My friend Mark contacted me via GTalk video chat three days ago to test out his new Acer Aspire One that he purchased for $349 at Costco. I was so impressed that he was able to connect and video chat without difficulty on a Netbook that cost so little that I immediately ordered one for myself on Amazon.
Last night I put Windows 7 Release Candidate on the machine by creating a bootable USB drive (I used a 16GB drive – instructions here – that I bought for $35 from Staples). The USB thumb drive was the easiest way for me though I probably could have loaded it to any external bootable device such as a DVD or Hard Drive. One note on the instructions – be sure you use the F2 key (and NOT F12 like the instructions say) on this Acer Aspire One to set the boot sequence so that the USB thumb drive is the first in the sequence to boot. Once I found the F2 secret and set my proper sequence the USB thumb drive automatically took over on the next re-boot and presto it’s Windows 7.
How to install Windows 7 Beta on an Acer Aspire One Netbook (works for Release Candidate)