Light Linux OS

[Ryan.Nova]

Hello, this is also my first post here.

I was wondering which Linux Distro is the lightest, or quickest I should say.
I have tried a few and they seem sluggish-ish, I have had Ubuntu up until 9.04 and mandriva 2009, and they werent the best, dont get me wrong they were far nicer to use than Windows apart from their font support.

Anyway, I am thinking about getting the X10 Netbook, however I want an OS that will run quite quickly and wont freeze on it, as specs arnt too shabby.

I was thinking OpenSuse 11.2, the only thing is I have never used it before.

I like the look of KDE and iv heard good things about this Distro,

My question is, would this be the best for the job, and would driver support be an issue?

Thanks for any responses.

[jonbanjo]

I doubt OpenSuse is going to give you a performance gain over Ubuntu.

Off the top of my head, sometimes the Desktops can be a bit heavy. It might be worth giving an XFCE one a whirl. With the Ubuntu series, this is Xubuntu. With OpenSuse, you should be able to install it alongside other Desktops such as KDE and Gnome or I think on installation you can choose "other" for Desktop Environment.

What is your system?

[danceswithferrets]

I've used opensuse 10.3 on my eeepc 701 for about a year and it worked very well, even basic 3d like tuxracer worked. Plenty of distro's do a lightweight netbook version now or there are distro's like vector linux, designed to run on older/low end hardware. Haiku os is worth a mention, it is not linux but an opensource version of BeOs. Haiku is still in alpha so not ready for full use yet but wow, what a truly amazing os. Look on youtube for the beos demo to get an idea of what it can do. It really is jaw dropping to see.
Oh, mustn't forget arch linux, you configure everything yourself but the wiki walks you though it and you end up with YOUR system just the way you want it. Do it right and you have one quick os.
In short, buy a bunch of cd's d/l a bunch of different iso's and go nuts. You can't lose :)

[Ryan.Nova]

The Haiku OS does look pretty nifty, reminds me of Gnome on Mandriva, or whatever its called. ;)

My current PC is AMD Dual Core 2.8Ghz, 4GB 800Mhz DDR RAM, Nvidia 9800GT. I also have an old laptop which I am about to test OpenSuse on, I will then try the new Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and maybe Kubuntu.

Depending on the performance I will then install it on the x10 netbook, although my only gripe then is drivers.

Do novatech offer drivers for linux distros?

And thanks for your help guys!

[mrgoose]

I'd like to throw Barry Kauler's Puppy Linux into the proverbial ring, if I may. Interesting distro - interesting Guy - definitely one of the unsung heroes of the open source world IMHO.

http://puppylinux.com/bkauler/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppy_Linux
A Cybercafe for Less Than Thirty Quid (http://www.deoss.org/positive/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=43)

It is very, very light indeed - the .ISO is less than 100MiB! Ideal for your older machine.

My five cents. Best wishes, G.

EDIT, WRT Drivers, I don't think you'll get much driver support directly from Novatech. However, you will probably find lots of help on the forums and from the open source community generally. Besides, lots of older kit works "out of the box" with most Linuxes.

[Mr Grapes]

+1 for puppy
look out for puplets: customised versions of puppy ready to go as downloads, that'll run directly off (usually) a 128 Mb flash drive - see they ARE useful afterall!

[danceswithferrets]

Drivers in linux are built into the kernel, and the linux kernel covers a quite impressive array of hardware these days. Netbooks are mostly built with linux in mind, after all the eeepc started it all with xandros (anyone remember the sharp zaurus) and although asus very publicly stuck two fingers up at the linux community (google "it's better with windows") even they have quietly released linux source code for their "windows only" seashell thingi.
In short, it's highly unlikly that anyone would design a netbook that doesn't have linux supported hardware. As ever, get googling :) and remember, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

[Ryan.Nova]

Okay cool, thanks for all your help.

Update, I have installed OpenSuse 11.2 on an old laptop, and it looks amazing and performs really well, It has the latest KDE GUI, and its sweet.

So I will probably get that on the X10 netbook,

However I am also downloading Xubuntu and kubuntu to have a go of.
I have bookmarked 'Puppy' aswell.

Thanks again.

[oxy]

Arch linux, gentoo are quick

Could try ubuntu with openbox installled, would be fairly fast and easier to install than arch or gentoo.

[Bracken]

The lightest distro is going to be so baron as to be of little use.

If you've only tried a few distros, and not yet had time to work out what KDE is (it's not a distro), then you should be going for something easy.

Ubuntu is probably the easiest, maybe mint.

Xubuntu is a little lighter, and a bit harder.

CrunchBang is very good, also based on ubuntu, but VERY light for something so functional.

[Superewza]

Puppy, Feather, DSL, Tiny Core, Slitaz and tons of others.

[danceswithferrets]

I had vector linux running on my old dell cpi 266, quick, stable but basic. I think it ran icewm, it was a couple of years ago when I last used it.

[Mr Grapes]

Vector linux has come on loads in the last year or so, it's still lightweight, but nice too
min specs:
Light Edition: Pentium 166 or better, 64MB RAM minimum, 1.8GB hard drive space for full system - more for your data.

[Ajhayter]

I've run Ubuntu Netbook Remix as an experiment (http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr)

However that was on a £700 gaming rig just to try the interface. Dunno how it would perform on an X10 but I intend to find out in the spring!