Linux laptop or net book or ..

[JamesAC]

Hi

My wife's been using an Asus eeepc thingy, running linux, for a couple of years. However, it's beginning to give up the ghost, and I'd like to replace it with something new.

But I'm really keen to use linux, rather than Windows.

A couple of years ago, there was a range of linus distros available on netbooks. Even Dell did one.

Now, though, I can't find anything, other than very expensive (£K) machines.

Any advice?

Cheers

 

[ColinJ]

Why not just buy a new Eee PC?

 

[JamesAC]

Why not just buy a new Eee PC?

.. or, im this case, the new eeepc (last one!)

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[ColinJ]

.. or, im this case, the new eeepc (last one!)

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Oh, did you buy it? If so, nice timing!

 

[terry_gardener]

you can just download any distro and use it, doesn't really need to be netbook.

if you want a netbook specific try ubuntu netbook edition, i would suggest the 10.04 LTS version as unity on 10.10 as been reported to be slow on certain hardware, which wont be sorted till 11.04 released in april.

 

[JamesAC]

you can just download any distro and use it, doesn't really need to be netbook.

if you want a netbook specific try ubuntu netbook edition, i would suggest the 10.04 LTS version as unity on 10.10 as been reported to be slow on certain hardware, which wont be sorted till 11.04 released in april.

I'm fairly confident about installing and running linux on "proper" pcs, but I've never tried it on laptop type machines. Is it the case that I can buy any old (ish) laptop from my local backstreet vendor, and install one sort or another flavour of linux?

 

[meenaghman]

For what its worth I bought a netbook in US and put linux on it at Easter.. however since then I bought a HTC desire. I find I only use the Desire as Netbook could in theory do more but in reality I was just using it for email and web browsing... I use the phone for that now.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I'm fairly confident about installing and running linux on "proper" pcs, but I've never tried it on laptop type machines. Is it the case that I can buy any old (ish) laptop from my local backstreet vendor, and install one sort or another flavour of linux?

Sometimes there're funny bugs with some of the integrated hardware. Normally nothing too bad, but well worth trying to see if anyone's tried to install linux on that particular model before. For instance, my (new - <1yr old) laptop runs linux fine, except that the battery life is worse than in windows (suspect some battery saving features aren't on by default) and the integrated mike comes over exceptionally noisy. For older PCs it can be a problem to find drivers sometimes. Having said that, I've successfully installed xubuntu and then Ubuntu on an old Fujitsu Siemens we had about, and it works like a charm.

 

[meenaghman]

Similar experience - I had problems getting the wireless drivers to work.. they worked in Ubuntu netbook edition but not in ubuntu 9.x whatever was the release around Easter. I installed mint9 instead.. (it was just an interface thing.. and of course then I found out you can choose at logon time which interface to run ha..). Also had a problem with screen dimming.. it seems fixed in latest releases. I've installed mint10 on a Toshiba that I've repaired.. works fine although there are some recent posts about possible overheating problems with toshibas.. Again the pwr mgt software not functioning as it should. I seem to have problems with touchpads whether it be windows or linux.. new work laptop from Dell running windows is a headache.. mouse goes off on its own it would seem.



Thing is a simple web search and check usually finds the problem and .. usually finds the solution too. If things don't seem right, then lshw / lspci /lsusb (run as sudo) can help find what's going on. There were some problems with pulse audio but these should now be solved. similarly webcams can be tested with cheese (application not the dairy product).