center/MythTV-like interface - and enjoy the show.

This kind of technology is likely to receive a big boost after the release of the next version of the Intel's Viiv platform, which will include some media server capabilities, based on Digital Living Network Alliance and Networked Media Product Requirements. Such features should be available without the need of booting Windows XP. That's what will really make Viiv stand out from normal multimedia PCs.

I'm an Apple fanboy, and love Bonjour, but I think that it needs a big push toward non-PC and consumer electronics devices to compete with UPnP and Viiv. Or maybe Apple should try to join the DLNA and steer it toward Bonjour (unlikely).

"The new MacBooks [...] offer as much or more bang for the buck as anything in the Windows world"

These are probably made in the same factory as Macbooks:

http://us.acer.com/acerpanam/page4.do?dau22.oid=14 568&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=25&Countr yISOCtxParam=US&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=1074370 188

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1907007,00.as p
http://www.pcmag.com/compare_products/0,1943,,00.a sp?a=168245,168244,168264,163762,167102&pt=2&sid=1 565

Intel Duo
2Ghz processor
120GB HD
256M graphics memory (Radeon)
DVD+/-R - DL
battery life 3:47

List price: $2500
Street price: $2400

Hopefully, the Macbook has a 4 hour battery life.

Its just so hard to justify $600+ MacTax for 1lb of less weight and a few minor extras.... Case in point CompUSA is selling an Acer duo... for 1299.

Some of the hardware differences:

• Faster processor (1.83GHz versus 1.66GHz)
• Better video card (ATI X1600 versus ATI X1400)
• Faster memory (667MHz vs 533MHz)
• Smaller form factor (1" x 14.1" x 9.6" versus 1.4" x 14.3" x 10.8")
• Lighter (5.6 lbs versus 6.6 lbs)

To be fair, bumping up the 1.8GHz Mac to 2GB Ram & the 120GB drive puts the cost at $2699. At that point you may as well add another $200 and get the 2.0GHz chip too. But is having a laptop with the above hardware improvements that runs OS X worth twice as much cash? That's a personal decision, but I bet lots of folks will vote with their wallets on this one.

In my mind notebooks are the only sector of the personal computer market where you really do get what you pay for. Regardless of the brand, use a $3000 notebook for a month then try to go back to a $1500 one. You won't be pleased.

--Mid

Compare for yourself:
MacBook Pro Specs
Acer Aspire 5670 Specs

If you want a great gaming laptop with reasonable battery life, and still be able to lug it around, go with a Ferrari

I am typing this on the laptop with carbon fiber top as well...
http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/fr4000.ht m

On one hand the major comp hardware vendors ship only Windows preinstalled with their retail computers (with some small "guaranteed to be failures" exceptions, such as linspire), and do not ship OSless computers for significant savings. On the other hand Microsoft ensures that their software is so bloated that people will require a new computer every couple of years.

As a result, the Apple brand means something.

Yes, the Acer Ferrari being at least one.

Nope. Acer is the Ferrari of the computer world. It even goes VROOOOMM when it boots up. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

Having seen so many hardware problems, I will never consider using a Dell, Sony, and even Toshiba. I just got the T42, but I'm guessing I won't be using Thinkpads in the future because of this. I have used the Acer Travelmates http://www.acer.com/, and they're actually quite nice. They need to have more models with XVGA or SVGA screens though.

Operating System:

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

Processor:

Low-power mobile AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor 2800+

Memory:

512MB (256/256)

Hard drive:

80GB

Optical drive:

(Slot loading)Super Multi Write Plus (DVD -RW, +RW, -RAM)

Display:

15.0" TFT SXGA+ (1400 x 1050)

Graphics:

ATI® MOBILITY(TM) RADEON(TM) 9700, 128MB DDR

Connectivity:

802.11b/g WLAN, Bluetooth(TM), Gigabit LAN, V.92 modem, 4-in-1 card reader, infrared, 4 USB 2.0 ports and Firewire.

Did I mention that it's RED?

The benchmark runs the following applications: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator (Mozilla 5), McAfee VirusScan 5.13, WinZip 8.0, Macromedia Flash 5.0, and Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 ... MobileMark also includes a conditioning run that prepares a notebook's battery for testing by draining the battery completely, then requiring that the battery be fully charged before an official test run can commence.

HP Compaq Business Notebook nx5000 (review): 6 hours, 4 minutes (15" 1024x768, 6.2lbs)

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 (review): 5 hours, 47 minutes (12.1" 1024x768, 2.9lbs)

HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 (review): 5 hours, 32 minutes (14.1" 1024x768, 5.9lbs)

Acer TravelMate 8000 (review): 5 hours, 25 minutes (15" 1400x1050, 6.8lbs)

Yeah, this one. Pity it uses an ATI video chip (which lacks the OUTSTANDING 64-bit Linux drivers nVidia has), but at least they used the best one (128MB Radeon 9700). And pity about the Broadcom wireless and wired network chips, but at least it's 802.11g and gigabit, respectively. Other than those two complaints, if you want to make TiBook owners drool, this is the notebook to get. (No, I don't have one. Having played 64-bit UT2004 on my desktop I'm holding out for a proper AMD64 nVidia notebook.)

Sony's stuff is never particularly cheap, but what direct competitors do they have for this thing? What's the low-price whitebox alternative?

Something like this?

Or this?

Or this,
this,
this,
this,
this
or
this?

(Add (bluetooth) keyboard where appropriate.. Or something like this.)

If you're going into the $1500 price class, you'll need to take on things like Acer's c110 10.4" tablet PC. It's in the same priceclass, has equal or better specs (what's the battery life on the OQO anyway?), and is still smaller than an 8.5x11 sheet of paper and around an inch thick. I'm betting the pen support is better and the ULV centrino will really give the transmeta chip in the OQO a run for the money. Plus I'm betting the RAM and HD are more expandable.

There just doesn't seem to be a realistic compromise between size and function right now, and one of the main reasons why is we're still too keyboard-centric with interfaces. It's just really hard to do even a modest text document on anything the size of a PDA or this thing. Voice recognition keeps being touted as the holy grail and end of all these problems but where is it? I remember VR demos from the 486 days, you can't tell me a 200-400mhz PDA can't manage that much horsepower.

What I'd really like to see is disjointed systems. With bluetooth finally hitting mainstream I want to see a PDA that can autodetect when I've got some portable storage device or HD based mp3 player in my backpack and mount the volume automaticly. If they had that, you wouldn't need much more space on the PDA than just the OS, everything else you could keep on multipurpose portable drives.

Acer is going to be pissed!

S

You'd think, but cars and computers may have more in common than you think. At least one automaker thought their brand name would look swell on a computer product.

Acer makes it!

The heaviest model is under 7 pounds ... all it took was a google search for "aspire 1710".

Average Dimensions and Weights
14.9" (378.0mm) W x 12.6" (320.0mm) D x 1.9" front - 2.2" rear (47.0mm - 55.0mm) H / 14.1 lb. (6.4kg) with combo drive, 15.7 lb. (7.1kg) with combo drive and battery

I guess the Ferrari 3000 notebook was a big enough screw up. Best of luck Acer.

Doesn't look terrible. I wouldn't mind having an inexpensive luggable desktop myself. Dragging my machine into my living room when I'm watching TV would help me pretend to get that much more work done.