Netbook alternative to Ubuntu?

I have just installed the brand new Lucid Lynx Ubuntu 10.04 for netbooks version on a Samsung NC10. The vendors told me that the OEM XP was the only operating system that would work in it and that changing it to Linux would mean the end of the world, or at least my netbook. As it happened, the install worked perfectly, the wireless broadband was up and running in less than a minute and the oS is gorgeous. All that Linux stability and power with a pretty face. Can't argue with that.

This is easy... slackware 13.0 here. on an asus eeepc.

Even though Arch Linux is optimized for i686, I think it could be a good option. I do not own a netbook my own, but I would like to run Arch on one if I had one.

My vote goes for Jolicloud. When I purchased my Acer AspireOne 250, it wasn't out of the box for 2 minutes before I was installing some form of Linux on it. I was looking for the right mix of performance, features, and stability - and found that in Jolicloud.

Others that I've played with that work fairly well:

1. Ubuntu Netbook Remix
2. Ubuntu 9.10
3. Xubuntu

Jolicloud has got a great interface, you can still drop to command line and install software that isn't in their application section, and it performs really well. I found, for me, that UNR was sluggish at times on battery, whereas I don't feel that same issue with Jolicloud.

Hope this helps!

Jay

Well, I don't use netbooks myself. I do understand there are a few important things to keep in mind.

I prefer not to use the cloud. So, if I were to install Linux on a netbook, I'd look for the following:

1. LiveUSB availability.
2. Small size.
3. Simplicity and flexibility.

Arch is a Linux distribution that falls into this category nicely. You can put the installer image onto a thumb drive and boot from it on the netbook, install Arch onto your netbook.

This works because Arch installs only its core to the system, and also offers a straight up build system as well as a full binary package system. From there you can build a completely custom setup onto the netbook. You can even build software patches explicitly for use on netbooks, including the Linux kernel itself.

As for X and any window managers or desktop environments you'd use, even though KDE 4.4 brings a lot of things to the table that makes life easier for netbook users, it has one glaring flaw: Its size. Netbooks aren't really renowned for having lots of storage space or memory, which KDE is usually somewhat hungry for.

No, for netbooks I'd use something like Fluxbox, or Xfce. Though Fluxbox doesn't offer an "icon box" to save space in its panel, it is lightweight and even old machines can run it comfortably. Xfce is also a lightweight a netbook could handle, and it does have the aforementioned icon box.

I don't suggest the cloud for a few reasons. It's not really the place to point this out, but I am against the cloud, I feel its a foolish and unnecessary regression in computing. We already had distributed remote computing. Personal computing was largely meant to pull us away from the concept of us not computing or doing our work on our own computers. Not to mention many companies intend to capitalize on it, despite the fact that we were able to do these things in a much more secure and efficient way for free on our own hardware. I see no need for the cloud.

If space is your concern, then I can point out that you can effectively turn your netbook into a thin client by gearing up SSH for port forwarding and serving GUI apps over a network or the Internet. That way your netbook is still not bogged down with loads of data on its storage, but you, the user have full control over your computing, as you're running the machine serving up the software. The reason the cloud comes up so much in netbooks is Windows. Windows is huge. And so is its software. Pretty much the only way to "comfortably" use a Windows netbook is to use the cloud.

Honestly, though, seeing as how Linux apps are generally small affairs, you won't even need an SSH tunnel.

I am very happy here with sidux (Debian sid with some tweaks; www.sidux.com ). I installed the xfce version, but to keep the performance high (very high even) I installed Enlightenment E17 in it which is very low on system resources and makes my Acer Aspire One very fast and smooth-looking. Especially since I use the Ecomorph options now available for E17 (similar to Compiz, with desktop cube, wobbly windows etc.). So lots of eyecandy and showing off without loosing the performance of a light and fast WM. E17 has a netbook mode that switches off some of the more resource-hungry modules but in my experience this is not even really needed. A sober desktop background can help though.

E17 now contains a network manager called exalt, which makes connecting to wifi very simple. A great tool. It stores favorites for different locations so after a first login anywhere I never have to do anything coming back to the same place.

Instructions on how to install E17 in Debian sid are here: http://www.sidux.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=16300

I would like to suggest PClinuxOS, you never know until you try!!

A major issue with all current netbook-installable Linux OS's is the fact that a lot of netbooks utilize the Intel GDM500 chipset, which is very poorly supported with drivers. The only exception is JollyColud, but it barely works there, too.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the driver works with xserver versions 1.7 and less, and this is already obsolete. So, new versions of these OS's will not be able to support this chipset.