Installing a Linux based OS on a unformatted netbook
 

If I had an unformatted Acer Aspire One netbook, could I install Linux linux from a flash drive or something along those lines? Keep in mind, I don't actually have the computer yet, so I haven't tried. I also do not have that much experience with Linux, or unformatted computers...

Hello and Welcome to LinuxQuestions,

Yes you can! Have a look at Unetbootin. You can use that on another computer to download and unpack a distro (or use a local ISO/CD) onto an USB stick. Then you can boot the netbook from that USB stick and install it onto its harddrive.

Kind regards,

Eric

This netbook comes with Win7 as default, AFAIK. So, it is not truly "unformatted".
You can use Win7 to download your distro, and load it into USB stick. I would advise to run Live version of your distro from USB before installation to ensure everything works (WiFi, sound etc).

One can borrow a cd/dvd drive.

One can use a tools called wubi to install dual boot ubuntu from windows.

One can make a usb flash in most cases from windows using a number of ways. The disto may or may not be fully supported in each app. See pendrivelinux.com for some how-to's.

One could boot to a network locally or over the internet. See netboot.me or boot-kernel.org. For lan a simple knoppix disk booted on some local machine may allow pxe or gpxe boot to knoppix or some other distro.

One could simply keep the Windows and use a virtual machine if the processor and ram are good enough. Simple to test and try too.