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I know this is a loaded question but:

I write software for a living (i own an LLC) and I also own an NPO.

I have been an Apple fan and used one since 1996. I have for many years used Windows to feed my family because all mac jobs were hard.I used Linux off and on when I was working for a university.

Now that I am self employed and on my own I dont have a lot of equipment nor money.

I recently bought a Lenovo S10 netbook and upgraded the RAM to 2.5gb and the hard drive to 320gb. I bought it because it was ultra portable for me and very light.

It came loaded with Windows XP but when I upgraded the hard drive to 320, I could never get it loaded back as I always got error after error and Lenovo Support never had answers.

I loaded Vista Business Edition and that worked fine and the notebook was pretty functional but Vista is so bloated I turned off everything that I could and still seemed just not what i was looking for. Even with UAC turned off, Vista is annoying.

I loaded OS X and most everything works, I just cant update because things break and I have to re-apply the patches to make it work.

I have not tried Linux on it because these days I am simply confused by all of the distros and the bloat and some are better for x,y,z, etc, etc. I like Slackware because it seems minimal, but I dont have a lot of under the hood experience for making mods myself, upgrading the kernel, etc. I tried Ubuntu a while back, seemed OK. I tried CentOS a few days ago and it seems good too.

Here is what I am looking for: 1. I write software using Qt in C++ 2. I do cold fusion web development (so CF, MySQL, apache, some PHP) 3. I also write a lot of documents in Quarkxpress, Word 4. I listen to MP3's when needed.

I just want to be productive with this netbook and I can't seem to find a good path to do that.

Things that concern me. 1. Wireless support 2. Sleeping the netbook so I am not always shutting down and re-starting.

I know this question is loaded, but if anyone has thoughts, I would appreciate it. i can clarify anything that may be useful.

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From the FAQ: " What kind of questions should I not ask here? Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered!" – sh-beta May 16 '09 at 20:43
Hopefully Jeff and Joel are planning on Win,Mac, and Linux desktop forums online at some point - ok ok, I'll take it over to uservoice now ;-) – username May 16 '09 at 21:08
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I don't believe that Jason was hoping for a discussion. It appears he was hoping for a "Try this (name an OS) version at this.link.com, it is great for netbooks." And I think he got it with the netbook Ubunto link! – tomjedrz May 16 '09 at 21:16
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Feature request for a Desktop sister-site: serverfault.uservoice.com/pages/17382-general/suggestions/… – username May 16 '09 at 21:17
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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

You must already know everyone's going to tell you Ubuntu? ;-)

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Well, someone will probably tell you to download the Win7 RC even though it doesn't match your criteria – username May 16 '09 at 19:37
I am running it now on the S10 and it is not bad. I am concerned about the final cost as typically new, full versions cost like $300 at least. – user2663 May 16 '09 at 19:42
You know the free Win7 RC license is good for 9 months, right? I'm pretty happy running Ubuntu on my netbooks. Any Linux distro will have potential wireless driver issues - you're best off buying a $20 802.11n card that you already know has a good Linux driver available, and replacing the one that came with your netbook. – username May 16 '09 at 19:57
The Netbook remix version of Ubuntu (canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr) is very slick. I'd go with either that or Win7 as above. – nedm May 16 '09 at 20:09
@username - what card works? Is it a USB adapter or do they make a PCIExpress wireless adapter? Does sleep work with Ubuntu? Going to download... – user2663 May 16 '09 at 20:19
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up vote 1 down vote

Replaced XP on my Acer AspireOne with Ubuntu 9.04 and Netbook Remix version of the UI. Ran the installer and installed a couple of other items, and it "just worked". Sleep works every time. Network is stable.

I find the UNR UI makes the small keyboard and trackpad much more manageable. UNR maximises all the windows, strips off the usual window chrome and the task and status icons live on a thin bar at the top, making the best use of the limited screen real-estate. It's very stable - never had a crash.

I went from using the netbook occasionally with XP to using it all the time with Ubuntu UNR. If you decide you don't want to use UNR you can switch it off. Definitely worth a try.

Get the Ubuntu ISO from here.

Install UNR like this

 sudo apt-get install go-home-applet human-netbook-theme \
  maximus netbook-launcher window-picker-appletsudo apt-get \
  install go-home-applet human-netbook-theme maximus \
  netbook-launcher window-picker-applet

Only the internal microphone is listed as an issue with the S10

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Where can one find the network remix version? Or is it a built-in setting? – Andomar May 16 '09 at 21:38
canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr – user2663 May 16 '09 at 22:02
@username - I downloaded the .img and I am trying to burn it on my mac using Disk utility and it does not burn. I get a Finder window that pops up and disappears and I get an error in hex and using Roxio Toast 9 It burns, but the disc is unreadable. I downloaded: karmic-netbook-remix-i386.img and it is 976mb in size Thoughts? – user2663 May 16 '09 at 22:07
I did a blog post on setting this up on the acer - johnmccombs.inmap.net/2009/05/07/ubuntu-netbook-remix – John McC May 16 '09 at 22:12
go here for the 9.04 ISO ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download – John McC May 16 '09 at 22:49
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up vote 0 down vote

I feel your pain. I have a laptop with a very slow Celeron that I use for development too, so between having Apache, MySQL, Firefox (pig) and an IDE running, it can get pretty sluggish.

I've been using Ubuntu (not the netbook version of course) on this machine since 8.04, and it runs pretty well most of the time.

A friend of mine has an Asus netbook, and he loaded the Ubuntu netbook edition on it with discouraging results. He couldn't get the wireless to work, ran slower than the "normal" version of Ubuntu, and had a few other quirks.

So I guess Ubuntu for netbooks isn't ready for prime time. Do try the normal Ubuntu, as being on one of the most popular distros will make it easier for you to find information and troubleshoot any issues.

By the way, since you're developing with Qt, you might want to prefer getting the Kubuntu flavor to avoid having to download lots of libraries.

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Sounds sensible to me. I've installed on a couple HP netbooks, and a couple MSI netbooks - haven't had any real issues using the generic Ubuntu install (though I replaced the wireless cards in all of them). – username May 16 '09 at 20:02
@username - what card works? Is it a USB adapter or do they make a PCIExpress wireless adapter? Does sleep work with Ubuntu? Going to download. – user2663 May 16 '09 at 20:22
I don't know what cards work. On my laptop it has an integrated chip, and it works fine. Sleep works fine too, except that after waking up, the touchpad no longer works, so I have to use a USB mouse. – Ivan May 16 '09 at 23:37
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