Acer launches £199 subnotebook

The Acer Aspire One will come in five or six different configurations. The baseline model will use the Linpus distribution of Linux, and will cost around £199. This version will use an 8GB solid-state drive (SSD) and 512MB of RAM.

More expensive models will have more RAM and either 3G or WiMax connectivity, depending on the region in which they are being sold. All versions have Wi-Fi. The most expensive model will be the Windows XP version, which will have an 80GB hard hard drive (HDD) and will cost £299. Because of the use of an HDD rather than an SSD, the XP version will also be heavier than the more basic Linux version, which weighs in at less than 1kg.

Acer is being very bullish on Linux, which it likes for its configurability. Morbello said the company had "made a big investment in Linux", and praised the fast start-up time of the Linux Aspire One (15 seconds). He said that, with the larger six-cell battery (a three-cell comes as standard), the Linux version would last up to seven hours and the XP version just five, and joked: "To be honest we would prefer not to sell the XP version."

The Linpus distro has a very simple presentation, and includes a unified mailbox and a unified instant messaging (IM) client — both of which aggregate various popular mail and IM brands. The mailbox also ties into (IM) client, showing whether a sender is online and linking through to IM where possible. A version of the Firefox browser is also included, complete with preinstalled media player plugins. OpenOffice comes as standard.