[clug] Ubuntu Hardy Heron on Budget Notebook

[Ian Bardsley]

G'Day list

This is for anyone looking for a new, cheapy (sub $1k) notebook.

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5720 at a very keen price (the 
retailer had priced it incorrectly and I imposed the trade practices act).

Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, 1 Gb Ram, shared graphics, 15.4 wide 
screen, 120 Gb HD,  DL DVD Burner, Wlan, 5 in i card reader, built in 
web cam.

I decided to try Ubuntu Hardy Beta on it and surprise surprise, with the 
exception of the microphone socket and XD Cards in the Card reader, all 
features worked "Out of the Box" including Compiz.

The microphone problem was fixed easily courtesy of Google and the issue 
of XD cards is a listed bug for which no solution is yet available.

I guess this speaks volumes  for the progress that linux is making with 
hardware compatibility.

This is a nice piece of hardware for the money and with a memory upgrade 
should perform very well.


Hope this is of interest to someone

Regards to all

Ian Bardsley