Acer Aspire AXC-603-UB17

[Chris Maness]

I purchased a little Acer Aspire to run as a small FreeBSD server.  The
price was right for what came with it.  However, changing the boot order in
the BIOS seemed to have no effect.  As if the DVD drive was not even
installed.  If I set manual boot selection, the FreeBSD install CD was not
an option at boot time.  To check to see if the DVD drive is functioning I
allowed it to go through the whole windows install procedure.  Sure enough
-- the DVD works.  I have tried several other boot disks to no avail.

Moreover, after going through the setup, Windows seemed to have hijacked
the whole boot process, and I can't even get into the BIOS.  What is the
deal?  Does M$ have some kind of deal with Acer to make it impossible to
install another OS?  I have never purchased a computer with the OS already
on it.  I have always built my own PC's, but for $209 I figured it couldn't
be beat.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with ultra cheapie Windows boxes?

Thanks,
Chris Maness