View Full Version : Linux Netbook
Hi guys,
I have a netbook which i use for school-wrok at the moment, however i would like for it to be a little more snappy as such, due to the fact i underestimated the importance of 2gb memory.
So brief specs are as follows:
- Intel Atom 1.66Ghz
- 1 GB memory (not sure which type).
- 250gb hard drive.
Im looking at dual-booting a linux distribution on to it to use instead? However i'm new to linux :( Will it be worth it? Will i see much of a difference? I need to still be able to access/modify standard microsoft office documents (such as .docx) files. Will this be possible?
Also, any suggestions on which version i should go for, and how to go about installing it?
Thanks.
It's definitely worth it. All of the Linux distros that I have used have used less resources than Windows 7.
You can use OpenOffice/LibreOffice to access/modify Microsoft Office documents.
I would suggest Linux Mint or Ubuntu to begin with.
One more vote for Linux Mint.
You can easily install it to a flash drive and boot from that if you want to test it out first although it won't be as quick as running from a hard drive.
iGoD ReLeNtLeS
04-06-11, 13:02
another for ubuntu, really good for beginners use, nice and simple, and has a good driver support.
Had a quick YouTube scan to see what all the fuss is about and ubuntu seems like it will suit my needs with openoffice :)
Thing is I don't want to uninstall windows incase I ever need to run a windows specific application. Will it be okay to dual-boot it instead then?
Yeah, but I'd suggest you google Ubuntu 11.04 [laptop make] - as a lot of laptops have problems with ubuntu and their wireless cards.
I vote for Puppy linux, which is designed to be light and easy for Windows users to pick up. The latest version Puppy 5.25 is based on Ubuntu binaries and can use the Ubuntu repositories as well as the Puppy ones.
I use it. One of it's neat tricks is that it runs entirely in memory with > 256Mb. Another is that you can use it entirely from more or less any storage device CD/DVD,/USB, Disk that you can boot from. And the most useful is that you can use it in "frugal" mode where it behaves as if it was a live CD but saves all your work.
This means that you can install Puppy on the same partition as Windows and, by installing Grub4Dos as a command line executable, start it with an extra entry in the Windows boot manager (I actually do it differently, but ho ho whatever fits the bill).
All the install does in this case is copy the files from the CD to the disk and Grub4Dos as well and then modifies the ini file for Grub4Dos to start Puppy.
I actually prefer to partition the disk and create a couple of Gb FAT32 partition for Puppy to use and put my own boot manager in control of Windows boot manager and Grub4Dos
What you need to realize is that most boot managers can quite happily call another one at the same or lower level in a tree-like structure and that boot managers can live in three places (well 4 if the BIOS has one as well).
1) in a Volume boot sector - volume being disk, USB stick, CD, DVD, memory card etc. One for each Volume. This is where the BIOS passes control to.
2) if the Volume can be partitioned, in the partition boot sector (yes one for each partition). The Volume boot manager may/usually pass/es control to one one these.
3) as an Executable in a file system. There could be several of these as each is treated just like any other program and can be invoked from any of the others. This is actually what Windows boot managers are (and why the implementation is so clumsy), the volume and partition boot are set to just pass control down in Windows case
see: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=61348
iGoD ReLeNtLeS
04-06-11, 19:47
Yeah, but I'd suggest you google Ubuntu 11.04 [laptop make] - as a lot of laptops have problems with ubuntu and their wireless cards.
You should 'force-enable' the wireless in the BIOS if your having issues with installing the driver when installing ubuntu, alot of the time ubuntu doesnt install a driver because it doesnt know the card is there. :thumb:
Burn-it, as much as your post looks very helpful, and don't take this the wrong way, but it's jargon to me :(
That's OK, just try Puppy Linux. The rest may then mean something. I thought you were a bit more experienced.
Nope :P Getting the hang on PC hardware. Software?... NOPE :P
I think what i might do is just try both out for a couple of days and see which i prefer. I'm looking for speed and responsiveness, but still the ability to do my office stuff :)
Look in power management settings, my netbook was set to 50% cpu on battery, making it unusuable.
Yes, that also applies to most machines running on batteries.
I have both my laptops set to run at max, and I even bought a supersize battery for the one I do actually use from battery.
+1 for Ubuntu Netbook Edition. I run it on my Acer Aspire One and it's lovely and simple to use (even the missus uses it). Only issue I had was not being able to put the wireless into monitor mode but that was quickly resolved with a USB dongle with a chipset + drivers that support it.
The best thing to do:
Download a live image of each, burn it to a USB stick and boot from that USB stick, you can then test out near enough all Linux distro's that way without touching the hard drive of your netbook, it's what makes Linux so easy to try out :D
I am currently back on Windows 7 but i have Ubuntu 11.04 burnt to a USB disk for emergencies, am personally waiting for Ubuntu 11.10 to polish their new interface a bit more.
So yeah, try it on a USB stick, you can't go wrong with it.
spleenharvester
09-06-11, 13:29
however i would like for it to be a little more snappy as such,
SSD ;)
also have a research for Wine, it allows you to run quite a lot of windows apps/games on linux with surprising compatibility, might be an option depending on the windows programs you use.
mrnothersan
14-06-11, 15:38
You could upgrade the memory if there are any free slots. You could check if there are any free slots using a program such as CPU-Z. If there are free slots I would upgrade to 4GB of
memory. Crucial have a nice tool in which you can select your Laptop make/model and it gives you different RAM that is compatible. You can order off their website or from somewhere else such as Aria. You could maybe consider an SSD as they are much faster than a HDD.
Regards
Mr. Grapes
14-06-11, 15:50
Burn-it, as much as your post looks very helpful, and don't take this the wrong way, but it's jargon to me :(
quite simply, puppy is tiny. absolutely no fat in it. it really fast even on old systems and on netbooks it just flies. it soesn't have some of the shine that ubuntu or mint has, but doesn't need a juggernaut to run.
I've had it pick up and run hardware (wireless cards) that ubuntu takes days of fiddling to get working.
there are also hundreds of different user made 'puplets' which have taken the base configuration and tweaked to to something unique.
it really good :)
One of my most recent setups was actually to fall back to Ubuntu 10.10.
I cant abide the Unity desktop that seems to have come out with 11.04 its HORRIBLE and surprisingly enough the 10.10 desk edition works really well with my MSI Wind (http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/MSI+Wind+U130+10.1%22+Netbook+?productId=42980). Remember Unity needs a minimum of around 800mb of ram for the desktop and most netbooks only have the solotary 1gb.
However if you are a fan of apple and fancy a bit of the shiny OS without spending stupid amounts of money...get Ubuntu 10.10 on your netbook and put a piece of software on it called MacBuntu :D its genius and still runs amazingly well!
EDIT: Also as a side note if you want to do it without running the risk that you cant flash back to Win7 if you dont get on with it - you can leave the recovery partition sat there even with the Ubuntu OS runnin as a main OS and restore from the BIOS if you want. (Gotta love a disk less society!)
If your new to linux you should get Ubuntu 11.10 it's the easiest distro to use by far an it comes pre-installed with Libre-Office and alot of other useful programs.
jointhedotz
29-10-11, 16:04
i'd vote puppy or linux mint, I run mint on my eee900 (celeron at 900 mhz) and it's perfect, puppy's great but I'd suggest trying mint first then going for puppy if mint isn't as fast as you'd hoped
If your new to linux you should get Ubuntu 11.10 it's the easiest distro to use by far an it comes pre-installed with Libre-Office and alot of other useful programs.
That's a huge over statement.
It's easy, but hardly "the easiest by far". In fact I'd argue it isn't even "the easiest" - just the most widely publicised.
Went for Ubuntu 11.04 on my netbook, liked it enough and put it on my home server and laptop too xD
Should probably update though. :)
I would update mate, 11.04 Unity GUI has some glaring bugs fixed in 11.10
Went for Ubuntu 11.04 on my netbook, liked it enough and put it on my home server and laptop too xD
Should probably update though. :)
I could understand putting it on your netbook and laptop, but home server!?
Seriously mate, put FreeNAS on there. Ubuntu Desktop has no place on servers what-so-ever.
GSVRasputin
31-10-11, 08:09
I could understand putting it on your netbook and laptop, but home server!?
Seriously mate, put FreeNAS on there. Ubuntu Desktop has no place on servers what-so-ever.
Don't put him off too soon, We have a convert:p. Ubuntu Server is quite nice for a new user to set up file/printer sharing and even IP routing. A Friend Lahn from uni runs it happily.
@Cosford, Glad to hear that you have settled with Ubuntu. It's a nice Distro with good support and a large Community. Once you are comfortable running it think about running some of the lighter versions like Xbuntu or Lbuntu which are super speedy and will still be familar to you.
I could understand putting it on your netbook and laptop, but home server!?
Seriously mate, put FreeNAS on there. Ubuntu Desktop has no place on servers what-so-ever.
Bit of an exaggeration, ubuntu is fine for a home server. It's just debian with frills, at the end of the day.
Don't put him off too soon, We have a convert:p. Ubuntu Server is quite nice for a new user to set up file/printer sharing and even IP routing. A Friend Lahn from uni runs it happily.
That's Ubuntu Server, not Ubuntu Desktop.
Plus FreeNAS has all that stuff already bundled in and a nice user friendly config frontend served via HTTP - so even complete n00bs can run it headless.
I'm not saying you can't run Ubuntu as a server. I'm just saying there's much better alternatives (both technically and in terms of usability)
Bit of an exaggeration, ubuntu is fine for a home server.
Not really no.
As I said above, just because it will run on a home server doesn't mean it's well suited for one given the plethora of alternatives aimed at the unfamiliar.
I mean, FreeNAS is specially and specifically built for exactly this - so it is significantly easier to run on a home server.
It's just debian with frills, at the end of the day.
It's really not. Granted Ubuntu started off that way, but the fork is now a very different beast to it's parent.
Though they still share a common package management system, Debian has some core architecture differences which allow for more portability (not just CPU architecture, but even with non-Linux kernels). Where as Ubuntu's differences are higher level (mainly around widget toolkits, but as Ubuntu is shifting focus towards Wayland, we'll start to see more and more core-graphics libraries forked).
Anyway, I'm not saying people shouldn't experiment with Linux. I just think theres more user friendly home server distros/OSs to experiment with.
There probably is, but for the purpose i'm using it for (just internal file sharing) it works lovely :)
There probably is, but for the purpose i'm using it for (just internal file sharing) it works lovely :)
FreeNAS would be perfect for that. It's designed specifically for doing that sort of thing and is aimed at those who aren't Linux/unix savvy so is dead easy.
I do think it's worth your time loading it into a Virtual Machine (VMWare or VirtualBox) and having a play in there. that way you can just delete the VM when you're done and you've not had to wipe Ubuntu from your home server.
http://www.freenas.org/
sorry if I sound pushy, but it really is a powerful yet beautifully simple to use OS for home servers :)
But does it do anything Ubuntu can't that makes it with my time to bother with?
As In, anything that I could use it for?
But does it do anything Ubuntu can't that makes it with my time to bother with?
As In, anything that I could use it for?
Well clearly it does otherwise I wouldn't have recommended it :p
However if you're happy with Ubuntu and don't fancy experimenting then you're best sticking with your current set up. (no point fixing something that isn't broken). But if and when you do fancy experimenting again and / or need to rebuild your home server, just remember to give FreeNAS a consideration before installing your default choice :)
try Slax linux, and copy it onto an SD card, it gives you a file called Makeboot or somthing which makes the sd card bootable then just leave itt in your netbook and boot to it using your boot options when needed saves messing about trying to install it
try Slax linux, and copy it onto an SD card, it gives you a file called Makeboot or somthing which makes the sd card bootable then just leave itt in your netbook and boot to it using your boot options when needed saves messing about trying to install it
But then you lose a free SD card slot
I came across this thread on the Linux forum, Post by 'Robin' gives some good insight into how to make a Linux install run faster
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=54945
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