Best OS for Netbook?

Oooojar · 13 Jul 2010 at 14:23

I am using Jolicloud on my eeepc 1005p. I like it a lot.

Also, it seems like version 1.0 is out this week:

http://www.mobilewhack.com/jolicloud-1-0-should-be-available-this-week/

alex24 · 13 Jul 2010 at 14:57

Oooojar said:
I am using Jolicloud on my eeepc 1005p. I like it a lot.

Also, it seems like version 1.0 is out this week:

http://www.mobilewhack.com/jolicloud-1-0-should-be-available-this-week/

Thanks for the update.

Rich_L · 15 Jul 2010 at 05:42

Yeah saw that, will definitely give it a go, at the very least the live CD but given our rubbish internetz connection here and that I'm on the move a lot, off-line apps are still needed way more - no good needing to do some work on google docs if I end up somewhere with a flaky wi-fi connection etc

arsen · 15 Jul 2010 at 17:48

Moblin.

Roland0 · 15 Jul 2010 at 23:27

arsen said:
Moblin.

Serious?

Outcast · 17 Jul 2010 at 13:55

I wouldn't use a netbook for word processing, end of.

Keys too tiny... screen too tiny

Stickman · 17 Jul 2010 at 16:07

Outcast said:
I wouldn't use a netbook for word processing, end of.

Keys too tiny... screen too tiny

My mates an author and he prefers writing on his netbook to his new main PC... and he doesn't have small hands either (he's 6 foot something). Personally I prefer the desktop too but I'm just saying that for some people netbooks are definitely usable for word processing, and obviously even preferred in some cases. I wouldn't be so quick to write them off.

franco_22 · 17 Jul 2010 at 20:12

Linux Ubuntu +1

Roland0 · 18 Jul 2010 at 11:57

Crunchbang? I think the context menu being the main menu is great for small devices!

elrasho · 19 Jul 2010 at 11:24

I got an MSI Wind U100 Plus, its really nice and the battery lasts for around 4 hours on constant use. It came with WinXP. I can play the first Unreal Tournement maxed out, and some other old school games. Because of this im tempted to stick with XP, or can some of these Ubuntu variations play XP games aswell?

alex24 · 19 Jul 2010 at 11:38

Outcast said:
I wouldn't use a netbook for word processing, end of.

Keys too tiny... screen too tiny

Do you have a netbook? If so, what model?

I had a large project to write this year at university, I accomplished half of the writing very easily on my ASUS EeePC 1001HA. The keyboard is close to what I'd recognise as full size on a regular notebook (I believe it's ninety-something percent), and the screen is plenty large enough for word processing in my opinion. Of course, the type of writing you're doing may change your requirements slightly. For instance, I wouldn't attempt using a package such as Microsoft Publisher and editing a fairly picture-heavy document for layout. However, for typing out the raw text I find it ideally suited, and a great way of doing things outside or on the go.

colossuss · 19 Jul 2010 at 12:36

Ubuntu for sure

Outcast · 19 Jul 2010 at 16:06

alexhull24 said:
Do you have a netbook? If so, what model?

I had a large project to write this year at university, I accomplished half of the writing very easily on my ASUS EeePC 1001HA. The keyboard is close to what I'd recognise as full size on a regular notebook (I believe it's ninety-something percent), and the screen is plenty large enough for word processing in my opinion. Of course, the type of writing you're doing may change your requirements slightly. For instance, I wouldn't attempt using a package such as Microsoft Publisher and editing a fairly picture-heavy document for layout. However, for typing out the raw text I find it ideally suited, and a great way of doing things outside or on the go.

I don't own one per-say but I bought 2 EeePC 701's for my daughters and have changed them over to UNR. THEY love them, but they have lightening reflexes and good vision. I'm 49 years old and practically need binoculars to read, in fact this desktop monitor I'm looking at is 26" and I still need bins !!

elrasho · 19 Jul 2010 at 16:08

I coud use Wine in Ubuntu to play some XP games couldn't I, I never got this for gaming but the fact that it runs some old school games is kinda nice

Outcast · 19 Jul 2010 at 17:49

Yeah, it's possible to get Various stuff working in Wine.. Unfortunately I prefer MSP which I haven't been able to get going !!

bledd · 19 Jul 2010 at 18:53

This looks interesting, came out today I think

http://www.jolicloud.com/

downloading now, will try it on my laptop

V4NT0M · 19 Jul 2010 at 21:52

Saw Jolicloud on Lifehacker earlier and giving it a try now, I guess it's ok, it's nice and compact and probably ok for light browsing use but it's basically just like another linux distro with this jolicloud thing running as the desktop, there's few apps and most "apps" are just www shortcuts, it's probably good for those netbooks which have very minimal spec and little hdd space but I think for most newer netbooks it's just a little sparse. If you are strapped for cash though, instead of buying windows this is a good alternative for a netbook.

I guess if you like linux and have a netbook this is probably heaven.

A screenshot for you:

bledd · 20 Jul 2010 at 00:00

Skyfall, still waiting for it to download via torrent on my awesome 0.5 meg connection

Can it play videos? (any idea which filetypes?)
Can it connect to network shares?
Can it print?

From the screenshots I've seen, it looks like a good mix of Ubuntu and Andriod..

yhack · 20 Jul 2010 at 00:38

Been using Jolicloud for a few days, it's ok but seems a bit limited.

Just installed Fedora 13 on my netbook and giving that a try, got half a gigabyte of updates to download now...

bledd. said:
Can it play videos? (any idea which filetypes?)
Can it connect to network shares?
Can it print?

It can play videos, just download VLC.
I have no idea about network shares.
After a quick google you can print, this may help you: http://getsatisfaction.com/jolicloud/topics/how_install_printer_in_jolicloud

V4NT0M · 20 Jul 2010 at 00:45

bledd. said:
Skyfall, still waiting for it to download via torrent on my awesome 0.5 meg connection

Can it play videos? (any idea which filetypes?)
Can it connect to network shares?
Can it print?

1. Yes, I installed VLC from the apps menu and it ran fine, so most likely every filetype.
2. Yes, was running files from my Windows PC, though as far as I can see there's no direct link to "network" I just went into one of the other folders and went through the tree.
3. Not sure but I assume so.

Basically it's just ubuntu with a different look, so it can literally do everything ubuntu can do. What they've done looks wise is ok to minimize the toolbars etc for more screen space on small screens but there's really not much more to it than that, it still feels very linuxy.

What I do like is the updating system, they've made it easy to update the whole thing.

Make sure you go to the desktop switcher and switch it to netbook mode too, it gets rid of window titlebars when you maximize as that information is already displayed in the status bar at the top as you can see in my screenshot.