[nzlug] Acer + Ubuntu: initial impressions.

[Simon Bridge]

On Thu, 2008-04-03 at 23:40 +1300, don.esslemont at paradise.net.nz wrote:
> On 3 Apr 2008 at 22:41, Simon Bridge wrote:

> > I also have a usb webcam that has a mic which registers as a different
> > soundcard. 
> 
> Hmmn. Something like that might be an answer for me, although USB 
> pods seem to cost $80 or $90 and up.
> 
Well... mine is a logitech quickcam IM - something, fairly fancy.
The mic on that is fine, (tested with ekiga test call - uses
snd-usb-audio) no idea how to enable it in the sound recorder.

If I try to run the sound recording monitor though, it crashes saying
esd is not enabled. AFAIK, esd is not supposed to be enabled... could it
be the app?

However, the video side keeps freezing after a few seconds, then the app
hangs. Tested with camorama, ekiga, and skype. Same camera is 100% in
all my other boxes.

On the video side, I see that the i965 is something of a fubar'd card in
the intel stable. eg - Legacy3D is mandatory for it, so the i915 driver
always gets loaded regardless. (Tried to run it with i810.)

I don't understand why EXA doesn't work. But I see there are a lot of
patches coming down the line - these can take a while to reach us in
ubuntuland. If anyone knows an EXA config that works with the i965 let
me know.

> 
> > Overall... I suspect that anyone coming off XP to this will find it
> > quite comfortable. The default UI is extremely snappy and the boot,
> > once netboot is disabled, is less that 30 secs. (power-on to desktop)
> 
> I'm pretty happy, although it slows to a crawl if I have Open Office 
> and Opera open at the same time.
Hmmm... not tried opera. Firefox and OOo play nice, I've been using both
a lot.

Be interesting to compare with Vista Home Basic on the same hardware.

> 
> >...  Delivery is less that stirling and this particular laptop is 
> less than
> > ideal. But it's a toe in the water. And I see the community is right
> > behind them on this one. I think the tone we *want* is "we want to
> > help make your product sell better".
> 
> I agree. And it looks as if Lee Blom of Acer wants to be helped.

Well - does he know about this review? Keep me in the loop and I can say
"Acer is working with the NZ FOSS community to resolve these issues" :)

For my end - being able to quote him, and make the article more up-beat,
would help it get in print. Same with that tame DSE guy...

What I learned tonight:

scanModem says the modem is connexant hsf ... needs the connexant
drivers. Runs at 14k4 for free and 56k for a price. Clearly Acer did not
want to pay *again* for modem drivers.

So - basically every core component is linux unfreindly! That would be
par for the course for Acer.

The planned reinstall is not going to be trivial.

The review is almost finished, I'm writing the "OK - here's the fixes"
section.