With most netbooks measuring over an inch thick, Acer found another way to improve its best-selling netbook: Make it thinner and lighter while (most important) not raising the price. With the Aspire One (D250-1165), Acer has eliminated a considerable amount of the plastic of its predecessor, the Aspire One (10-inch), making it slightly lighter and only 0.8 inch thick.

Like its predecessor, the One (D250-1165) has three USB ports, VGA-out, an Ethernet port, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11g Wi-Fi, and a 4-in-1 card reader. The 160GB hard drive is spacious enough for most file types.

There’s really no such thing as raw horsepower on a netbook. The One (D250-1165) performed much the same as other netbooks because it uses the same components—a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of memory, and Intel integrated graphics. (About 90 percent of all netbooks on the market come with this combo.) Although the ASUS 1000HE uses a newer N280 (1.66-GHz) Atom processor and a new memory controller, these didn’t give it much of a performance edge. As in the previous model, the memory slot on the One (D250-1165) is very easily accessible; removing one screw is all it takes to upgrade to 2GB of memory.

While some manufacturers increase prices following a design update, Acer has kept the price steady on the Aspire One. It’s the most affordable netbook money can buy, which has made it a best-seller. And now with the Aspire One (D250-1165), it’s slimmer and lighter.

What’s just as nice is that it runs PC Linux OS and Ubuntu Linux out of the box and dual or even triple boot systems are possible so your personal info can be made safe easily by installing a Linux OS on your Netbook.

Acer One Netbook

PC Linux OS on Acer One Netbook

XP Home Edition on Acer Netbook

Ubuntu Linux Netbook Remix