I’ve been experimenting with Linux distributions on the Acer Aspire ZG5 after ending up with a pretty pink, slightly broken one from the girlfriend. Well, some fixification later and it almost works, although there are a few keys on the keyboard that don’t work. I tried the built in Linspire linux that it came with, and while this certainly worked well and was reasonably easy to use it was a bit…. well, crap. The problem was that Acer had bought, made or tweaked this Linspire operating system, and then left it. No skype, no flash player, an ancient copy of firefox. Nothing modern, secure or usable. Or in my mind, acceptable. Years ago this would have been a problem. I can remember a never ending stream of internet capable phones, Amstrad emailers and Web TV boxes which fell by the wayside and vanished mainly because the manufacturers traditional MO of “build, then sell” didn’t match the changing and evolving nature of the web. So why’s this different? (continue reading…)