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Bungo Pony
November 9th, 2009, 11:18 PM
For those of you who bought Netbooks with Linux pre-installed, what version of Linux is/was on it, and did you keep it? If not, please tell us what you installed on it.

My little HP 2140 came pre-installed with Suse 11. I got rid of it due to nearly NOTHING in the repos for useable software. It now runs Xubuntu 8.04


I'm just wondering if there is a trend with putting crappy Linux distros on Netbooks

themusicalduck
November 9th, 2009, 11:22 PM
Mine had linspire lite installed on it. It was terrible. Ugly interface, everything was hidden away. Overly simple and just plain boring. It was definitely geared towards only simple web use.

Used it for about 15 minutes before wiping and putting Ubuntu onto it.

I've also put Ubuntu Moblin and Windows 7 onto it before.

conehead77
November 9th, 2009, 11:27 PM
Dell Mini 9

Ubuntu 8.04 was preinstalled, but customized by Dell. I think i wasnt able to install everything i wanted (so long ago), then i switched to the Netbook Remix.

snowpine
November 9th, 2009, 11:29 PM
My Dell Mini 9 came with Dell/Ubuntu 8.04 LPIA pre-installed. Nothing wrong with it per se, but I like to distro-hop. After trying a bunch (CrunchBang and SliTaz were the runners-up) I ended up with Arch (LXDE desktop).

subdivision
November 9th, 2009, 11:52 PM
No. Bought an Asus 701 Eee PC which came with Xandros. Wiped it and installed Arch.

drawkcab
November 9th, 2009, 11:55 PM
Asus 900a. Xandros was intolerable after having used Ubuntu and others.

I have run eeebuntu, crunchbang and now xubuntu 9.10.

The Funkbomb
November 9th, 2009, 11:57 PM
I hope you guys don't mind me asking but how do you get any sort of performance out of these things?

I just tried Moblin remix and it was absolutely sluggish. Same with UNR. The regular distros like Ubuntu and Xubuntu weren't too much better.

snowpine
November 10th, 2009, 12:24 AM
I hope you guys don't mind me asking but how do you get any sort of performance out of these things?

I just tried Moblin remix and it was absolutely sluggish. Same with UNR. The regular distros like Ubuntu and Xubuntu weren't too much better.

1) What do you mean by "these things"... there are lot of netbooks on the market, with different specs... which one did you try?

2) As I mentioned above, I'm using Arch (a "minimalist" Linux) with LXDE (a "lightweight" desktop environment).

3) Netbooks aren't for playing the latest 3D shooters or number-crunching nuclear secrets... they are for checking your email and surfing Ubuntu Forums. Who cares if loading a page takes half a second instead of a quarter second? :) Netbooks are all about low price and portability, not performance... if performance is your #1 concern (and you don't mind carrying a couple extra pounds) a Core 2 Duo notebook will easily mop the floor with any netbook.

The Funkbomb
November 10th, 2009, 12:26 AM
I don't want to jack this thread. I'll start a new one.

joey-elijah
November 10th, 2009, 12:57 AM
I hope you guys don't mind me asking but how do you get any sort of performance out of these things?

I just tried Moblin remix and it was absolutely sluggish. Same with UNR. The regular distros like Ubuntu and Xubuntu weren't too much better.

You must've had a pretty rubbish spec'ed netbook at your fingertips because most perform most admirably for what they are designed to do which is web, basic office and light media.

A lot of more recent netbooks have much better graphics cards that can pump out 1080p without breaking into a sweat, too which even a lot of current gen integrated DESKTOP gfx chips would struggle to do.

UNR is quick, light-feeling and behaves brilliantly. The fact it looks divine (especially with some simple compiz effects enabled) is by-the-by.

sgosnell
November 10th, 2009, 02:37 AM
My EEE 900 had Asus's customized Xandros on it, and I removed it rather quickly for standard Ubuntu. I can't stand the netbook remix crap, because the performance is poor for some reason. Straight Ubuntu 9.04, with the 2.6.30 kernel, works very well, and is very fast on mine.

drawkcab
November 10th, 2009, 03:16 AM
Ubuntu + LXDE or Crunchbang helps a lot. The new Intel drivers in 9.10 help some too.

I've upgraded the ssd on my 900a which made a lot of difference. Many recommend upgrading the ram to 2gb too.

You just have to remember that multitasking or browsing with 30 tabs open is not what these things are made for.

jimrz
November 10th, 2009, 05:25 AM
Dell mini 9 ... came with dellbuntu 8.04 but had UNR 9.04 installed within a couple of hours after first boot

Flying caveman
November 10th, 2009, 06:12 AM
I have a Classmate / 2gopc it came with Edubuntu 8.04 on it. It got all flaky when I did the updates. running 9.10 netbook remix now,

Its biggest problem is the 800x480 res screen. The size of most dialog boxes goes off screen, so you had to drag the box around, to click on the part you want if you didn't know the shortcut. The default install handled this differently, I think it auto-panned. I wish I knew how to install that sometimes.

I like the way the antiX distro worked on it but the wireless didn't work automatically. I've tried a bunch of different distros on it, almost all of them work well. Some are even alot snappier than ubuntu, but I keep coming back because I'm most familiar with Ubuntu.

I wish I could upgrade the cpu in this thing though. A 1024x600 screen would be nice too.

I still might do a touch screen mod for it and give it to my 3 year old after setting it up on a youtube playlist in fullscreen mode.

Oh, I'm loving this thing now that I've discovered the f11 key, and I don't display the bookmarks toolbar. still have to zoom out a few clicks on some websites though.

Arathorn
November 10th, 2009, 06:35 PM
Mine came with Linpus. Apt name, it really felt crippled. So I installed Kubuntu within an hour after delivery.

thegreenblob
November 10th, 2009, 06:41 PM
Mine came with Dell's version of Ubuntu 8.04, but I wiped it and installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and then after a few months, I decided I didn't want the NBR interface anymore and installed Xubuntu 9.04.

Sven6210
November 16th, 2009, 03:39 PM
The original Xandros Linux was not working very well and I replaced it.

January 2009: first I installed eeebuntu 2.0
May 2009: I moved on to Ubuntu 9.04
October 2009: I moved on to Ubuntu 9.10

eeebuntu 2.0 made trouble with my microphone an Skype and Ekiga did not work very well.

Ubuntu 9.04: microphone finally worked and I was able to used Skype and Ekiga

Ubuntu 9.10: even the WiFi hot key works now after a patch

Mistrblank
November 16th, 2009, 04:56 PM
Voted No, though my HP 1035nr came with XP Home, I did buy it with the intent of the HP MIE (Mobile Internet Experience) which is a custom remix of Ubuntu. Knowing that the hardware had a fully working Ubuntu distro encouraged me that I would be able to install my own base Ubuntu and refer to the MIE partition to get hardware working properly.

It currently runs Win7 evaluation and 9.10 (perfectly).

NormanFLinux
November 16th, 2009, 06:32 PM
I bought an HP Mini 2133 netbook last year. It ran SUSE Enterprise that I hated. Its gone now.