Please be sure to read about installing Ubuntu on a desktop. The following adds to and does not repeat information from there.
After becoming enthralled of the installation on my old Dell Dimension, I decided to put Ubuntu on a 10-month old Acer Aspire One. This notebook machine has 1.0 GBytes of RAM, a 160 GByte hard drive, and an Intel Atom processor. It is small and light, and didn't cost much.
After reading about the notebook "remix" that Ubuntu offers, I decided that since I'm so happy with the desktop version in my old Dell, and since the Acer is at least as powerful, I would install the full desktop version of Ubuntu on the Acer.
Because the Acer does not have a CD drive, a bootable USB memory device was needed. This can be made from a Windows machine, following instructions on the Ubuntu web site. However, since I have a fully functional Ubuntu system on the old Dell, I used it. From the GNOME desktop menu bar, Select System>Administration>USB Startup Disc Creator. The bootable CD used to build the Dell version, and a blank USB device were all that was needed.
In the Acer configuration menu (F2 during startup), move "USB HDD" to the top.
From there the installation proceeded as described for the Dell Desktop with one exception. The Acer monitor does not use a proprietary interface. The Acer will not play DVD movies (no CD/DVD drive.) And its graphics are not "enhanced." Otherwise, I have a fully configured Ubuntu desktop system that will travel with me. The Acer wireless interface came up working fine. The only configuration needed was select the preferred network from those found and enter the correct password.