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I saw some Linux netbooks in stores (no laptops though) and they were using Linpus which is a Taiwanese Linux distribution. But at least back then it looked rather ugly and didn't have compositing :(

I had similar experience with Linux on Acer. It was not an Ubuntu version, though, but some Limpus Linux. The first time I booted the machine it went straight into command line shell, and id didn't even have X installed.

I wrote to Acer about it and got no reply. They don't seem to care.

Fortunately, I have done my homework and selected a favorably reviewed model, and everything worked once I got Arch on it.

Yes it is difficult but lots of people are doing it:

Acer uses a custom Fedora: http://www.linpus.com/
Dell and others use a custom Ubuntu http://www.canonical.com/netbooks
Mandriva has a mini version (I don't know who is using it) called mini (i can't link since it is on their OEM subsite)

and there are others.

What are you talking about?

Their claim that the ability to rearrange the icons doubles your "fun" and productivity did make me chuckle.

The Linpus distro has been around for more than 10 years. I ran it when I was in Taiwan. You can get the install dvd or live cd here: ftp://ftp.linpus.com/dists/LL96/iso/

Armijn Hemel
Re: Acer Aspire One: GPL situation?

2008/8/4, Armijn Hemel :
On Mon, 2008-08-04 at 11:16 +0100, William Gallafent wrote:

I recently purchased one of these machines (manufactured by Acer,http://www.acer.co.uk/

which runs Linpus Linux Lite ( http://www.linpus.com/ .

It is a very nice piece of hardware, the price is right (£220), and it runs Linux. What's not to like?

I now wish to see the source code for the GPL software which ships on it.

There is a piece of paper in the box which says "The Linpux Linux GPL source can be downloaded from the website www.linpus.com."

I have searched that web site, and cannot find a download location for the source code.

So far, fairly unsatisfactory, since I would expect it to be a lot easier to locate the source code given the "written offer" quoted above.

I have emailed Linpus and Acer, and await a response from either of them. I will update the list if I receive a
response.

Hm, the FTP site appears to have stuff:

ftp://ftp.linpus.com/

I don't know if that is what you are looking for.

armijn

armijn@uulug.nl | http://www.uulug.nl/ | UULug: Utrecht Linux Users Group

Armijn Hemel
Re: Acer Aspire One: GPL situation?

2008/8/4, Armijn Hemel :
On Mon, 2008-08-04 at 11:16 +0100, William Gallafent wrote:

I recently purchased one of these machines (manufactured by Acer,http://www.acer.co.uk/

which runs Linpus Linux Lite ( http://www.linpus.com/ .

It is a very nice piece of hardware, the price is right (£220), and it runs Linux. What's not to like?

I now wish to see the source code for the GPL software which ships on it.

There is a piece of paper in the box which says "The Linpux Linux GPL source can be downloaded from the website www.linpus.com."

I have searched that web site, and cannot find a download location for the source code.

So far, fairly unsatisfactory, since I would expect it to be a lot easier to locate the source code given the "written offer" quoted above.

I have emailed Linpus and Acer, and await a response from either of them. I will update the list if I receive a
response.

Hm, the FTP site appears to have stuff:

ftp://ftp.linpus.com/

I don't know if that is what you are looking for.

armijn

armijn@uulug.nl | http://www.uulug.nl/ | UULug: Utrecht Linux Users Group

linpus is distributed by http://linpus.com/ but the fact is that on his own ftp ftp://ftp.linpus.com/ there is not the source code of GNU/linux, only *.rpm all this is happen why a person wrote to William Gallafent describing his problem:

Re: Acer Aspire One: GPL situation?

2008/8/4, William Gallafent :
> I recently purchased one of these machines (manufactured by Acer, http://www.acer.co.uk/

which runs Linpus Linux Lite ( http://www.linpus.com/ ). It is a very nice piece of hardware, the price is right (£220), and it runs Linux. What's not to like?

I now wish to see the source code for the GPL software which ships on it.

There is a piece of paper in the box which says "The Linpux Linux GPL source can be downloaded from the website www.linpus.com."

I have searched that web site, and cannot find a download location for the source code.

So far, fairly unsatisfactory, since I would expect it to be a lot easier to locate the source code given the "written offer" quoted above.

I have emailed Linpus and Acer, and await a response from either of them.

I will update the list if I receive a response.

As a footnote, the reason I want to look at the source code is to determine the configuration of the sound hardware, which is not working perfectly for me using ALSA of Xubuntu 8.04.1, nor ALSA 1.0.17.

Additionally, with the shipped version of Linpus Linux the machine locks hard if the wifi is switched to adhoc mode, although it works with managed mode.

With the latest MadWifi HAL and Xubuntu 8.04.1's stock kernel, it no longer locks hard, although I haven't
actually got it to work yet.

I just don't understand why, when the system ships with a recovery DVD (which has plenty of spare capacity), the source code for the whole shipping distribution isn't included in a subdirectory of the DVD that would surely be the most straightforward way to provide it to end-
users!

As a second footnote, the piece of paper says "Copyright (C) 1997-2010 Linpus Technologies, Inc." - one can surely not claim copyright protection for a future date, since the copyright is intrinsically linked to the written text, which must by definition already have been
written in 2008 ??

As a third, according to that document apparently "Linux" is aregistered trademark of Linus Trovalds. Who he? ;)

linpus is distributed by http://linpus.com/ but the fact is that on his own ftp ftp://ftp.linpus.com/ there is not the source code of GNU/linux, only *.rpm all this is happen why a person wrote to William Gallafent describing his problem:

Re: Acer Aspire One: GPL situation?

2008/8/4, William Gallafent :
> I recently purchased one of these machines (manufactured by Acer, http://www.acer.co.uk/

which runs Linpus Linux Lite ( http://www.linpus.com/ ). It is a very nice piece of hardware, the price is right (£220), and it runs Linux. What's not to like?

I now wish to see the source code for the GPL software which ships on it.

There is a piece of paper in the box which says "The Linpux Linux GPL source can be downloaded from the website www.linpus.com."

I have searched that web site, and cannot find a download location for the source code.

So far, fairly unsatisfactory, since I would expect it to be a lot easier to locate the source code given the "written offer" quoted above.

I have emailed Linpus and Acer, and await a response from either of them.

I will update the list if I receive a response.

As a footnote, the reason I want to look at the source code is to determine the configuration of the sound hardware, which is not working perfectly for me using ALSA of Xubuntu 8.04.1, nor ALSA 1.0.17.

Additionally, with the shipped version of Linpus Linux the machine locks hard if the wifi is switched to adhoc mode, although it works with managed mode.

With the latest MadWifi HAL and Xubuntu 8.04.1's stock kernel, it no longer locks hard, although I haven't
actually got it to work yet.

I just don't understand why, when the system ships with a recovery DVD (which has plenty of spare capacity), the source code for the whole shipping distribution isn't included in a subdirectory of the DVD that would surely be the most straightforward way to provide it to end-
users!

As a second footnote, the piece of paper says "Copyright (C) 1997-2010 Linpus Technologies, Inc." - one can surely not claim copyright protection for a future date, since the copyright is intrinsically linked to the written text, which must by definition already have been
written in 2008 ??

As a third, according to that document apparently "Linux" is aregistered trademark of Linus Trovalds. Who he? ;)

linpus is distributed by http://linpus.com/ but the fact is that on his own ftp ftp://ftp.linpus.com/ there is not the source code of GNU/linux, only *.rpm all this is happen why a person wrote to William Gallafent describing his problem:

Re: Acer Aspire One: GPL situation?

2008/8/4, William Gallafent :
> I recently purchased one of these machines (manufactured by Acer, http://www.acer.co.uk/

which runs Linpus Linux Lite ( http://www.linpus.com/ ). It is a very nice piece of hardware, the price is right (£220), and it runs Linux. What's not to like?

I now wish to see the source code for the GPL software which ships on it.

There is a piece of paper in the box which says "The Linpux Linux GPL source can be downloaded from the website www.linpus.com."

I have searched that web site, and cannot find a download location for the source code.

So far, fairly unsatisfactory, since I would expect it to be a lot easier to locate the source code given the "written offer" quoted above.

I have emailed Linpus and Acer, and await a response from either of them.

I will update the list if I receive a response.

As a footnote, the reason I want to look at the source code is to determine the configuration of the sound hardware, which is not working perfectly for me using ALSA of Xubuntu 8.04.1, nor ALSA 1.0.17.

Additionally, with the shipped version of Linpus Linux the machine locks hard if the wifi is switched to adhoc mode, although it works with managed mode.

With the latest MadWifi HAL and Xubuntu 8.04.1's stock kernel, it no longer locks hard, although I haven't
actually got it to work yet.

I just don't understand why, when the system ships with a recovery DVD (which has plenty of spare capacity), the source code for the whole shipping distribution isn't included in a subdirectory of the DVD that would surely be the most straightforward way to provide it to end-
users!

As a second footnote, the piece of paper says "Copyright (C) 1997-2010 Linpus Technologies, Inc." - one can surely not claim copyright protection for a future date, since the copyright is intrinsically linked to the written text, which must by definition already have been
written in 2008 ??

As a third, according to that document apparently "Linux" is aregistered trademark of Linus Trovalds. Who he? ;)

There was a local computer store in town that was selling them, and apparantly Acer shipped them to the store with Linux preinstalled. Some strange Chinese distro I'd never heard of...