Ultraportable laptops – netbooks such as the Eee PC – are becoming increasingly popular. A computer that's small enough to live permanently in your bag without giving you backache can be incredibly useful, especially as wireless connectivity and 3G hardware are growing in ubiquity.
Netbooks aren't just consigned to disposable web surfing, though – they can rely on cloud computing services to provide you with a host of additional functionality.
The upshot of this is that all you require is an internet connection to have access and control over all your data, regardless of where you are. That makes netbooks ideal for taking on such cloud computing tasks, and they're increasingly coming with Linux rather than Windows pre-installed – or at least the option to pick Linux – in order to lower their price point.
After all, you don't want to spend a huge amount of money on a laptop that's due to spend its time kicking about in your bag. On top of that, the whole concept of cloud computing rests on the idea of both hardware and net access being cheap and widely available.
But the distro that comes pre-installed might not be the best one for you, and there's a massive (and increasing) number of distros available that are aimed at netbooks. Read on as we compare some of the more popular ones.
How we tested...
Our test machine was an Eee PC 701, which features 4GB of internal storage, 512MB RAM and a 900MHz Celeron processor.
Three of the Linux distros we tested (namely, Xandros, EeeXubuntu and Pupeee) are optimised for the Eee PC, but each of these should also run on other netbooks. The fourth distro on test meanwhile, GOS, is the default one installed on Everet netbooks.
As we tested each of the distros here, we were looking at their ease of installation and use, the applications that came pre-installed and what was available in terms of further installs.
We also paid close attention to the extent that everything (including the netbook's sound, wireless and Ethernet) worked directly out of the box.
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Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
a.n.other
May 13th 2009
4. @joshl
Actually, the Eee 1000HE is the latest model.
Sorry, Josh, you fail too.
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linuxuser
May 10th 2009
3. I have always found puppy relatively easy to use and connect, but it has so many connection options to use that if you do not read the explanations in the wizard you can get lost.
Puppy uses a few steps to connect to wireless.(on my desktop)
1 connect(internet connection wizard)
2 connect to internet by network interface or wireless
3 select your wireless card
4 select wireless connection
5 scan
6 network
7 select encryption type(wep)
8 give key
9 save
10 profile
-- (test??I know i use to use this button on my old puppy 4.0, not this time puppy 4.1.2? so not sure where to use if needed lol)
11 auto dhcp
12 done
Basically with puppies you have many ways of connecting and many different methods frequently more than one works, try to pick the easiest....each option is explained(read them lol).
I have always puppy one of the easiest operating systems to use and to connect, the connection options can be a bit confusing in number of options presented but trial and error usually gets me there in a few minutes, if you really bork it restart the live disk.
live disk +
forum:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/
Flavours:
http://www.puppylinux.org/
Basically check out in the forums peoples experience in notebooks and use it. or ask for help in the forums.
Its worth it, you get a good snappy operating systems.
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paul
May 9th 2009
2. It was published in last month's Linux Format magazine. I've taken out the reference to the Eee 901.
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joshl
May 9th 2009
1. WTF? How old is this article? Eee 901 is the latest model? LOL!
And where's Ubuntu Netbook Remix?
TechRadar=Fail!
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