The Netbook Remix rundown. My Experience

Okay So i've been playing with my AAO150-1382(1.6ghz, 1GB, 160GB, 3cell) for the last little bit and here's what i've discovered for the all-in-one installs that exist.

For testing here's what i've used so far:
A. Ubuntu 8.10 + UNR addon (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UNR)
B. UNR image install(8.04) (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UNR)
C. Easy Peasy 1.0 (http://www.geteasypeasy.com/)
D. Linux4One 1.0 (http://www.linux4one.it/)
E. Kuki 2.0 (http://kuki.me/)
F. Linpus Lite (default install tweaked with xfce)
For the purposes of this those letters will be used.

Aside from Linpus they have all gotten the sickb0y treatment (Damn fine work mah boy, don't let the dicks dissuade you)

Boot Time.(from turned off to Wireless)
NOTE: these are my wall clocks time, yours may vary slightly.
All have been grub tweaked to have no delay.
A: 27seconds to wired connect, didnt have wireless working.
B: 25seconds to wired connect, didnt have wireless working.
C: 58seconds(first boot) (29seconds second and after boots)
D: 72seconds(after it gave multiple errors with the kernel and libs on initial boot)
28seconds second boot
E: 15seconds to desktop.
F: 18seconds

Generals:
All have pretty basic ubuntu installs (except kuki). the easy peasy graphics look horrible blown up as the background(just my opinon)

A: typical ubuntu install, UNR interface, 8.10, most media works, installs and updates dont break much.
wireless doesnt work OOB
B: typical ubuntu install, UNR interface, 8.04 outdated, most media works, updates sometimes break.
wireless doesnt work OOB
C: typical ubuntu install, UNR interface, 8.10, media works, wireless works OOB.
D: typical ubuntu install, UNR interface, 8.10, requires a second boot after the initial one from the install.
media works, wireless works OOB
E: Tried the install from the USB kept running in live mode with no wireless and a stripped down desktop.
By far the fastest but not a full featured(we'll see what 3.0 brings)
F: can be tweaked to be useful, default interface is horrid, and its outdated kernelwise but hey, if you didnt intend on playing you wouldnt be here.

So in all these, Linux4One seems the best out of the box install.(so far)
None of these would be as good as they are without sickb0ys kernel and the work from the various people and teams that have made these distros.
Haven't tested the card reader, or the typical suspend issues...Yet (thats what work is for)
Just went through the installs and boots and quick tests.
Will update more as time goes on.
PS: if you know of any other AAO tweaked distros let me know i'll gladly sacrfice for the rest of us

-art

 

I'm very excited about Kuki, but I'll wait for 3.0 before trying it out. Right now I'm using Linux4one and I'm very impressed by the performance. It's a bit slower than Linpus, but the ease of use outweighs any other concern.

 

Hello there, and thanks for sharing. It's interesting to read about user experiences with different netbook remix based distros (didn't know Kuki had gotten a netbook remix interface though) and at the same time being able to compare them to each other.

Regarding your number one choice, are you sure Linux4one is build on the latest Ubuntu 8.10 version? I was under the impression it comes with the older build 8.04.

Strange to read about your long boot time experience (58 sec.) with Easy Peasy considering you're having 1 Gb of RAM installed. I only have 512 Mb RAM myself and I have boot times around 35-37 until wireless connection and desktop. I'm using sickboy's kuki kernel like yourself.

Edit:

FYI:

Kuki doesn't come with a netbook remix interface.
Linux4one is based upon Ubuntu 8.04 and not 8.10.

 

I fergot to append the easy peasy one with the sickboy time(my mistake)**corrected upper post.
L4O boots slow the first time
once it's settled after the initial install reboot it is rather speedy.

 

Thanks for the work, Art3mis. I was curious about a lot of this.

Here would be my ideal distro scorecard:

Hardware:
Boot Time
Wifi: (doesn't work, works without LED, works with LED)
Media: (no cards work, left card works, both cards work, hot swapping works)
Internal Mic Works (not at all, only with skype, with everything)
Suspend: (doesn't work, kills SD card, stops sound, works)
Hibernate: (doesn't work, stops wifi, stops sound, works)
Bluetooth: (many levels of function)
3G:

Software:
UNR family of applications
VPN capable
Easy installation of Codecs (MP3, MP4, AVI)

Linpus
30 seconds to boot, mount and wifi
Wifi: Works with LED
Media: Both cards hot swappable
Internal Mic: Works with skype
Suspend works: (I've heard)
Hibernate works: (I've heard)
Really painful launcher
VPN requires installing mostly broken PPTPConfig
Codecs challenging to install

UNR
Just over 60 seconds to boot, mount and wifi
Wifi: Works without LED
Media: Left card only
Internal Mic: Dead (configurable with some module settings)
Suspend kills sound and can kill SD
Hibernate kills sound
UME launcher
Network Manager VPN
Codecs installable via Synaptic

Easy Peasy
About 65 seconds to boot, mount and wifi (seems a teeny bit slower than UNR)
Wifi: Works without LED
Media: Left card only
Internal Mic: Works with skype
Don't know about suspend
Hibernate, I believe, kills sound
UME launcher
Network Manager VPN
Codecs installed by default.
8.10 Ubuntu (adds key commands to UME, tabs to file manager)

Sickboy Kernel takes away about 25-30 seconds boot time, makes wifi LEDs work.
Online Ubuntu hints include fixes for sound after hibernate, right card reader, external mic.

 

May i politely enquire how you got those boot times please? I am getting 90 seconds to WiFi with Sickboy Ibex on my 512MB/8GB SSD unit. by "grub tweaked" i assume you refer to the countdown before the OS boots that grub includes? Did you make any other changes please, i can't get anywhere near this and i can't believe it's simple down to having less memory.

Thanks.

 

You are correct in the grub thing, basically my timing was to sit and watch my wall clock.
You would be correct in the assumption that its memory but it's also the SSD slowing you down.(quite a few sites give specs to confirm this, not that i have any handy)
from the time i turned it on to the time the wired/wireless connection showed me having internet.
Sickboy's kernel does take a fair amount of time off for me. his other mods/tips/downloads are pretty handy too(madwifi to name one)
and that was off a base install of 8.10+unr stuff+sickboy.