Best Netbook OS? • Non-Gaming • General Non-gaming • Eurogamer.net

Deleted user 9 April 2011 21:20:25

Wotcha. Wanting to put a better OS on my netbook other than Win 7 Starter, which is a wee bit too sluggish for my tastes. Am currently downloading Meego, Joli OS and Moblin, but wondered if anyone had any recommendations or thoughts on those, or others.

Not a fan of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, don't particularly like the interface. Did try Android on it as well, and whilst I bloody love it as an interface, it seems incompatible with my wifi, so that's out unless I mess about tweaking.

Fanks!

Dirtbox 9 Apr 2011 21:22:54 90,175 posts
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Dirtbox 9 Apr 2011 21:39:04 90,175 posts
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DaM 9 Apr 2011 21:41:21 17,058 posts
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I use Jolicloud, or OS as it is now. I can't be arsed with the social aspect bolted on.

Works fine, never had any issues with it.

Managed to get network printing set up very easily today, took me a lot longer with Ubuntu.

I was fiddling with my mother-in-law's running XP, I can't think why you would want that on such a small machine, it's just so fiddly.

Dirtbox 9 Apr 2011 21:54:09 90,175 posts
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Deleted user 9 April 2011 22:06:34

Sadly this is just something crappy with an Intel GMA (albeit a reasonably recent one, as if that makes a sodding difference, I just grabbed the cheapest one I could as it's only for RDP, google talk and word processing). I just don't get on with Ubuntu by default, I guess. Nothing against the OS, just summak about how it feels bugs me that I don't get with other Linux distros.

Might give Kubuntu Remix a try though, see if I get on with that.

caligari 9 Apr 2011 22:17:17 17,920 posts
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Have you tried Um Bongo?

Deleted user 9 April 2011 22:28:31

On Joli OS now! Lovely interface, clean and fast.

Ginger 9 Apr 2011 22:29:07 7,248 posts
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Crunchbang is a Linux distro based on ubuntu but stripped right back and using flux as window manager - fast as hell, bit does require tweaking a bit.

Deleted user 9 April 2011 22:30:12

Ginger wrote:
Crunchbang is a Linux distro based on ubuntu but stripped right back and using flux as window manager - fast as hell, bit does require tweaking a bit.

I wish I knew what half of that meant.

el_pollo_diablo 9 Apr 2011 22:30:24 2,767 posts
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Hackintosh?

Dirtbox 9 Apr 2011 22:35:03 90,175 posts
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grey_matters 9 Apr 2011 22:35:56 4,367 posts
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There are versions of Linux Mint with lighter windows managers which might be worth a look.

matt6666 9 Apr 2011 22:54:44 2,620 posts
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Quite liked ubunto.. Makes you feel like a super hacker when you use linux

Goban 13 Apr 2011 21:19:50 9,939 posts
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Just installed joli OS, very nice indeed.

mal 13 Apr 2011 21:26:01 29,326 posts
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I used to use Ubuntu, and quicky switched off the crappy netbook remix thingy. I've now switched to Debian using XFCE for a desktop which does make it look a bit like an Amiga circa 1989 but it runs like shit off a shovel now. It's a pretty crappy single core Atom, Intel graphics jobby. I have upgraded the RAM and the SSD though, which helps.

urban 13 Apr 2011 21:32:22 13,009 posts
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Win 7 runs perfect on mine.

Deleted user 14 April 2011 13:51:06

Well, that was an experience. I bought the cheapest one I could, and it subsequently died on its arse this morning, wouldn't properly power on or hold a charge. Took it back (pcworldlol) and they didn't have any of the same make in, so upgraded me to a nicer one with a discount. Has Android built in and a better Atom processor, woo. Though Android on a netbook is fucking useless, I've discovered. It boots in about two seconds, which is nice admittedly, but it still has the phone interface so it's ridiculously unwieldy, and worst of all has no fucking Market support at all so it's literally just a quick booting webbrowser.

figgis 14 Apr 2011 14:01:00 7,707 posts
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Jolicloud is excellent for shit notebooks, don't do OS upgrades online (they can take ages) just do another complete USB install.

caligari 1 Nov 2011 23:03:16 17,920 posts
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I'm picking up a Netbook with Windows 7 Starter. I've heard nothing but bad things when it comes to this OS.

I have Windows 7 Premium (I think) on my desktop PC.

Probably a stoopid question, but is there any kind of 'upgrade' deal for 7 Starter, if you already have Premium on one of your computers? I'm sure I remember reading something along these lines, but it could have just been a bad dream fuelled by too much low-fat cheese spread.

Edited by caligari at 23:04:04 01-11-2011

Deleted user 26 June 2013 20:08:12

A pointless bump for a pointless update - I've been using Porteus (http://www.porteus.org/) for a while now on my netbook, and it's absolutely awesome. Loads the entire OS + whatever programs you select into RAM, so for basic office shit and web browsing it runs faster than Edward Snowdon at last boarding call.

grey_matters 26 Jun 2013 21:02:57 4,367 posts
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Looks nice. Might give this a go.

TheRealBadabing 27 Jun 2013 08:10:56 1,764 posts
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Would this sort of thing help revive an old XP laptop?

Have one we bought a while ago and would like to get some use out of it but it is very slow to boot and even browsing on chrome isn't fun.

It has a FAT partitioned hard drive which looks like it complicates things for porteus. Is there a recommended OS I could install to the HDD and completely delete XP from the machine? Only want to use it for a bit of basic office stuff and browsing.

FrostPan 27 Jun 2013 09:37:08 1,453 posts
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A noob question. I've got Windows 7 Starter on my netbook, but want to use the OS's you guys have recommended. Is it possible for me to use Microsoft Office program suite and play Windows PC (e,g steam) games on them?

grey_matters 27 Jun 2013 10:32:59 4,367 posts
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FrostPan wrote:
A noob question. I've got Windows 7 Starter on my netbook, but want to use the OS's you guys have recommended. Is it possible for me to use Microsoft Office program suite and play Windows PC (e,g steam) games on them?

Nope. There will be a mostly-compatible office suite and there is now a version of Steam for Linux (smaller library though) but you can mostly forget about running Windows software on a Linux netbook.

grey_matters 27 Jun 2013 10:34:28 4,367 posts
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TheRealBadabing wrote:
Would this sort of thing help revive an old XP laptop?

Have one we bought a while ago and would like to get some use out of it but it is very slow to boot and even browsing on chrome isn't fun.

It has a FAT partitioned hard drive which looks like it complicates things for porteus. Is there a recommended OS I could install to the HDD and completely delete XP from the machine? Only want to use it for a bit of basic office stuff and browsing.

Linux Mint LXDE might suit, if meme's suggestion doesn't for any reason.

warlockuk 27 Jun 2013 11:42:54 19,417 posts
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CP/M