The best Netbook Operating System

I am sure that these stripped down versions of Unix will function very well on a netbook, but I have found Windows 7 Home Premium to work very well on my Asus 1000HE.

Especially since I found out how to run 1024*768 compressed with the Intel W7 video driver - even works fine with Aero.

All these OS's are great, but there is only so much time in the day !
 
What about Ubuntu Netbook Remix?

I have been running UNR for a few months on my 10" Aspire One. I love it. Ubuntu One Cloud storage is a great way to sync docs between my netbook, my desktop, and my less portable laptop. It also syncs Tom Boy Notes.
 
Ya, great article, but howcome standard Ubuntu Netbook Remix didn't get a mention?
I haven't installed the 9.10 version yet, but 9.04 was great. Apparently the new one is even better.
 
Gonna try the ubuntu one, how big is the install?

Does 3g work on it? I mean will my onboard 3g work?
 
All this is fine but the main purpose of a Netbook is portability. While you are at an airport you can use wi-fi to connect and all the operating systems proposed will do fine. However, once you are outside wi-fi reach you are in trouble because none of the Linux operating systems can handle a modem of any kind. Best is to stay with Microsoft's products. At least you can buy a modem off the shelf anywhere in the world and it will work immediately.
 
Jolicloud FTW!! I ran xp, win 7 and UNR on my laptop. But the new Jolicloud with GMA500 support is the best all round OS for my netbook i found.. And i can now play 720p and 1080p smoothly without tearing.. Yeay for Jolicloud!
 
LongOne said:
All this is fine but the main purpose of a Netbook is portability. While you are at an airport you can use wi-fi to connect and all the operating systems proposed will do fine. However, once you are outside wi-fi reach you are in trouble because none of the Linux operating systems can handle a modem of any kind. Best is to stay with Microsoft's products. At least you can buy a modem off the shelf anywhere in the world and it will work immediately.
Click to expand...

actually, support for 3G modems is very good. Even the built in HSDPA modem on my "not made for Linux and so new it has no proper wifi drivers for Windows 7 yet" Lenovo Thinkpad works perfectly out of the box on Ubuntu.

Edit: Have you actually tried to use a 3G modem with Linux recently, or are you just guessing?
 
I have the flagship EEE PC the 2G Surf. Of those distro's listed in the article only one can actually be installed. Puppy Linux.

I found Xubuntu 7 to be the best of the alternative distros that can actually be installed on the 2Gb SDD, but I'm back to using the original distro that came with the PC. Asus obviously did their homework and customizations, because Xandros is the best for this baby PC. It boots the fastest (under 20 seconds).
 
LongOne said:
All this is fine but the main purpose of a Netbook is portability. While you are at an airport you can use wi-fi to connect and all the operating systems proposed will do fine. However, once you are outside wi-fi reach you are in trouble because none of the Linux operating systems can handle a modem of any kind. Best is to stay with Microsoft's products. At least you can buy a modem off the shelf anywhere in the world and it will work immediately.
Click to expand...

That is shocking, i bought a netbook for the internet when i am out, crazy that linux does not support any modems.

That jolicloud looks insane going to try it as well.

Wow so many lekka OS's to try out.
 
rogerwe said:
I have the flagship EEE PC the 2G Surf. Of those distro's listed in the article only one can actually be installed. Puppy Linux.
Click to expand...

Puppy Linux is quite cool. The whole OS runs in memory all at once.

You can actually burn a bootable install of Puppy Linux onto a CD and run it from there and as you need to write new files it just continues burning on the outer edge of the CD or DVD. That or run it from a flash drive and as the whole thing loads into memory it apparently doesn't impact on performance too much except for tasks that are storage I/O intensive.
 
I've been running UNR 9.10 on my Aspre one - 8gig from the first release date. Not one glitch yet. Every strange device I have plugged in to a USB port was detected and worked first time. Only strange thing is that the wifi light used to work, but after all the updates, it does'nt work any more. Was fixed with first release of 9.10.
 
killadoob said:
That is shocking, i bought a netbook for the internet when i am out, crazy that linux does not support any modems.

That jolicloud looks insane going to try it as well.

Wow so many lekka OS's to try out.
Click to expand...

not to worry, see my post just above yours. And Asterisk T's on top of page 2. You'll get great modem support.

Edit: you can test most of these by booting off a memory stick without reinstalling your Netbook. Then plug in a modem and see if it works.
 
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Ya it is built in so i will give it a go :D. Worst thing that can happen is not it ain't supported and then back to windows but if it is support then i got a new toy to mess around with :D
 
K3NS31 said:
Edit: Have you actually tried to use a 3G modem with Linux recently, or are you just guessing?
Click to expand...

I installed Ubuntu on my wife's old laptop during the December holidays. Could not get the built-in modem working and then started doing research. Found that modem support in Linux is non-existant.
 
LongOne said:
I installed Ubuntu on my wife's old laptop during the December holidays. Could not get the built-in modem working and then started doing research. Found that modem support in Linux is non-existant.
Click to expand...

strange. Were u not using a standard Huawei 3G modem? Just asking cos that's the most prevalent make in SA and it's quite well supported, driver-wise.
 
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