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Is debian recommended for old netbooks

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jarlaxl
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#16 Post by jarlaxl »

I run debian testing with debian default KDE on a laptop (Acer travelmate 2490) with more or less the same specs as an HP Mini 110, but upgraded memory to 2GB. Its blazing fast. TDE desktop could also be a fast alternative.
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alderaan
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#17 Post by alderaan »

keithpeter wrote: Might be the Web's fault, see [1]

Have you tried the NoScript add-on in Iceweasel? Can speed things up amazingly.

Have you thought about adding a list of the more invasive ad servers to your /etc/hosts file?

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt

Happy new year all.


[1] http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

Of course, configuring a wm over X is fun and educational, and distro-hopping can be rewarding and widen horizons!
I agree with all of the above but I have to be grateful for the obesity link: enjoyed!

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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#18 Post by steve_v »

larienna wrote:I have an old HP mini 110, I currently have Wheezy on it with XFCE as window manager, and I find web browsing relatively slow.
I have pretty much the same machine, also running Jessie/XFCE. As already mentioned: a) More RAM does wonders. b) It's probably just the web being slow, the scourge of this day and age. NoScript does wonders, as does redirecting known ad hosts to 127.0.0.1.
Thank you. Most amusing and all true. :mrgreen:
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gerry
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#19 Post by gerry »

My 2009 Acer Aspire One ZG5 has Jessie/XFCE, Mint MATE, and Puppy Slacko 5.7. All work perfectly (as far as I can tell). It does not get much use these days, because I have also a desktop (my wife's, but I have to maintain it, Windows 10) , a laptop (2007 Thinkpad T60) with the same three distros, a 7" Android tablet and an Android phone.

On the Acer, the mouse buttons are almost unuseable, so I have a script that runs at bootup that maps the windows key and the opposite one to be left and right mouse buttons.
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n_hologram
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#20 Post by n_hologram »

My old netbook (back in college) is what got me into Linux and, eventually, Debian.

Granted, that was back when Gnome2 was still all the rage, so it used far fewer resources than Gnome3. But, XFCE and Openbox/LXDE work perfectly on any Atom/Celeron I've used. You obviously won't get the same performance as a modern laptop, but in my experience, Debian allows for an optimal experience on a lightweight system.

If you're really proficient (or bored), learn how to do a minimal/netinstall, and build your system from the ground-up. You'll have a lot more autonomy over deciding what you need and what's superfluous. That said, the prebuilt spins suffice just fine.
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TonyVanDam
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#21 Post by TonyVanDam »

For old netbooks, I also highly recommend a Debian-based distro called antix! :mrgreen: If you ever get a chance to check it out, be sure you get the antix-full edition because it's the most user-friendly.

As for using pure Debian, my final answer is yes, I can recommended it if you're already an immediate user that knows basic level command lines on a terminal. If that's you, then get Debian netinst burned on CD or USB, install the base, and then install whatever packages you want as part of your system.

Or if you rather take the "play it safe" approach, you can install Debian LXDE and have a user ready netbook in a LXDE desktop environment.
Last edited by TonyVanDam on 2016-05-11 22:41, edited 1 time in total.

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HuangLao
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#22 Post by HuangLao »

I know this thread is older but I wanted to make a suggestion:

If you want to stay with Debian then try antiX, otherwise you might like SalixOS based on Slackware.

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pylkko
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#23 Post by pylkko »

wizard10000 wrote:One more thing about that Mini 110 - they only do 1.5Gbps SATA so spending a lot of money on an SSD isn't a grand idea. I found a couple of decent 240GB SSD on newegg for about $65 that would probably work great. I had a 60GB SSD in mine until I swiped the SSD to put in my PS3 :mrgreen:
Since the SATA is a old one with a low throughput, if one were to install an ssd, then in it is possible that the SATA could act as a bottle neck. This is what I believe you are trying to say. However, there are other things to take into account, if I am not entirely mistaken. For example, accesss times will be much faster on a an ssd, and most normal OS operation related input and output is not going to be massive sequential writes, but rather randome read writes at small sizes (like 4k). Therefore, an ssd will nevertheless increase responsiveness and performance in everyday activities. Another thing is that the sequential read and write throughput of small ssd is much lower than of large capacity ones (once again, if I am not completely mistaken). Therefore you would need to install a large capacity ssd anyway in order for the low throughput SATA to become a bottleneck. Right?


Adding more RAM might help in the sense that you might be able to avoid swapping entirely with a lightweight DE and applications, for example. However, the processor is going to be slow and will not process large amounts of stuff fastly anyway. So RAM will help with some things but not with other things (like boot time, where an ssd would surely help).

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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#24 Post by edbarx »

I say a definite 'NO'.

Debian, especially if KDE or GNOME are installed requires powerful hardware just like MS Windows. If it was me, I would opt to use a distribution that is aimed at very low end hardware like Puppy Linux. I find Debian sluggish even on a Pentium 4, 3GHz, hyperthreading.
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kevit
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Re: Is debian recommended for old netbooks

#25 Post by kevit »

Actually, I got a HP Compaq 110c, did an upgrade for SSD
That is little strange, that Debian 9 livecd even from 2.0 USB stick working quite fast, but XFCE from the local SSD slow as hell. And the processor is 100% loaded, but it shows 3.5k bogomips. I remember my laptop at 2008 and it was much much faster. Is dbus so heavy?

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