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Ask HN: Looking for a really lightweight Linux distro for my netbook

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Re: Ask HN: Looking for a really lightweight Linux distro for my netbook

#25

Post by SkyMarshal »

jhancock wrote: post #14

ubuntu 10.04 netbook edition runs very well on my 5 year old laptop (thinkpad x41, the 'netbook' of its day).

It runs very well on my Asus Eee PC 1000HE as well.

http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook

And I also prefer the 10.04 version to the 10.10 version. No idea what Ubuntu was thinking with that new space-wasting sidebar in 10.10. Can download the older version here:

http://mirror.pnl.gov/releases/10.04/

Re: Ask HN: Looking for a really lightweight Linux distro for my netbook

#26

Post by thecombjelly »

gdl wrote: post #2

If you're not afraid of the command line (or are willing to learn), Arch is as lightweight as you want it to be. The initial install is very minimalist and the package management system makes it almost trivial to build up from there. Install Openbox and Chrome and you're all set with a pretty lean system. http://wiki.archlinux.org/

I run Arch on my $175 eee PC and it works far better than any of the other distros that I've tried. It also helps A LOT to run a very light weight window manager. I've found the StumpWM (as a bonus written in Lisp) is a great fit, although Ratpoison would be good as well.

Another advantage with StumpWM or Ratpoison is that they don't draw window borders and there is no task bar etc, so you have quite a bit more space. And since the WM is controlled by keyboard shortcuts you are actually more efficient.

Re: Ask HN: Looking for a really lightweight Linux distro for my netbook

#29

Post by ilikejam »

Running the standard Fedora 13 Gnome spin on a Dell mini 10v at the moment - 260MB RAM in-use with Firefox and Thunderbird open, which seems pretty light to me. Remove the bottom Gnome toolbar and set the top toolbar to auto-hide (put the task switcher in the top toolbar), to get your vertical screen real estate back. Set 'resample-method' to 'speex-float-0' in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to stop PulseAudio sucking up gobs of CPU and you're good to go.

i386 Fedora has been compiled with '-mtune=atom' since F12, which is nice for netbooks. (Not so nice for my Core Duo Mac Mini server, but it's not exactly CPU-bound so No Big Deal).

Re: Ask HN: Looking for a really lightweight Linux distro for my netbook

#30

Post by xtho »

_b8r0 wrote: post #6
mcrittenden wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not scared of the command line, but I'd rather not spend a long time setting up stuff like wifi, sound, etc. Is all that pretty easy to get going?

It's more involved than doing it on Ubuntu. To be honest the hardest thing you're likely to do is getting X running, closely followed by picking a window manager. Sound and Wifi are generally straightforward on Arch. To put it in perspective, I use Arch on a P3-850-based Sony Vaio with 128mb of Ram and it flies. The main things you'll get from Arch on a netbook are: * Rolling release means that you don't have to do d…

> Rolling release means that you don't have to do distribution upgrades.

This goes beyond the OP's question. How does arch handle changes in essential components like the switch to upstart in ubuntu? Does this work well with rolling releases?

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