Best Distro for a 512MB SSD machine?

People often don't say what hardware spec they have when evaluating a distro, so I'd be interested to here what works best on a minimum spec machine like mine. I'd especially keen to hear about what the gains are over Linpus, boot time, stability, and how SD cards are handled - and whether they appear to expand the SSD. Thanks!

 

I love kuki on my AA1 like yours, 512mb ssd 8gb
Fast and comes with all drives. Time to boot ~ 37 secs

 

Wow - i was just about to post this very same question. I too am getting tired of my Ubuntu 8.10 as it runs slower than i would like it too on my AAO. Anyone else any thoughts on this please? Thanks for your comments tonecas - i tried Kuki but whatever i put for the username/password on the Live CD it doesnt seem to let me login?

 

Without any doubt, Mandriva 2009.1 is you choice, so far, it is the most compatible distru. to AA1. Everything works, except the two card readers, they both work after tweak and they are not difficult. There is no reasons for anyone to stay on Linpus?

 

The best distro so far for the AspireOne has to be Linux4One. It is a custom Linux kernel and build specifically designed for the Aspire One. Everything works, including both card readers, the Wi-Fi light, suspend/resume, and most surprisingly, the internal microphone as well.

You can also choose between Linux4One 1.1, as well as Linux4One Lite. Linux4One 1.1 would be my recommendation. It includes alot of great applications and all of the functionality. Lite is blazing fast, but lacks a number of things that most users would atleast eventually want to use.

 

+1 for Linux4One lite. I also like sidux (KDE-lite or lxde spin), and Zenwalk.

Right now I am looking into some of the Puppy derivatives. They run very fast once booted, but there is an issue with leaving a SD card in the left slot at boot.

 

See other thread for my own defence of Linpus. It's not bad, doesn't need tweaking out of the box, and has most apps that a netbook user should be after. Pushing the hardware is another matter entirely. I don't mind hacking about, tweaking, and building my own custom kernel from kernel.org + patches. Sometimes, it's nice to have something that just works.

 

Definitely Linux4One light. Since you get LXDE instead of bloated GNOME or XFCE, it feels like you've installed another stick of RAM - except you haven't.

 

I'm trying Light now. I think you may not only be right but that it could be the best distro for most people fullstop. The interface is XPish, the machine flies along, hardware support is excellent (I haven't tested card swapping with a booted machine) and you can run apps in full screen mode with F11.

 

dsl is nice

 

It looks like the light version is still at the RC stage, though with any luck version 1.5 might come out sometime. From what I hear the devs are focusing on 2.0 full, based on Ubuntu Jaunty. I'll be sticking with light - the UNR interface is excruciatingly slow on 512mb and the SSD.

 

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12837&start=30#p88589

Have a read of the above post

 

Sidux looks like an excellent choice. But I don't think it will work with the Acer specific sickboy kernel, which I do want to try out. Plus Sidux needs an intermediate stage of making a DVD for your desktop, and I was all out of coasters...

Re the non-hiding desktop panel in Crunch, I'm more bothered by the lack of full screen mode for all apps except Fox. However I found that if put the dock on the little use RHS of my screen that I just don't care! I moved the clock and power info to Conky, btw.

 

Pling
Yes you are right the sickboy kernel certainly wont work with sidux as its a rolling release distro that updates itself on demand whenever you request it to do so! there is no need to use a modified kernel with sidux as everything works with little configuration by the user.

If you go ahead with sickboys kernel then remember that you will be reliant on whatever updates sickboy makes to it, and whether he is prepared to maintain it. Not knocking sickboy or anything he has done well and many are happy using his kernel. But if a mainstream distro is providing the latest bang up-to-date kernel that works then why use a modified one that is always going to be lagging behind the latest version? every time you dist upgrade in sidux your kernel gets updated to the very latest one available

Your choice sir!!

Choice is good!!

Any other sidux users out here willing to give me some backup?
Why is there no mainstream thread for sidux all we have is the usual Ubuntu Fedora Mandriva and Suse with their own headings on the forum? What about straight Debian? Slackware? etc.

 

Everything works for me on Crunch now. I'll probably add the kernel because it cuts out the stuff my One doesn't need, so the boot should be faster - and it might cut power use.

There's also always the chance that a non-Acer oriented kernel will change in a way that breaks something Acer specific. With Crunch I have the choice of two working kernels - one a Ubuntu with the lots of developers, another Acer specific. This seems a good bet to me.

Crunch has let me set things up so I press a two key combo and I have emacs launched for me in fullscreen mode, another combo gets me the desktop, etc. RAM use is ridiculously tiny - 56% of 512MB with 9 tabs in Fox, emacs, Abiword, GIMP open and a terminal open. I'm not sure how Sidux compares?

But Crunch does have some silly pointless hurdles for non-techies - notably Add/Remove is hidden, and so are the newly installed apps. A lot of apps have to be launched from the command line, and the interface for changing your keyboard settings is missing, so you have to install it yourself if you need to change repeat rate. Although doing so is first scary, because you don't know if it will conflict with the Openbox desktop manager, and then crazy, because when you google search the crunchbang site you see that it is supposed to already installed...

So if Sidux is friendlier and equally svelte then, yes, it's probably better for most users.

I did try to put a picture of my new desktop here, but the forum software seems to mess it up. I'll shrink it and try again.

Good questions!

 

The info screen is from an app called Corky, which lives permantly on the desktop telling you stuff (there's quite a range of options if you can edit an xml file) and keyboard shortcuts are set up by Openbox. I can't see why you couldn't put them on Mandriva or sidux, if you want that kind of thing.

 

Why not go with the Acer Linpus distro? What do you gain by using another distro?

 

See viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13805

I'd recommend running Kuki or Linux4One off a data pen to try them out.