[nzlug] acer + ubuntu

[Robin Sheat]

On Thursday 05 June 2008 14:11:59 simon wrote:
> They acknowledged that Acer HW seems ta have a rough reputation campared
> to the others - particularly with linux. But they are puzzled - their HW
> is identical to the others. They cannot see what the problem is. Can we
> quantify the difference?

I haven't done enough with their stuff to know, but I did play with one 
briefly at last night's DunLUG meeting, and it seems support has improved 
with the latest Ubuntu release. For example, it went to sleep (and woke up) 
correctly, although it wouldn't hibernate.

I suspect it's little things they (and all manufacturers) need to be aware of, 
e.g. an Intel HDA-compliant sound card, not just one that claims to be but 
has an inaccurate descriptor table, wireless with open (or at least well 
supported) drivers. One or two of these sorts of things being a bit off could 
turn what would otherwise be a good Linux machine into a useless one. And 
(hopefully) once demand for correct hardware picks up, the actual companies 
making it will see the need to put that bit of extra effort in to dot 
the 't's and cross the 'i's :)

That's w.r.t Linux support anyway, I don't know anything about Acer's general 
build quality.

The other thing in their case was the weird OS configuration. So many little 
things that could be patched up with about 5 minutes work that weren't. They 
all drag the impression of the machine down a bit.

> They were strongly motivated by the implication of sub-standard
> equipment and my machine was dissected. They identified the flaw in the
> OptDD cable that I found and they no longer use that model. Indeed, they
> had none there and gave me a new DVD-burner instead.

That's something else it may pay for them to watch out for: companies they 
source the hardware from (or Acer themselves) changing the hardware without 
updating the model or chipset number, so you end up with a bunch of people 
saying 'this works great', and then the next batch comes out and it doesn't 
work at all.

> As it stands - support for the 4315 will be a redirect to my site (may
> as well). I'll get an advance look at the next one (under NDA - sorry)
> to work out what needs to be in-place for that. After that one is a big
> success... we'll be able to do much more.

It'll be nice to have a cheap laptop that I can recommend to people to get if 
they want a Linux machine that is known to work well.

> Once more - if there are any problems with me being front-and-center
> like this, let me know.

Someone has to, and you've already got your foot in the door, I say stick with 
it :)

-- 
Robin <robin at kallisti.net.nz> JabberID: <eythian at jabber.kallisti.net.nz>

Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt. Qui annus est?

PGP Key 0xA99CEB6D = 5957 6D23 8B16 EFAB FEF8  7175 14D3 6485 A99C EB6D
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