Best Linux distro ?

I've been testing several distros -including Mandriva 2009- for my wife's Acer Aspire One 150. Found the best for my/her needs Mepis (at http://www.mepis.org), Debian Lenny based. Now it is still in final beta release, but has worked rock-solid for us. You can find more reviews and help at MepisLovers ( http://mepislovers.org/forums/index.php ), Also you can find some tweaks at k/ubuntu forums or Debian Ones. Wifi, LEDs, Fn keys, sound, etc. works flawlessly.

Hope this widens the possible choices.

 

I've had the best luck with Puppy so far. Ubuntu remix worked well, but too many things need tweaking. Mandriva looks gorgeous but it runs sloooooooow, even with 1.5 gigs of RAM, and fedora is the same.

 

Mic works in Mandriva 2009 Gnome.

 

I agree. Everything works, it's light-weight, starts up fast, and very easy to upgrade / customize. I've always been a debian guy, but I can't say I'm tempted to replace linpus with debian (or ubuntu).

 

Slow? Funny, I don't find it slow at all. The key is to install it on filesystem EXT2 if you're on SSD. Only boot time is slow. Everything else is fine. Loads up firefox in 4 seconds, hehe. That's even faster than my XP desktop machine.

 

I agree.
From what I've been reading in the various posts about which distro to use, I always have to do a reality check and realize that Linpus with the XFCE desktop does absolutely everything I want/need this netbook to do, quickly and easily. When I travel I toss the AAO into my carry on bag. Just what it was designed for. Who buys these as their main computer? For a hundred bucks more you can have a notebook with a 15 inch screen and a full size keyboard (same price as some EeePC models). I'm hoping that Kuki Linux will be "the" distro for the AAO, but I'm not holding my breath. I remember the letdown when the OneLinux project died Why not extol the virtues of this great little netbook instead of dissing it for distro disobedience?

Just my humble opinion

 

yeah linpus lite is the way to go. extremely fast boot time and very functional. desktop customization is the only poor thing I can see, but can be remedied by running k0ro's custom desktop script that installs the standard XFCE4 packages in exchange of an additional 15sec boot time.

im temted to try mandriva for now but then again a voice inside my head tells me i'll go back to linpus lite.

 

I dont agree at all, Linpus is very limited... i have instaled Interpid with netbook remix and i am very happy with it, everything is working unless wifi leds and resume/suspend, because i have my SDHC as home partition...

 

The best distro for YOUR AA1 is the one that works best for YOU; the best distro for MY AA1 is the one that works best for ME. Having stated the obvious, why is it that I have six different Linuxes installed on my AA1?

 

Its not true that everythng works on linpus, there arent fan control, USB bluethoof dongle dont work. sound recorder dont work, right slot dont read XD and Memory sticks cards....

Yes its true that you have to find the best distro for you, but i have to agree that Ubuntu, as a example, is much more complet OS than Linpus...

 

Obviously, because you can't make up your mind. Who ties your shoelaces for you in the morning? Or do you use valcro? Or do you have both shoelaces and valcro on your shoes? How about adding snaps? Tried adding zippers? Or just go with slipons? Just kidding ... couldn't resist.

Cheers.

 

xd cards and memstick duos work with linpus dude. as for bluetooth, acer has released their bluetooth software officially, check out macles* blog at http://macles.blogspot.com and you should see the new programs that acer have released, in an easy to install .sh file, and you have the option of installing bluez-gnome or bluez-utils as well.

here's a reality check: you don't need to treat the AAO as a full blown desktop, otherwise you should have bought one [or built one] for the same price and install those heavy distros and desktop environments. netbooks are created to be lightweight in principle and i do not see any logic in having to wait 1minute+ for me to use my netbook. time is gold and who needs great effects when all it does is slow down your machine? and besides, you're the only one who uses it, so aside from bragging rights, as long as it does its job, it's good. :shock:

 

No, here's the reality check matey: YOU can do what you want. Keep your 'shoulds' to yourself. If I want a fully functional laptop that is small enough to carry in a bag when riding my bike (because I can't afford a car to lug a full size laptop around with me); and if I want to pay £250 for a small laptop that works as well as I need it to because I can't afford to pay £350 for a big one that also does what I need it to but has a bendy keyboard and a blurred screen; then I will buy the Acer Aspire One and install any goddam operating system I like on it.

Why should I care about a 2 minute boot up time? I rarely reboot anyway, and the A150 wakes up from suspend-to-ram in good order every time ... in about 10-15 seconds.

Why, on the other hand, should I want to have to hack around with config files, copy icons all over the place, etc., when I want to install a new program that doesn't happen to be one provided by Acer? Mandriva takes care of all that crap for me, leaving me plenty of that time you reckon is so precious for doing more worthwhile stuff.

 

Why does it take that long? When I had mandriva installed it came back from sleep faster than linpus... also check out the custom kernel for ubuntu boots in about 20 secs.

My thoughts exactly, if it looks like a netbook, acts like a netbook, and the manufacturer calls a netbook, it must be a netbook.

 

Foolish me, I included the time for the network to be up as well. It is a netbook after all. ;-)

Yes. That's the kind of thinking that gave us this classic of logic: "if it says 'Designed for Windows XP' on the case it must be a Windows computer".

Personally I don't take nobody's word for nothing.

 

My general-purpose shoes secure via a pair of velcro straps. Easiest to install and uninstall on the feet, but, unlike slip-ons, I have to reconfigure the straps with every install/uninstall.

 

Do you have to run grub-install each time?

Cheers.

 

It looks like the microphone is working under linpus now with the latest live updates. I'm using Linpus now purely because its faster to boot and resume from standby.