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Best OS For Netbooks and Underpowered Tablets?
vigmeister writes "I hopped on the netbook bandwagon early this year in a rather odd fashion by picking up an outdated portable tablet (Fujitsu P1510) which just about matches the latest, greatest netbooks for their performance and portability features, while nipping them by managing to give me a better battery life. I've been happy using XP Tablet on this machine until recently, when I started thinking that by optimizing the OS for targeted use, I may be able to squeeze more out of the device. So, my questions are: What OS would you recommend for a netbook/outdated laptop? Usage is typically light — web surfing (with multimedia), email, word processing, spreadsheet and reading PDFs. Also, what OS would you recommend for a ultraportable tablet? Usage is similar to a netbook; there's a little more document editing going on, and good handwriting recognition and note-taking software would be great."
Read on for further details about vigmeister's question.
vigmeister continues, "I would like for the user experience to be snappy on a computer that is essentially running the equivalent of a 1.2 GHz PIII with 512mb RAM. The other objective for both of these is to maximize the battery life, as that is the major drawback of these ultraportables. A small memory footprint would work wonders, since the hard drives on these devices are typically slow and completely suck the joy out of using them when swap space is being used. Any tips? If you are still using your outdated laptops/tablets productively, please share with us how you're doing it, so we can too."
I run Kubuntu 8.04 on a Compaq Evo N410c, which is a 1.2GHz P-III with 512MB memory. It's just fine.
The full desktop environments are fat, but not slow. The limiting factor for your free Unix is not CPU - a few hundred MHz will do fine - but memory. I also have a P-II 450MHz desktop running FreeBSD with KDE, and it works marvellously because it's got 704MB RAM.
The other thing is screen resolution - but Xandros on the Eee at 800x480 is quite usable. Perhaps play with the Ubuntu Netbook remix.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I have a Thinkpad x61 Tablet that I use to take notes at school; It's running gentoo (mostly so I could have a better chance at making all the obscure features work).
If you do decide to go with linux, no matter the distro, the programs I've found useful are CellWriter, for an onscreen keyboard and handwriting recognition, and Xournal for note-taking. Xournal does well with the tablet's pressure sensitivity and higher resolution.
I actually have one of these (a P1510D), and I was just thinking about this! :-)
My P1510D is running Ubuntu 8.04 and dualbooting XP Tablet Edition; the Linux side isn't as reliable as the Windows side, unfortunately. I've got a page of notes here on how I got Linux working on the thing; you need to fool around with Perl to get a touchscreen "driver" working and install another group of applications to get the buttons working.
Mine doesn't have Bluetooth, so I can't comment on that; wifi finally works out of the box, suspend is OK, hibernate is iffy, xrandr+compiz=crash, I haven't figured out how to get the fingerprint reader to work, the touchscreen "driver" likes to crap out and doesn't work too well, et cetera. Can't comment on the battery, since my battery is done for (it lasts for about 20 minutes before dying, on Windows or Linux).
If you want specifics, let me know--I've spent a few weeks digging up stuff.
If you're happy with XP Tablet, why change?
"Me too"
Stick with XP if you're happy. Fiddle with *nix on a desktop.
Naysayers aside, I get ~7 hours of active use on my Lenovo Thinkpad x61 tablet and still have 10% left. This is with the stock 9 cell battery, wifi off and the backlight dialed down to one step above off - perfectly readable indoors.
How do I get better numbers than the vendor claims? I've tweaked the OS, bumped the ram to 4GB and save my data to an SD card in the built in reader - no need to spin the HD up and down every time I hit save. Opening and closing the lid sleeps it just fine and it gets me through a 5 class day without needing to carry the AC brick.
What wondrous OS is this? Vista Business. Yep, Vista. It works, and I have other machines (that I don't really use anymore) if I want to fiddle.
Ubuntu 8.x with Netbook Remix interface installed. The desktop interface is touchscreen friendly. Window-picker applet and Maximus do a great job of saving you screen real-estate.
Puppy linux. Running it right now on my eeepc 2g surf--800 Celeron with 512 MB. Works great!
If you're looking for linux recommendations, I can't recommend Mandriva 2009 enough for this purpose. With their experience with the Classmate PC, Mandriva went ahead and integrated all their smooth netbook features into their OS. Mandriva 2009 in particular now provides an available default LXDE desktop, which is far lighter than KDE or Gnome and less spartan than XFCE. In addition, any configuration settings dialogs deficient in LXDE can be made up with the Mandriva Control Center.
On that same note, you might consider gOS 3, which will provide a lovely and lightweight interface on top of Ubuntu but customized directly for the needs of a netbook. It's a very realistic distribution, with ample codecs, default Wine, and a nice implmentation of Mozilla Prism for running web apps as desktop apps. (not that that makes any sense)
Now, if you're looking for a Windows system, there's always Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's, a smooth and lightweight XP installatiion weighing in at under a gig default and using the XP embedded kernel. You can find that lyin' around somewhere on the web if you look hard enough- though you can't buy it. Oh yes, and it's full XP with no activation subsystem. ;)
*WANT* to tell you to put some ubuntu on there and tweak it up a bit.
The only real reason that this isnt the best option is that Linux (and BSD) are heavier on battery life than WindowsXP. I run linux on my laptop and have on other laptops and linux sucks down the battery faster.
With a tickless kernel (since around 2.6.20, iirc), this shouldn't be an issue anymore. And with 'powertop' being a
nice tool to assign blame, a lot of applications are fixed to support this as well. It really makes a huge difference.
Netbooks that were designed with Linux in mind will most likely experience longer battery life with a recent Linux _and_ modern distribution of your choice.
You need to remember to insure you're using the correct module per hardware device. This really is only a problem with wireless and graphics where an alternative reverse engineered or incomplete open source driver is used instead of the full featured proprietary driver. Here's some examples:
ati, via, nvidia, broadcom (fuck these guys, srsly)
Then just remember to _enable_ powersaving features if they exist such as cpufreq with ondemand, intel wireless power management, sata link control, hard disk power management, pci express, and if possible - dynamic clock control for gpu's (nvidia does this already by default in their proprietary driver).
Just another note, modern Linux distros also use the tickless kernel option by default so you're already saving more power on the cpu than you would in XP would (disregarding cpu clock speed/voltage modulation) when idle.
I'm using a P1510 and I love it. I don't consider it underpowered at all as long as your goal isn't to run cutting edge games. It runs XP and Linux great. Fujitsu got the netbook concept right 3 years ago when everyone else was still making SUV notebooks. I transport it in a convenient, portable DVD player case.
The best feature is the ULV Pentium M which can be heavily undervolted to conserve battery life and reduce heat output. With the extended battery I can get 6+ hours running at 600MHz, 0.7V. For XP, set up NHC to configure the lower voltages. For Linux, use the PHCkernel patch to override the BIOS voltage settings and configure cpufreq for ondemand at all times.
This machine is quite usable with 512MB if you keep Windows lean on active processes. It gets better with the 1GB upgrade if you can find the memory. The only big problem with this machine is the obsolete connector for the 1.8" HD limits you to an 80GB max drive. If you're lucky you can snag a replacement cable for the newer P1620 (find a broken one cheap) that supports the newer ZIF connector.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
I am writing this on an old Fujitsu P2010 running Puppy Linux. I am completely satisfied with this setup. A full-sized Linux distribution is slow to boot and slow to run on this machine. I used to have Ubuntu installed on it and the performance was not acceptable. Puppy boots quickly and provides all the facilities that you asked for.
I've got an AspireOne. I've had a BUNCH of different *ix's on it and ended up going back to Linpus (after using all that I'd learned on the other OS's to get it to do what I want.) Sure, it doesn't have wobbly windows, but it DOES have the latest Firefox, AND it returns dependably from sleep, has a working wifi switch, and boots in under 20 seconds. I found all I REALLY wanted in that form factor was FireFox 3 (F11 full screen is GREAT), and a shell. recompiling the Wifi drivers with every Ubuntu kernel update was getting to be a PITA.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Clearly, the best OS is Linux, or perhaps an nLite-d version of Win98. HOWEVER, assuming you do mean Linux, don't confuse the OS with the distribution. Remember, the choice of WM is yours not tied to the OS.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Let me introduce you to PowerTOP. Come back after you try it.
The state you are in while your HEAD is detached... - wait, what?
If you think that anything other than linux is the most power efficient, I'd like to not only point you to the responses below but also let you know that you have it pretty much backwards. Linux distros can not only be more efficient but can even be specifically aimed to be even moreso on top of that. PowerTOP was my first thought, as well.
I mean what do you want to point people to? OSX? Vista? Lets be honest now. Try not to throw chairs next time.
I use Mandriva 2008 and 2008.1 on a couple of older IBM laptops and it runs great in both instances. (X31 with 1.5 GB RAM and Pentium M 1.4 GHz plus T23 with 1.2 GHz and 1 GB RAM) I have wireless with either Broadcom or Atheros chips and all other items that make them equal or better than XP in Linux including multi media playback, web surfing or office type file usage. I find the battery to last very well with Linux in both machines. Mandriva will help you re-size the files on the hard drive and make space for Linux with Windows.
Serious response here: I gave up on windows ME/2000 and switched to windows flp. gotta pirate it, but it works wonders! (of course, nlite works wonders too)...
Let me second this. I'm no fan of Microsoft and I believe that Windows NT is a mediocre OS for Personal computers (as opposed to servers). I think that the Vista debacle is exactly what Microsoft deserved for putting their interests (single code base) above those of the users. But if XP does what you need, it's far less painful to play around and remove stuff that is unnecessary and resource hungry and perhaps find some Open Source software alternatives for specific tasks (e.g. foxit rather than acrobat reader) than to try to get everything you need running under some other OS.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
Handwriting recognition in Linux can be quite decent. CellWriter (http://risujin.org/cellwriter/) is one of the better handwriting-recognition tools for *nix and it is what I use on my Gateway S-7125C tablet. It's a little better than the handwriting recognition in XP Tablet 2005 but worse than Vista's. XP Tablet will run fine on a 1.2 GHz CPU but might balk a bit at 512 MB RAM, particularly if the OP wants to use MS Office 2003 or 2007, which are far from lightweight apps. Windows Vista certainly does have excellent tablet integration, but it's just going to take one look at a machine with 512 MB RAM and laugh. That pretty much leaves Linux and Linux would run reasonably nicely on a 1.2 GHz machine with 512 MB RAM. I had Debian Lenny running on a Celeron 900 with 256 MB RAM up until just a few weeks ago and it ran pretty well for being 8-year-old hardware.
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
I would vote for Win2K Pro. I am running it on a desktop with almost the same specs and even with many programs running in the background it is still very snappy. And if you further tweak it by going to a site like Blackvipers services list and turning off anything you don't need it can be very conservative on RAM and CPU cycles.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I have an Acer Aspire One netbook. It has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor (with hyperthreading, evidently), 1.5GB of RAM (I upgraded it from 512MB), an 8GB SSD drive, and a 1024x600 screen.
It came with "Linpus" (a horrid distro of Linux), which inspired me to try to install a different operating system. (It performed OK, but they did their best to hide any advanced functionality like, you know, installing a program. No package manager for you!).
If you're a college student, Google "Microsoft DreamSpark." Ballmer is giving out free, full licenses to Windows Server 2003 and 2008, amongst other things, presumably to brainwash the latest generation of human capital. So, I installed Server 2003 Standard on my tiny little netbook and got some Enhanced Write Filter drivers from an XP Embedded ISO. It runs amazingly fast (EWF drivers are similar to what Live CDs use - writes are committed to memory instead of disk, which makes fetching those files later extremely fast), and can even play World of Warcraft.
So, what I suggest you do is figure out how to get Enhanced Write Filter drivers working on your machine. Prior to installing them on my machine, Firefox was almost unusable - scrolling down one line would cause a torrent of disk activity, which would lock the machine until it was finished. (Windows really isn't meant for solid state drives, it seems.) After installing those drivers, it boots faster than my gaming rig, and is hyper-responsive.
Since Tablet XP seems to have the proper handwriting support you want, try installing those drivers. It made my Server 2003 install perform leaps and bounds better; I'm sure it'll help XP Tablet, too.
DATABASE WOW WOW
http://freeeee.org/
FREEEEE - 100% Free Software GNU/Linux for Eee
I run Gentoo on it. I get 830 vs 450 fps in glxgears compared to the stock kernel and AsusLauncher/Xandros. I love this pc
Ah, WinFLP=Windows for Legacy PCs. For those too lazy to google it themselves.
All your base are belong to Wii.
Argh, I mean Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs.
All your base are belong to Wii.
Two of which are gnumeric and abiword. They don't have quite all the features as their behemoth cousins, but that's usually a good thing.
Also, not so great for tablets, but for battery life where you have a keyboard, sc and oleo are text-mode spreadsheets.
The XFCE is the important part - any distribution that offers it should be roughly equivalent in power usage and speed. I use it on a P4-1.4GHz with 768MB of RAM and it boots almost exactly TWICE as fast as my friend's six-month old Vista desktop. I'm not sure what processor/ram combo he has, but a six-month old desktop from Lenovo should be able to easily beat my ancient computer.
Three things I like about this configuration:
1-It uses next to nothing in resources.
2-It's easy to setup. For example, I haven't looked at shutting down unnecessary services, etc. I could probably get a pretty good speed boost if I did.
3-XFCE's user interface is similar enough to KDE/Windows that I don't notice the difference. Some window managers behave so differently, it is very jarring to try and use them.
Or forget *nix and just stay with windows, or maybe even Vista... The P1510 might be 3 years old, but it's hardly underpowered...
The 1.2 Pentium M isn't a P3 at 1.2Ghz.. Its the equivalent of a p4 at 1.8 Ghz...
I've played Tron 2.0 at 1280x1024 quite smoothly on it, so don't let the fact it doesn't support new shader models hide the fact it has some seriously beefed up graphics with the 915 GMS chipset fall to the side either. Pretty good for what was around 3 years ago in any laptop and more than most compact models still can do.
It's not a Quad core, or even a duo, but it's hardly underpowered even by today's standards.
Try comparing it to other recent palmtop models... It pretty much leaves them for dead, even as a 3 year veteran...
Just get some more memory and quit whining. Its cheap enough, even if proprietary.
Anyway, that's what I'm sending you this response from, from a train, on mobile internet... on a P1510...
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
Sure, I can try explaining a little bit. And those "RTFA" posts are definitely not helpful; it was a pain for me (in my infinite wisdom, of course) to get EWF installed and working correctly, and I had step-by-step instructions.
These are from the Aspire One User forums, but these instructions work for most any Windows computer. The short of it is to get EWF drivers, you have to download an XP Embedded ISO image from Microsoft and rip apart an installer. Installing the drivers requires installing some very specific registry keys and running a command-line instruction from the CD you downloaded. After a reboot, you're running with EWF.
What EWF does exactly is it makes a specific drive, say C, "read-only." Any writes to your C drive with EWF enabled (in RAM-Reg mode, or whatever it's called) are trapped in memory instead. Reads to changed files are read from memory.
So, you have a slowly enlarging cache of changed files; it's pretty much the NTFS journal stored in RAM instead of committed to disk. This means if you save a file to your C drive, it appears to be saved (because Windows is reading that part of the file system from memory) but it's gone when you reboot. (So, have a second "save" partition.) You can enable/disable the Enhanced Write Filter at any time if, say, you need to install a patch or a program.
It's pretty fun; you can delete all of the icons on your desktop and everything you can out of your Windows drive and, because those changes were never committed to disk, only temporarily stored in memory, everything's back as it was when you reboot. It can also be dangerous - don't defrag or chkdsk or anything silly like that with it enabled, because all available memory will fill up and then you'll get "delayed write" errors and Windows will hardlock.
Also, turn off your paging file if you install EWF drivers. There is no point in caching memory to disk if any changes to disk are being cached in memory.
It pretty much freezes your computer eternally in one state - it functions as normal, except changes to a EWF protected drive only appear to be saved. You'd want to do this because, well, everything runs much faster. Take Outlook 2007 - you run it, it loads your PST file and makes changes to it. That PST file is now cached in memory, and any further access to it is memory-fast instead of disk-fast. Programs load a lot faster, and the machine boots a lot faster. It acts like a much faster laptop than it is because the disk is used only for reads, and never for any subsequent writes.
The reason it's in an XP Embedded CD is because it's designed to let you run Windows off of a CD or a non-writeable flash card. It's also very handy for saving your solid-state drive from burning out because of the million+ writes per second Windows feels compelled to do.
It's a pain to get working, but you'll know it's working when 1) your computer runs faster and 2) any new icons you make on your desktop (assuming you "Froze" your C drive) disappear when you reboot.
Oddly enough, it's kinda like Vista's Super-Fetch.
DATABASE WOW WOW