Linux for netbooks

[The IT Hound]

At the last meetup, Fahad had linux running on his Dell. I've got an NC10, can anyone recommend a fast Linux OS that doesn't require much tweaking and runs out of the box? I am sick of sluggish windows!

Thanks

Carl

[Fahad Ayaz]

I would recommend that you try Ubuntu as its pretty good for new Linux users to get the hang of it.

You can stick it on a usb stick (as you can with most Linux distributions nowadays) and try it out without it affecting your system at all. If you think it works well, you can proceed to install it.

www.ubuntu.com

They have a new thing, i can't remember what it's called where you can even just try it out in the browser first. It might be called Ubuntu playground.

Speaking of browsers, chromiumOS might be good too depending on your needs.

Good luck! Let me know if you need any help! :)

--
Fahad Ayaz
Birmingham GTUG Manager
http://gplus.to/fahadayaz

[Carl Hughes]

Awesome - As you know I am an advocate of 100% online working but there are some scenarios where I need an OS to do things like:

Google Apps migration using Outlook

Creating USB install disks

Syncing music with Google!

So My plan is to have a dual boot of Tiny7 and Ubuntu on the NC10 netbook.

Occasionally I use the netbook to backup clients computers and need a fair size of disk space (150gb) - normally I make a network share in Windows on the netbook, but wondering if I should make the Linux partition the larger one and use that as the share? Assume windows PCs will detect a Linux partition?

Chromium is an excellent idea and I may have it on a USB drive so I can run it on any computer.

Cheers for your help!

Carl

[Fahad Ayaz]

Yeah, Ubuntu would be better for general use I reckon.

Well, Microsoft being Microsoft they don't support Linux so they don't see Linux partitions by default. You need to install a piece of software for that. Linux sees windows though, no problem.

I do have windows installed on my PC but i can't really remember the last time I used it. It takes up around 40gigs and the rest I use as Linux partitions.

I suggest make 30 gigs for Ubuntu whilst you're testing out the install (you may not like it) and you can resize it later if you decide to keep it.

--
Fahad Ayaz
Birmingham GTUG Manager
http://gplus.to/fahadayaz

[Michael Basil]

I only use Windows for annoying things like updating Samsung phones
using the hideous Kies software. Luckily, once Cyanogenmod is
installed, this is no longer necessary.

Windows is a terrible drive space hog. The Windows partition is 60Gb
and almost full whereas my Linux partitions are 20Gb which more
software installed and more free space.

I would also say try Ubuntu first because it will probably work best
with less fuss.

Windows PCs can detect a Linux partition when shared through Samba
which is what you use to create a network share. It just appears as a
normal share on Windows - the file system type is ignored.
Michael

[Carl Hughes]

Well I've got Windows tiny7 and Ubuntu 11.10 (2d) running on my Samsung NC10. Only problem with Ubuntu is the choppyness of the video both BBCiplayer, YouTube and other flashbased video content sites. Any ideas on how I can rectifty this?

Intel Atom CPU 1.60GHzX2

32bit

2gb memory

Cheers

Cheers Carl

[Michael Basil]

What version of Flash Player is it using? I usually find running the
newest versions of Flash helps - even if it's beta or pre-release
versions, although I've never noticed them be much buggier than the
final versions.

Michael

[Carl Hughes]

Awesome so now I can truly dump windows!

Enjoy your days and thanks a lot!

Carl

[Fahad Ayaz]

If you use Ubuntu (not sure if it works with other linux distros), you can install a Firefox extension called Flash Aid and that will get you the latest version of Adobe Flash, right off of their website. It's pretty useful!

[Michael Basil]

And also install FlashBlock on Chrome or Firefox so Flash is only
running when you want to it to.

Michael

[Fahad Ayaz]

Oh yeah, good point!  :)

-- 

Fahad Ayaz

Birmingham GTUG Manager

http://gplus.to/fahadayaz

http://gplus.to/birminghamgtug