A common concern when it comes to Linux on netbooks is that, well, they’re hard to get your hands on, and even if you do find one, they often feature lower specifications than their Windows brethren. If yuo fear the situation will be similar for nettops, fear no longer: Acer has given out pricing and specification information on its Revo NVIDIA Ion nettop (the first Ion-based machine on the market), and there’s good news for Linux fans.
The best news of all is that it comes with Ubuntu, instead of the awful Linpus found on the Acer Aspire One (which still comes with Firefox 2.x). This means we get a modern, well-supported Linux distribution, that’s easily updateable and not reliant on whatever Acer doesn’t do with it (like updating).
There’s more good news, however. The Linux model will sport a significantly lower price tag than the Windows model: GBP 149 vs. GBP 249/299 for the Windows models. The GBP 299 Windows model will come with a Wii-Mote style wireless game-controller-thingie-wachamacallit. Converting these prices to USD or EUR makes for the fun times.
The Revo comes with an Intel Atom 230 processor at 1.6Ghz using NVIDIA’s Ion platform, meaning it sports the same GeForce 9400M integrated graphics chipset as found in Apple’s MacBooks. Gizmodo tested the thing, and found out that it can play Blu-Ray without any problems, even outputting full HD and 7.1 Dolby over its HDMI port. Anyway, it has 1GB of DDR2 RAM (2GB for the Windows models), and all the usual wireless options.
There is one very important note, however: for now, the Linux model comes with the oh-my-god-please-no 8GB solid state drive, which you really do not want, while the Windows model comes with a 160GB normal HDD. Luckily, Acer has already confirmed that as soon as the Linux/SSD model is sold out, it will immediately be replaced by a Linux model with the same 160GB drive as found in the Windows model, for the same GBP 149 price. That’s pretty good news for Linux fans.
In other words, wait until the SSD model is sold out before making your move on this one. Trust me, you do not want the SSD model. The Acer Revo will make its sales debut in the UK on May 5. No information yet available on when it will be on sale in other countries (if you have a link, let us know).
Wonder if the initial SSD model will have the same lousy disk as the Aspire One I was foolish enough to buy.
I don’t get it. Why do the SSD thing at all? If it’s the same one as is in the Aspire One, it’s not even worth keeping, and at 8gb? No point to that. And what’s with the lower amount of ram in the Linux model? The fact that it comes with Ubuntu is nice, but I don’t see how this really changes the Linux vs Windows hardware slant. The Windows model still has better specs… and what’s to say Acer will, when the Linux SSD models are sold out, actually release a Linux model with an hdd like they say they will? It wouldn’t be the first time an OEM backed out on something like this, let’s face it.
Not that I buy anything made by Acer anymore, except a cheap monitor for a basic setup on occasion. I stopped trusting their machines long ago, they’ve had the worst failure rate I’ve personally ever seen, worse even than Dell. Granted, that’s personal experience, but I’ve wasted enough of my money on Acer machines. Still, it’s irritating that they persist on making their Linux models lower spec. One might wonder why that is…
Bad engineering decision?
Linux also seem to cut the price by 100 pounds. The win32 folks sure pay premium for their DIMMs…
I’ve bought a WinXP only netbook (Samsung NC10) and I’ve setup on it the Fedora 10. It really shine on that particular machine (Ubuntu 9.04 also but have some small issues with Intel video drivers as they were heavily refactored). With the same applications (OpenOffice, Firefox and Skype) with 1G RAM works nice, really nicer than on Windows (still I have to admit that Windows have a background McAfee antivirus). So for persons that are sensible at price, adding let’s say 50 GBP to it to have an extra G of RAM will remove it’s competitiveness.
Also, where is this RAM critical? Doing Photoshop? Think that Linux with KDE 4 fits in 350M of RAM. You will still remain with 700 M for applications! And on Linux because the applications are not so much bloated (as there are not all dlls for all backward versions), is really enough!
My single concern is to work flawless the new netbook on Linux and to be tested on it.
I know Linux runs fine in 1 gb of ram, but that wasn’t the point. My point was that they should not spec each machine differently, aside from the os. It provides an unfair advantage to one os over the other and, depending on how difficult it is to upgrade the ram, some might buy the Windows model just for that. Acer isn’t always known for making upgrades easy, anyone ever have to upgrade the ram in an Aspire One? It makes the Intel Mac Mini’s ram upgrade procedure look extremely simple by comparison.
The difference in specs is what I’m taking issue with, not that Linux runs fine in 1g of ram and wouldn’t necessarily need anymore. Considering how cheap RAM is though, why not put 2gb in both of them? More RAM never hurts in any situation.
Still, the RAM isn’t nearly as big of a let down as that crappy SSD…
If people will pay 100 more just for the additional RAM, they better expend 150 more and get two machines. Let’s make our homes distributed computing farms!
Yeah, the SSD drive is the real showstopper. I hope the Linux SSD unit sells OK or they probably will say it was Linux fault and take that option down.
Thing is, if the SSD Linux unit sells out and Acer does follow through on their promise to release one with an hdd, that means that those who bought the Linux SSD models did, in a sense, get screwed over. I wonder if it will use a Mini-PCIE SSD or a sata one? If they use sata, at least it could be replaced with an hdd or a better ssd, if they use Mini-PCIE the only option would be to replace the provided SSD with another SSD. A good SSD, of decent size, would cost more than the unit by at least half.
Perhaps they had a surplus of those 8gb SSDs laying around, and decided they needed to shove them in some product, whether it is well-suited for it or not.
The ram must be a pretty marginal cost.. Look at the pricing on 2GB dimms these days, for them to remove the 1GB (or 2x 512?) and put a single 2gb module in would increase the price by maybe GBP15-20 or so? Why not offer an intermediate model which has linux, more ram and the bigger HD?
More RAM mostly means more power consumption and thus a shorter battery life.
That’s also why I don’t fully understand why the author of this article is so happy about the battery-friendly SSD being replaced by a power-hungry HDD. Ok, I agree 8GB is too little, but I’m very happy with the 20GB SSD in my Eee PC 901 Linux; I you do not install a bloated operating system and a bloated office suite, you will have plenty of free disk space on a 20GB SSD, definitely enough for a netbook.
Battery life is not an issue for a net top, and the amount of power some extra ram adds is really negligible when compared to most of the other components in the system.
Yes, a 20 gb SSD is plenty big enough for a netbook. We’re not complaining about the 8gb SSD in these things because of the space, although for any kind of desktop–even a nettop–that is a rather small amount. The SSDs in the AA1 netbooks are horrendously slow, unlike those in most of the SSD-based eee pcs. If it’s the same 8gb SSD in these nettops, these things are going to seriously crawl when it comes to disk writes, think worse than a 1.8 inch 4200 rpm mechanical hd. They’re not exactly blazing fast when reading either. In contrast, the primary SSD in the eee pc is quite good, although the secondary SSD–for models that do have two–runs at a similarly slow speed as the AA1’s.
Because every laptop I’ve had has had at least one hard drive die? Because I like being able to move my netbook around without worrying about the delicate hardware in a hard drive? Because 8GB is plenty for something that is not my primary machine?
Also, SSDs can have excellent performance, as I’m sure you’ve heard. The smaller SSD in my eee is very nice, without the horrid write performance seen in the Aspires.
If Acer attaches their SSD via SATA so that, in the event it blows, it can be replaced by a nice OCZ Vertex or Intel SSD that would really be ideal.
I meant, why do the SSD thing on a desktop? It’s not like you’re going to becarting the nettop around and, as has already been pointed out here, the SSDs Acer has used so far are not exactly top of the line units. And no matter which way you look at it, they’re still ripping off their Linux customers with lower hardware specs.
£149 is an amazing price, although it would be even sweeter if Acer included the 160GB HD on the linux model as standard.
Also ditto about Ubuntu, I finally replaced Linpus on my Aspire One a couple of months back, updating packages was becoming a nightmare…
Those specs are still amazing for the price though! 🙂
Maybe this will be a shot in the arm for Acer, who like other netbook/top manafacturers aren’t doing “great” at the moment…
Alex.
…?
Acer is doing phenomenal. What do you mean?
@Thom_Holwerda:
http://www.osnews.com/story/21351/Report_Acer_Asus_MSI_Missing_Netb…
?
I don’t think I explained what I mean properly, what I meant was, it will help netbook/top sales in general. Acer itself is doing fine.
So, in order for we Linux users to get proper hardware a few thousand customers need to get screwed? What a capital idea, old chap!
And yet they wonder why the netbook segment is dominated by Windows-powered machines…
I almost bought another xbox (original) the other day for $50 because if mine every dies I wouldn’t know what to do without XBMC out on my TV. This thing looks like it’d be a great replacement…also for MythTV.
You do know XBMC runs on any Windows, Linux, or Mac box, right? I use it on my media centre PC.
You can even run it on the Apple TV, if having it on a very small device is important.
Not even a basic remote on the 149 version? Then I hope it have Bluetooth, probably the wiithingy remote will use BT and at least we can look for a cheap BT remote or use our phones or PDAs.
Edited 2009-04-25 00:59 UTC
Forgive me for whining, but this brings to mind a recent original article on OSNews about why Linux on netbooks/nettops wasn’t selling. My response at the time was because the Linux machine was typically (fake edit: not always, but typically) using a strange non-“mainstream” Linux version probably not well-tailored to the device, and often had far inferior hardware: No bluetooth, no draft-N wireless, half the RAM, smaller battery, tiny SSD… and the price reduction just wasn’t worth it.
Yes, I’m looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I don’t like how Linux is being treated as a second-class citizen. Of course Linux isn’t going to do well, when Linux enthusiasts have to buy the Windows version to get the better hardware.
Couldn’t they just sell the same exact hardware with two different software sets? And if ASUS can support their veritable cornucopia of Eees, they could certainly sell cheap and expensive hardware versions with Linux and Windows loaded; that’s only four variations.
Anyway, this isn’t entirely directed at Acer, who have made some good choices here: they put a well-supported popular version of Linux on their nettop, they gave it the same nVidia 8400 graphics card, and they’ve committed to making equally spec’d nettops in the future. Hopefully someone will fall for this and go for these nettops so the good Linux models can be shipped.
MS will allow Windows and Linux to compete equally once there is enough Windows-only applications optimized for netbooks, so their market share can be preserved.
Most PCs in my house have huge, empty hard drives because everything apart from the OS is stored on my file server. For me, 8GB is plenty.
Same here. I have a small form-factor computer with a smaller capacity internal drive. The files are routed to an external storage device.
The equipment is whisper quiet and the internal temperatures run much cooler using this logic.
Most Windows boxes, the ones I repair for people, run hot and have fans that sound like a military aircraft taking off.
I very much hope the models shipping without HDD at least include the space and connector to fit one in after sales. This way you could add a bigger SSD as well, they are available at reasonable sizes already.
There is no reference to Unbuntu anywhere, only Linux. It may be a proprietary version, or Fedora….
Read the article linked to in the blurb. And I quote:
The headline…
Really? Where?
We must deplete their stock of inferior spec units to (maybe) get access to the same hardware as Windows units. How is that good news?
We are just being told to get ripped so other people can get a fair deal in the future. And then again, if SSD Linux units don’t sell (which wouldn’t be that strange considering the hardware you get) they have the excuse to completely ditch that OS in future offerings.
So again, where are the good news?
I’m really looking forward buying a revo, but this kind of stuff pisses me off to no end.
I would understand Linux boxes shipping without some other piece of hardware because of driver issues or whatever, but we are talking about a HD here.