Great netbook, I love mine, but it definitely won’t handle world of warcraft.
I installed Ubuntu 10 on an older Toshiba laptop this weekend (using http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ to create a usb boot install), and the new wireless drivers/network manager work so much better than previous versions! I am impressed so far–Linux might just be ready for the mainstream user with this update. Of course, mileage may vary with the Gateway…
Thanks.
Atom is touch and go for flash IME. In Windows, most work, but you’ll occasionally get dropped frames, and any higher resolution stuff is completely out of the question.
Linux is another story. 360p Hulu mostly works, but theres still dropped frames.
Have read thread, and thanks to all. Really dumb question not answered so far as I can tell from the foregoing –
Will this thing be OK for my kids to watch youtube and do kiddie games, such as SIMS? We have a dell that freezes every time we try to upload the latest SIMS, and our macs are not on snow leopard so the game won’t play on them.
Reluctant to upgrade macs (changing OS –> major headaches in my experience) but new HD and endless reinstallings of system in dell don’t help either.
Comments much appreciated.
You can change the background. Idk why people keep saying otherwise.
i use mine for skype video calls all the time with no problems. im also a dj and use it with a midi controller with no problems
how many megapixels does the webcam have?
I bought one of these from Woot a few months ago and have been running Ubuntu 9.10 (not the netbook remix) just fine. It does take a little bit more setup and there are a few tricks to get wireless working properly (needed linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic package).
And after you look at that graph, call your local computer repair shop and ask them their thoughts on Gateway and HP failure rates and more importantly their cust serv. You will get a rear end full.
http://netbookscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/laptop-fail-rates-oem.jpg
Anyone know if hackintosh works well on these bad boys?
Yeah, provide me the link to a new one, a better brand, and just a few bucks more.
Or maybe by few bucks you mean like $60 and a smaller hard drive and possibly only a 3 cell battery because cheaper prices I have seen for new netbooks with 160GB (not 250) run in the $300 range. Also, with a 250GB hard drive they are more like $340.
Personally, I don’t think you know what you are talking about but prove me wrong because I likely buy it!
No which is why I got rid of my netbook with an Atom N270 processor. Hulu stalls and shutters like crazy. Apparently Hulu is very processor and graphic intensive which is exactly what this lacks.
I have heard though that the newer netbooks with Atom N450 processors can nearly handle Hulu with a few slight shutters here and there.
The Atom N270 processor with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 is the worst possible choice currently out their for video and graphics.
Youtube? Yeah maybe but not a good experience.
Sims? No way!
Get a regular laptop or a thin and light.
I’m looking at snagging one of these for a full-time college student who would use it primarily for MS Office, flash and other light web browsing.
I’ve seen that Hulu doesn’t do to well on these, but since it will very soon be a pay site, that is not going to be a factor.
The main things he’ll need are adequate performance running office and reliability. What is the bottom line for these two criteria?
Thanks! That’s exactly what I was wondering.
Duh. If you don’t have malfunctions, how are you going to have refurbs? 
Seriously, I’d wait for a 6 cell Acer One to come up again. The one I got for my wife last fall is still going strong (touch wood), has been bounced around on several trips and has a long lasting battery.
I used windows 7 ultimate in my acer 10.1 with 2gb ram, a netbook from a previous wooting. It works just fine, just had to tweek it a little.
This is an Acer one that is branded Gateway. Gateway was purchased by Acer for some short time now, hence their current similarities in design. Check out the Acer version of this, Acer D250.
Thanks for the graph. Interesting. Could those numbers simply reflect a higher malfuntion rate because a significantly lot more units are produced and sold by Acer/Gateway? For example, if company A sells 2 million netbooks, and company B sells 500 thousand then there would most likely be a higher malfunction rate with company A.
And do you know if the graph includes malfuntions due to idiotic user error? lol, I find that plays a huge role in pc/laptop repair. I used to clean up student laptops/pc’s in college because they wouldn’t boot, were slow, wouldnt respond, kept shutting down. The list goes on. Every problem always had something to do with spyware, different types of viruses, or just never being cleaned of junk(ex. unused registry files). The problems were hardly ever hardware, just software related certainly caused by questionable internet use and downloads.
So, if you take away user error. How much of those percentages are based on actual hardware issues?
Fyi: Gateway is now owned by Acer. So comparing the reputation of older Gateway models to its new Acer versions is unfair. Although they pretty much have identical malfunction rates according to your graph…lol