Which distro for a netbook?

[realityhack]

Looking for some recommendations from those of you who've installed a flavour of Linux on a netbook. The machine in question is the Lenovo S12 ION, and I'm doing this for a silver surfer friend of mine who doesn't want to use the Windows 7 it shipped with. I'm set against Xandros as I've had no end of headaches with it, and am thinking of Ubuntu. Any wisdom from the congregation?

[Cliphead]

Linux Mint 10 on mine, detected all the hardware except the cam but all distros will struggle with that I suspect.

[RichardCranium]

I've been running Ubuntu Netbook Edition on my Acer Eee PC since just after I bought it a year ago.

(And the built-in camera works a treat, although it scared the crap out of me a) when I clicked 'Cheese' to see what that did and b) when I followed the link to ChatRoulette)

[yorkshireman]

Looking for some recommendations from those of you who've installed a flavour of Linux on a netbook. The machine in question is the Lenovo S12 ION, and I'm doing this for a silver surfer friend of mine who doesn't want to use the Windows 7 it shipped with. I'm set against Xandros as I've had no end of headaches with it, and am thinking of Ubuntu. Any wisdom from the congregation?

Ubuntu came pre-installed on my Dell Inspiron Mini. Works a treat.

[realityhack]

Had a right royal headache with this.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix (10.10) installs alright, sans (proprietary) WiFi and NVIDIA drivers. Tried to download but the damn thing didn't even connect with wired LAN.
So, been looking at Google Chrome, still to find a working USB torrent or image file. May resort to Mint, but I'd prefer a more 'foolproof' UI for this particular user.

Nothing's ever bloody simple.

[realityhack]

So, I have a machine (Lenovo S12 ION) which worked perfectly (but slowly) with Win 7. At request, attempted to reinvigorate with a flavour of Linux. Tried Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which transferred onto USB nicely (checksum fine), installed nicely, but which fails to engage the Broadcom STA network card, wireless or wired. So I can't connect it to the net at all, to update Ubuntu.

So it's a brick with a lovely-looking OS which doesn't appear to be able to GET ONLINE!!!

So I tried Chromium OS (Google Chrome Beta) from some script kiddie, and that worked perfectly, i.e. it connected to the net. But the OS is practically useless.

So then I tried to revert to Karmic Koala, an earlier flavour of Ubuntu that reputedly is the optimum install for that particular machine... to no sodding avail whatsoever. Lovely OS, no connection, nothing. It's as if the OS can't see the network card. Which, is it in a nutshell.

I have another flavour of Linux left to try, and burned to a flash drive ready, called Mint (10.10), but I'll wait until I've wasted half the day tomorrow investigating what an NDISWrapper is and how to use it in anger because I hear (on the forum grapevine) it's the only way I can use ANY flavour of Linux with that card at all. Essentially, fooling the card into thinking it's Windoze.

Here ye the User Experience Lifecycle of using Linux - or specifically, Ubuntu - Linux For Human Beings. My ARSE.

Any advice gratefully received in advance.

[RichardCranium]

Any advice gratefully received in advance.

Persevere.

http://forums.contractoruk.com/light...tml#post419482

I am now cheerfully running Linux on a few boxes at home. Yes, when you have a device for which there is no driver, it's a bitch. But then, Windows is no better in that situation.

A non-techy mate of mine has, over the weekend, installed it on an old Windows ME box and a Windows ME laptop and it just works.

He phoned me to rave about how fast it installed and how it worked first time on both devices.

[d000hg]

I thought ChromeOS only worked on SSD machines? Is this a tweaked version?

[realityhack]

I thought ChromeOS only worked on SSD machines? Is this a tweaked version?

Strictly speaking, it was an experimental hack of Chromium OS, called Flow. I only really checked it out of curiosity, but the drivers worked.

I'm now looking at this sort of thing to make UNR see the network card.

[Bunk]

Strictly speaking, it was an experimental hack of Chromium OS, called Flow. I only really checked it out of curiosity, but the drivers worked.

I'm now looking at this sort of thing to make UNR see the network card.

Oh god, I ended up looking at that when I was trying to get Ubuntu working on my desktop machine a couple of years ago. It was enough to send me running back to Windows for life.