The Zino is a Dell PC that supports 'straight' HDMI output (without going through DVI). According to this post, installation of Ubuntu 9.10 should be relatively easy. Still, I encountered a few problems. The notes below indicate how they can be solved.

• I use a CD containing the the PC (Intel x86) desktop CD version, but after choosing the language, 'install' did not work, the menu stayed on.
• Putting the same contents on a stick (on another Ubuntu 9.10 machine) , using the provided startup disk creator for USB drives

  [system > administration > USB startup disk creator]

  works, the system boots.
• When I did use the VGA port for installation, the system behaved strangely: as soon as I switched to HDMI, sometimes the HDMI output would blank, sometimes the VGA output would blank. So, I did everything with the machine connected to the HDMI TV (a Sony Bravia LCD Digital Color TV). As long as the proprietary ATI driver is not installed, this results in a loss at the edges of the screen, so the top and bottom toolbars are invisible. However, you can get still use them by (blindly) moving the mouse, e.g. to activate the network.
• When installing, I used one partition for the whole disk, thus removing the windoze and Dell partitions. It seems they are not needed and may in fact make things more unstable.
• In order to get network access during the initial installation, I inserted a Belkin wireless G USB adaptor, which can be activated after booting from the USB stick. Of course, it's also possible to use wired network access.
• The specific steps I took are listed below:
  1. Boot from USB stick

     F12 ... > Boot From Device > USB

  2. Install, using a single partition occupying the whole disk.
  3. Reboot from the hard disk.
  4. Activate the network by clicking on the appropriate (invisible) spot on the right of the top toolbar, a popup window announcing the connection will indicate success.
  5. Get a terminal by

     Applications > Accessoires > Terminal

     by (blindly) clicking on the left part of the top toolbar to get at the Applications menu.
  6. Update packages (this takes approx 15mins, depending on network latency)

     apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

  7. Reboot from the hard disk, as suggested by the system.
  8. Select

     System > Administration > Hardware Drivers

     by (blindly) clicking on the left part of the top toolbar to get at the System menu.
  9. Two wireless drivers and the ATI driver show up: select the ATI driver (fglrx).
  10. Reboot from the hard disk, in order to use the new driver. Now, the screen looks perfect.
  11. Activate the two wireless drivers using

      System > Administration > Hardware Drivers

  12. Shutd down, remove the Belkin and memory USB sticks.
  13. Boot from hard disk. The network connection is much better than with the Belkin.
  14. Update the kernel

      apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

  15. The final reboot.
  16. Set audio output to HDMI by selecting it at

      System > Preferences > Sound > Output

• Totem (the default movie player) refuses to play DVD's, or Youtube clips. It turns out that, in addition to the packages in the default install, the following must be installed:

  apt-get install libdvdcss2 
  apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad 
  apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
  apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
  

  A more thorough suggestion can be found here.
• I replaced the wired keyboard and mouse by a wireless Logitech MK300 keyboard & mouse combo. This works 'out of the box'.
• Using

  apt-get install k9copy

  to install the DVD-ripping program k9copy resulted in a program that crashed (when using the mirror). Probably not all kde prereqs are correcty installed. I removed it, then installed korganizer and then reinstalled k9copy. After that, k9copy works.