Netbooks are small laptops, with screen sizes between approximately 7 and 12 inches and low power consumption. They use either an SSD (solid state disk) or a HDD (hard disk drive) for storage, have up to 2 gigabytes of RAM (but often less), lack an optical disk drive, and usually have USB, Ethernet, WiFi and often Bluetooth connectivity. The name emphasizes their use as portable Internet appliances.
Netbook distributions
There are special Linux distributions, called netbook distributions, for these machines. All such distributions purport to be optimized for use with small, low-resolution displays. They tend to include a broad mix of VOIP and web-focused tools, including proprietary applications rarely seen installed by default by mainstream desktop distributions. For instance, Nokia Maemo and Asus' customized Xandros both ship with Skype and Adobe Flash installed, and Ubuntu's Netbook Edition offers the option to do the same for OEMs.
Comparison
Features
| Distribution | Working State | Aim | Creator | Producer | Base Distribution | Installed Size (MB) | Initial Release Date | Interface | Linux Kernel | Default File System | Architecture Support | Approximate Number of Pre-compiled Packages | Default Package Management Tools | Default Installer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurora | 2009
Last Release, development stopped |
Asus Eee PC optimized | Eeebuntu community | Ubuntu | 2009-05-15 | Gnome or Gnome + Netbook Remix | Array kernel (modified kernel) | APT | ||||||
| CrunchBang Linux 11-20130119 | 2015-02-06
Development Stopped |
Limited hardware machines | Philip Newborough | Debian | 2013-01-19 | Openbox | 3.2.35 | x86 + x86_64 | APT | |||||
| Debian Eee PC | Asus Eee PC | Debian | ||||||||||||
| Debian Wheezy | Written from scratch | i386, AMD64, PowerPC, SPARC, ARM, MIPS, S390, armhf, s390x. Loongson | ||||||||||||
| EasyPeasy 1.6 | 2012
Last Release, development stopped |
All netbooks | EasyPeasy Community | Jon Ramvi | Ubuntu | 2010-04-24 | Gnome + Netbook Remix | 2.6.32 | ext4 | x86 | APT | Ubiquity | ||
| Eeedora | Asus Eee PC 701 | Martin Andrews | Fedora | Xfce | RPM | |||||||||
| Firefly Linux 1.0 Beta 1 | 2009
Last Release, development stopped |
Firefly Linux community | Arch Linux | LXDE | 2.6.29.4 | x86 | Pacman | |||||||
| Fuduntu | 2013-04-14
Last Release, development stopped |
All netbooks | Andrew Wyatt "Fewt" | Fuduntu.org | None (Originally based on Fedora 14) | 2012-10-01 | Gnome | 3.6.9 | ext4 | x86 + x86_64 | RPM + YUM | |||
| gNewSense | Free software | Brian Brazil and Paul O'Malley | Sam Geeraerts with sponsorship from the FSF | Debian | Linux-libre 2.6.32 | Loongson, x86, x86-64 | APT | Ubiquity (software) | ||||||
| Joli OS 1.2 (formerly named Jolicloud) |
2013-11-22 Last Release, development stopped | All netbooks | Joli OS | Joli OS | Ubuntu | 2011-03-09 | HTML5 + Gnome | 2.6.35.10 | ext4 | x86 | APT | |||
| Kuki Linux 2.0 | 2009
Last Release, development stopped |
Aspire One optimized | Kuki Linux community | Ubuntu | Xfce | |||||||||
| Linux4One 1.5 | Aspire One optimized | Linux4One community | Ubuntu | Gnome or LXDE | ||||||||||
| Leeenux Linux v10 | 2016 Last Release | All netbooks | Aleksandar Ciric | Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | LXDE, XFCE | ext4 | x86, AMD64 | APT, Synaptic, Software center | Ubiquity | |||||
| Leeenux 2020 | Supported until April 2023 | All netbooks | Aleksandar Ciric | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | LXDE, XFCE | x86, AMD64 | APT, Synaptic, Software center | |||||||
| Lubuntu
15.10 |
2015-10-22
Active Development |
Limited hardware machines | Lubuntu Community and LXDE Foundation | Ubuntu | 2011-10-13 | LXDE | Synaptic | |||||||
| Manjaro Netbook Edition | 2015-07-25
Active Development |
All netbooks | Rob McCathie | Manjaro Linux | Arch Linux | Xfce | Intel Atom-optimized Manjaro kernel | ext4 | x86, x86_64 | Pamac (graphical frontend for pacman) | ||||
| Midinux | All netbooks | Red Flag Linux | 2007 | ext3 | x86 | |||||||||
| MeeGo 1.2 | 2012
Last Release, development stopped |
Intel Atom processor netbooks, Nokia ARM smartphones | Intel, Nokia, Maemo community | Intel, Nokia, Linux Foundation | None (it is a distribution developed out of Maemo and Moblin) | 2010-10-28 | "Netbook User Experience" (based on Clutter) | 2.6.35 | btrfs | x86 with SSSE3 support | RPM | |||
| Moblin 2.1 | 2009-04
Last Release, development stopped |
All Intel Atom processor netbooks and MID | Intel | Intel/Linux Foundation | None (borrows components for various distributions) | 2009-11-04 | Clutter | RPM (may change) | ||||||
| OpenGeeeU 8.10 | 2012-08
Last Release, development stopped |
Luca De Marini | Easy Peasy | 2009-03-23 | Enlightenment plus Gnome | 2.6.27 | ext3 | x86 | 26000 | APT | Ubiquity | |||
| Puppeee Linux 4.3X | Linpus is 64-bit only | Asus Eee PCs with Intel Chipsets | Jemimah Ruhala | Puppy Linux 4.3.1 | 200MB | Choice of IceWM / OpenBox / Flwm with ROX-Filer / PcManFM / LxLauncher | 2.6.33 | AUFS + SquashFS + EXT2 | Atom / CeleronM | Pet | PetGet | |||
| Trisquel Mini | 2014-11
Last Release, development stopped |
Limited hardware machines | Trisquel | 2010-09 | ||||||||||
| Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 | 2010-10
Last Release, development stopped |
Intel Atom processor netbooks | Canonical Ltd. | Canonical Ltd. | Ubuntu | 2010-10-10 | Unity | 2.6.32 | x86 | 32000 | APT | |||
| Distribution | Working State | Aim | Creator | Producer | Base Distribution | Installed Size (MB) | Initial Release Date | Interface | Linux Kernel | Default File System | Architecture Support | Approximate Number of Pre-compiled Packages | Default Package Management Tools | Default Installer |
Specific Features
| Distribution | Target Boot Time | Whole OS Loads to RAM
(Default) |
LIVE
Medium |
Target Users | SSD Write Optimization
(SSD degradation, I/O optimization, etc.) |
Specific Supported Hardware |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aurora 3.0 | ||||||
| EasyPeasy 1.6 | LIVE Medium | Beginner, highly mobile netbook users. | ||||
| Eeedora | ||||||
| Firefly Linux 1.0 Beta 1 | ||||||
| Joli OS 1.2 | ||||||
| Kuki Linux 2.0 | ||||||
| Linux4One 1.5 | 40 seconds | |||||
| Manjaro Netbook Edition | ||||||
| Moblin 2.0 | 5 seconds | |||||
| OpenGeeeU 8.10 | ||||||
| Puppeee Linux 4.3X | 30s | Loads to RAM | Layered filesystem - caches writes in RAM | Lightweight kernel compiled for EeePCs only | ||
| Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 |
Google Trends
While no public numbers measuring the install-base of these operating systems are available, Google Trends data on a handful of them indicate their relative popularity:
References
- Ubuntu 10.4 UNE
- "Array kernel site". Archived from the original on 2009-05-17. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
- "DebianYeeloong - Debian Wiki".
- ^ Eeedora project at Google Code
- ^ "Fuduntu Website". Archived from the original on 2011-03-17.
- "Fuduntu i386". Archived from the original on 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
- "Fuduntu x86_64".
- "Jolicloud Compatible Devices". Archived from the original on 2011-01-12.
- Manjaro Netbook Edition at SourceForge
- ^ Moblin FAQ Archived May 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- Archived May 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- "Canonical | About the company". Archived from the original on 2009-02-14. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
- "Features of Light version of Linux4One". Archived from the original on 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
- Fast boot in Moblin page Archived January 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- Youtube video showing Moblin 2.0 prerelease booting in 5 seconds.
See also
| Linux | |
|---|---|
| Linux kernel | |
| Controversies | |
| Distributions | |
| Organizations | |
| Adoption | |
| Media | |
| Professional related certifications | |
