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kevin11951
May 18th, 2011, 11:07 PM
I have a first generation Dell Mini 9, and it only has a 4GB HDD. Ubuntu exceeds this limit by a good amount.

The OS needs to be relatively user friendly, because I am not the only one using it...

Any ideas?

wojox
May 18th, 2011, 11:10 PM
I have an Asus 900 with the 4 GB ssd. I put Arch/Openbox on it (512 mb ram). It runs great.

jhonan
May 18th, 2011, 11:15 PM
I'm running Lubuntu 10.04 on a 4G eeePC 701 and it's snappy.

IWantFroyo
May 18th, 2011, 11:16 PM
I second Arch. You can install GDM or LightDM, so the "other people" can access it.

y-lee
May 18th, 2011, 11:19 PM
Not 100% sure it will work with your hardware but I highly recommend Bodhi Linux. It is based on Ubuntu 10.04 and uses the enlightenment Window manager. Comes with almost no software installed by default, but enlightenment is easy to use, very light on resources and highly customizable. BTW Bodhi has a few more up to date packages here and there than Ubuntu 10.04. System Requirements :


300mhz i386 Processor
128megs of RAM
1.5g HD space


Be careful what you install and it should be well suited for your netbook.

Also of interest is Slitaz which I believe may even be lighter in resources. I have never installed Slitaz but I was impressed at running it off of a live usb. Slitaz is a bit different than Ubuntu for example has its own package manager and so on. It is based on the Open Box window manager and uses Busy Box instead of bash. At least version 1.0 stable does, the last version I played with.

Good Luck and I am sure others have different recommendations.

Good Luck.

mamamia88
May 18th, 2011, 11:45 PM
running debian stable on mine with chrome experimental branch. runs great. it won't give me the option to suspend but it boots so fast i just shut it down

smellyman
May 18th, 2011, 11:50 PM
with just a 4 gig drive I would run puppy.

JustinR
May 18th, 2011, 11:51 PM
Ubuntu itself only takes up around 2.6GBs of space, so it's possible to install Ubuntu on your netbook.

NormanFLinux
May 19th, 2011, 12:21 AM
If its the Mini 9 with an Intel Poulsbo chip, you have two options: put on PCLOS which supports it or upgrade Ubuntu to the latest kernel 2.6.39.0 which will support it.

Plumtreed
May 19th, 2011, 12:27 AM
A good OS for your netbook would be one of the Peppermint OSs. Peppermint offers two choices PeppermintTwo and PeppermintICE. I use ICE on a eeePC701 and find it works brilliantly for me when combined with some web apps. The full featured version will still fit on your machine. Both have evolved from Ubuntu and offer access to the software we are used to in Synaptics.

http://peppermintos.com

kaldor
May 19th, 2011, 12:31 AM
Windows Vista 64-bit Ultimate, no doubt!

Really though... why are people recommending Arch? I doubt he wants to spend that much time getting something working.

I recommend Debian 6 or Debian Testing. It's like Ubuntu, but you can build up on it and only use what you need. Get a Minimal install ISO

wojox
May 19th, 2011, 04:50 AM
It's like Ubuntu, but you can build up on it and only use what you need. Get a Minimal install ISO

Just like Arch? Oh no wait, Arch is more lightweight I forgot.

NightwishFan
May 19th, 2011, 04:52 AM
Ubuntu is minimal as well..
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

Bapun007
May 19th, 2011, 05:11 AM
use puppy linux for a hd of 4 gb

Wim Sturkenboom
May 19th, 2011, 05:23 AM
Just installed crunchbang yesterday on an Acer Aspire One with 8GB HD and 512MB to replace UNR. Added another browser (I can't find my way with chromium) and printer stuff. Cleaned up the apt cache and it takes 2GB total. Still around 5GB free.

frankbooth
May 19th, 2011, 11:12 AM
I'm running Lubuntu 10.04 on a 4G eeePC 701 and it's snappy.

+1, I also use Lubuntu on my eeePC :)

U-Ren
May 19th, 2011, 11:19 AM
+1, I also use Lubuntu on my eeePC :)

I've tried Ubuntu Netbook 10.10 in a fairly new netbook and it worked slow. So yep, give Lubuntu or smaller distros a go.

bartos
May 19th, 2011, 11:53 AM
use puppy linux for a hd of 4 gb

I have a 2 gig SSD with puppy on it.
Everything you need.

anaconda
May 19th, 2011, 12:20 PM
DamnSmallLinux (DSL)
or
puppy

DSL is reaaly good and light os. I learned a lot about linux when using it.

neu5eeCh
May 19th, 2011, 12:26 PM
Here's an article you might find helpful:

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/whats-best-lightweight-linux-distro

I've tried Slitaz and was impressed. Let us all know what you choose and how it works.

t0p
May 19th, 2011, 12:52 PM
I have ye olde Asus EeePC 701 - that's the one with a 4GB SSD. I run a *buntu on it quite successfully. Here's how:


The EeePC 701 has a built-in SD card reader. I got a 8GB SD card, formatted it to ext4, and put it in the card reader, where it lives permanently.
The 701 came with 256MB of RAM. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB.
I got an .iso of Lubuntu (http://lubuntu.net) 10.10 (an LXDE-based *buntu), and I installed it so / is on the 4GB SSD and /home is on the 8GB SD card. That's still only 12GB, but it's enough for me.

Result: a snappy lil netbook running a *buntu. Of course, 12GB of disk space is a little limiting - but it's a netbook, which I use when I'm out and about, and I don't need all my videos, music files nd stuff on it all the time. Plus I use USB flash sticks to increase storage space when necessary.

I was a little narked when netbooks began to be released with humungous HDDs. But the SSD is cool. I have dropped my netbook more times than I care to remember, and it still works good as ever. A traditional HDD would have died a long, long time ago.

neu5eeCh
May 19th, 2011, 12:59 PM
Windows Vista 64-bit Ultimate, no doubt!

Surely you mean the Vista 64-Bit Professional Ultimate Supreme Premium (Golden Platinum Edition) version? *



* [Boots in 38 Minutes].