Really want the added power and efficiency of Pep3 on my dying lappy. [ZIF cable just “lost” my SSD again on AAO, but was great for 1 1/2 years. ]
Are there any issues- anything that doesn’t or won’t work on an ACER 5000 laptop; OR procedures Mark listed for installing it on the Acer Aspire One that might also apply???
Can’t say for sure … try it from a LiveCD/LiveUSB and see.
We can try solve any problems as we go … but running a LiveCD will allow you to publish here the output from:
inxi -F
so we can get a clue as to the hardware involved 
inxi -F doesn’t run in Ubuntu 10.4. Is that a report of conflicts, or a list of hardware?
Was going to replace the balky aging Ubuntu with it- though only have a lousy 7.5 gigs space on that partition (w .7g left)- still have 1g left on netbook adjusting for equiv size drive. Can I save the settings from my Ubuntu and reload them in Peppermint? ZDnet guy says Mint 15 is best OS ever- but that needs more space and resources, eh? Western Digital says their externals are ALL SATA or native USB, so I won’t be cracking that case to get bigger and better PATA HD, sadly. Hate to put any more money into this junker, but considering what Pep3 did for netbook, it could give it a new lease on life. Going on 7 years now.
inxi isn’t installed in Ubuntu, but it is in Peppermint … so run it from a Peppermint LiveCD/LiveUSB
inxi is a script that lists your hardware in an easily readable format.
Can I save the settings from my Ubuntu and reload them in Peppermint
Yes, but they will probably cause issues … best to copy your docs off … then do a fresh install.
ZDnet guy says Mint 15 is best OS ever
Not a fan of all encompassing comments like that (though I’m occasionally guilty of them myself) … best at/for what ? … certainly not for a netbook.
Western Digital says their externals are ALL SATA or native USB, so I won't be cracking that case to get bigger and better PATA HD
Not quite sure what you mean by that … do you have an external HDD you were thinking of taking apart ?