Zorin OS 8 64-bit on a (2009) Acer Aspire One?

Hello,

I have an Acer Aspire One Netbook that I purchased in 2009. It came with Windows XP. I decided that I've had enough of Microsoft, so I recently did a complete install of Zorin OS 8 (Core) 32-bit on my netbook, totally replacing XP. I could not be happier that I made the switch to Zorin. It's even better than I hoped it would be.

When I was giving thought to installing either the 32-bit or the 64-bit, I couldn't figure out whether or not my Acer Aspire, with its 1.6ghz Atom processor would handle the 64-bit version. The only answers I came up with online were related to newer Acer models, but not the Aspire One that I have.

So, I'm hoping that someone here can give me some good advice. The 32-bit version that I installed works just fine. It's fast and quite responsive. Could anyone tell me whether or not I could have installed the 64-bit version? If so, would there be any noticeable advantage to switching to the 64-bit version? The general information I can find online seems quite limited, but my sense is that the 64-bit version is better. I just need to know if my netbook can run it.

Thanks for any help or advice you can provide.

-Casper

Hi Casper,

stick with what you have, I use a 32 bit OS on my 64 bit PC and as long as the newer versions of Ubuntu based systems support PAE, you won't have to worry!.

See also:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnablingPAE

Regards Wolfman

I also have an Acer Aspire One.. but running Windows 7. I have it dual-booting with Zorin OS 7 Lite. You will need a lighter linux to run on a netbook.. like Xfce, LXDE etc. Using heavier editions such as KDE or GNOME are require too many resources for my limited resource netbook to run properly.

I have the Acer Aspire One also. Stick to the 32-bit due to its limited resources. I am a Zorin fan (Zorin 7 Lite. My testing has shown Zorin 8, although graphically superior, is slower to boot (quite significatly) than Zorin 7 on my PC (2.8GHz with 8gb ram).

Thank you Wolfman and Socretes,

Your feedback is very helpful. I've been a Windows person for a little more than 30 years, so it's a platform I've come to know fairly well. Three of my four computers use Windows 7, but it was my Netbook that came with XP. In a few days Microsoft will finally pull the plug on XP. I knew the day would come, so several months ago I began to explore my options. My Netbook can't support any newer MS OS's, so I started looking into alternate OS's, such as Ubantu. Then I found some info about Zorin and it sounded perfect. When MS sent me an email telling me that my options were either Win8 or a new computer, I quickly decided that it was time for something new that wasn't Microsoft.
I figured that my Netbook was the perfect candidate to experiment with an OS like Zorin. Have to tell you that I like it very much. I am not yet skilled in all of the nuts and bolts of it just yet, but I am learning and relying upon my computing skills to figure it out. Someday, in the not too distant future, MS will pull the plug on Win 7 too, and when they do, the rest of my computers will follow in the footsteps of my Netbook. By that time, I hope to have learned a great deal more about the language of this new OS and the functionality. In the meantime, I'm glad that there are others, like you both, from whom I can get some good answers while I am learning.

Thanks again!!

-Casper

Hi, Glad you are enjoying the experience! Windows 7 official support ends this year - but it will continue to have 'extended' support (Like XP did) until 2020 - so you have got a bit to go yet! If you are looking for something really lightweight then also consider taking a look at Trisquel (http://trisquel.info) or LXLE - http://lxle.net (based on Lubuntu like Zorin Lite but this particular version is LTS until April 2017!). Whatever GNU/Penguin you choose - you are bound to have fun! If you want something Musical then there is Musix and AVLinux