new to linux

[georgecabby]

hello there I aws given as a present a Acer Aspire one 150 a week ago .Its a lovely machine and compact just what I needed for my travels in the car all around the town.Now there's 2 things I dont understand ,1 of these is chinese writing and the other is linpus linux .Since I have had this netbook I have surfed the internet ok but to now have not opened 1 item from the net without the warning message coming up stating that its in the wrong format .I have used on other pc's windows based os with ease for over 15 years what is going on with this Linux .many thanks George

[L4Linux]

I recommend using Ubuntu Easy Peasy or Ubuntu Netbook Remix.(official)

Everything works out the box: wireless, camera, codecs are preinstalled, flash is preinstalled and it has Firefox 3, OpenOffice 3, Pidgin,VLC and Songbird!!!
You have to do NOTHING after the installation! It really rocks
The official version does not come with pre-installed codecs I think, but it is very easy to install them.

The installation is really easy* and in case you have a question, everyone in the forums can help you, since Ubuntu (on which it is based) is probably the most popular Linux distribution.

To make a live-usb you can use Unetbootin, which works on either Linux or Windows.

* At some point it will ask you to make partitions. Make:
1GB swap
10GB of type ext3, mount point /
The rest make it type ext3, mount point /home

[georgecabby]

many thanks but will this make the netbook user friendly to me or does it use all this programmes that cannot open files from the internt

[computerophil]

Welcome here - soon you'll feel well with linux, I'm quite sure.

[rokytnji]

many thanks but will this make the netbook user friendly to me or does it use all this programmes that cannot open files from the internt

L4Linux suggested 2 distros that will run just fine on your Acer Aspire One and be more robust than Linspire. What files are you refering to that you can't open? If they are Window exe. files. They will not open in Linux unless you use WINE which is available in Most Linux Distros including the 2 that L4 refered you to. Even then WINE does not support all Windows related software.

Let us know what you are trying to do as far as downloading whatever from the internet so folks here can steer you in the right direction. Everybody here was new to Linux at one time or another and will bend a sympathetic ear to your troubles. Sounds to me that you are expecting Linspire to work Like Windows. Howdy and Welcome to the forums.

[Lakshmipathi]

Hi Welcome !
I have got an acer aspire 5310 two years back, It came with Linpus Linux without GUI. I removed it another Linux distro(s) (Now it has Fedora/Mandriva/Debian/Ubuntu) Try what L4Linux mentioned.