Ubuntu on an OLD laptop

agnes

agnes

agnes

Soldato
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Hi guys,

I'm off traveling at the end of the year. The only gear I will have on me in terms of tech is an old laptop (Asus EEE PC), camera and a 1TB storage drive.

The Laptop it's self will run on either 4GB or 8GB dependent on what's the best for Ubuntu (I have a very big supply of laptop RAM) and a small SSD. When I say small... The smallest, maybe 32GB?

I am wondering, with the specs below, will Ubuntu both run better than Windows XP?

The main requirements for the laptop will be:

Watching films/episodes from storage drive
Skype to family via built in webcam
Transfer photo's from camera to storage drive
View pictures, no editing

Specs are loosely based on my budget and what I'm bidding on at the moment:

1.6Ghz Intel Atom N270
4GB / 8GB DDR2
32GB SSD

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/Eee_PC_1005HA_Seashell/#specifications
 
The N270 is going to struggle with HD content unless it's supported by a GPU for video decoding.

Specs also say 2GB RAM max ? Kubuntu is going to struggle also.

Try an openbox WM or Elementary OS Luna Beta 2 if you have any gpu assists
 
Give it a whirl, worst you can lose is an hour of installing/updating, xubuntu would be more suitable if you're not interested in the Linux "experience". For example, where I said Debian minimal install, there's no GUI, so you add the GUI of your choice. LXDE is great for low spec laptops.

I'd give a couple of distros a whirl. The webcam in your Asus is probably just a generic jobbie hooked up over the USB bus, so you'll be golden.

e: and yes, any of the above would be better than XP
 
Cheers for the input guys. I'm a techy so as much as I would love playing around with Debian, I have little to no linux skills. Thus I wouldn't want to rely on my own knowledge for fixing the laptop software wise. Where as Ubuntu (xUbuntu) looks fairly straight forward and something pretty generic. Thus if it did go breasts up, wouldn't be a faff trying to get it sorted via google questions.

Obviously I know XP like the back of my hand, but if xUbuntu runs quicker. Then I will stick with it.

I have a OLD laptop at home, really old that I will stick xubuntu onto tonight and see how it goes.
 
I run Ubuntu on my old Eee, with 1gb RAM and its absolutely fine. I'm not editing pictures and stuff on it though, but I'm not sure the OS is going to affect that much, it's a CPU issue.
 
manic111 said:
I run Ubuntu on my old Eee, with 1gb RAM and its absolutely fine.
Click to expand...

Can I ask you to do a test for me? PLEASEEEEE.

Run a 1080p video file with VLC or KMPlayer.

I will be recording on my camera (Sony RX100) and playback would be nice.

Also, how is it for multitasking? Such as transferring pictures from one drive to another and browsing at the same time?

Or... Sell me your eee pc? lol
 
d_brennen said:
Create a live USB/SD card as a backup (assuming the Eeee can boot from SD) and keep it in your laptop bag/sleeve. It will be slower but could get you out of a bind if something goes awry
Click to expand...

I was considering something a little more... Fancy.

I was playing with the idea that instead of having any form of HDD in the laptop, I simply run what ever OS I go with from my external HDD. Which will be heavily encrypted. But I need to do a comparison on power usage. See if the battery lasts longer or not this way. Would be interesting.

This is the storage drive I'm going with:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silicon-Pow...d=1369734651&sr=1-2&keywords=SP010TBPHDA80S3B

However, I feel the read/write speed over USB 2.0 will just be too slow for conventional use.

Or, possibly have the option on that drive regardless so if I lose my laptop, I still have a OS and access to all my files which I can boot to from any machine?

Oooooooo, this is a much better option, maybe rule out the laptop entirely and use net cafes and boot from my drive?
 
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I used to run ubuntu fine on my old acer aspire one a few of years ago before unity was released but I would just go with linux mint. 4gb ddr2 will be more than enough, 8 would be pointless, multi tasking has always been fine, but at the end of the day its a netbook so it's not gona handle it too great. Never had a camera issue on linux mint either but just get afew distros dowloaded and give them a go.
 
agnes said:
Can I ask you to do a test for me? PLEASEEEEE.

Run a 1080p video file with VLC or KMPlayer.

I will be recording on my camera (Sony RX100) and playback would be nice.

Also, how is it for multitasking? Such as transferring pictures from one drive to another and browsing at the same time?

Or... Sell me your eee pc? lol
Click to expand...

Sorry, only just looked at this. I'll give it a go if I get a chance tonight. Any idea where I can get a 1080p video from?
 
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