Alternative Operating System

stilltheone

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

OK then, you two have inspired me to install Ubuntu on my Asus Eee!
Do I need to make a third partition? My 160GB HDD's C Drive is 80GB (55GB free space) but D is only 62.1GB (I presume the netbook is using the other 17.9GB when automatically backing up).

Tesco Direct is selling a 3G netbook dual-booting with Android for a remarkable £149 (it appears it qualifies for the £50 off deal for laptops selling for £200+). It's got a 250GB HDD plus DDR3, although only one slot.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.212-4507.aspx

I created a 10GB partition for Ubuntu. You can decide if you need more.

S0litaire

You'll need 2 partitions, one for the os, the other for "swapfile" (it's like windows pagefile.sys) it's best practice to be at least the same size as the ram in your system or at least 1gb.

But 10gb for the os is plenty for office and surfing (the install should only use 4gb or so..)

boxst

You can use a linux distribution such as Ubuntu. I would say "Why bother?" as Windows is pretty good and you don't have to worry about drivers for anything you plug into the computer.

I know that people want to drop windows, but it is pretty good (if bloated).

Steve (writing this from his Macbook )

SteveJH200

Looks like everybody has their favourites - I have Linux Mint on a spare computer and I'm really impressed. Have Ubuntu on another but Mint has got the edge on it. With both systems drivers don't appear to be any hassle and connecting to a wireless connection is so much easier than Windows. As already mentioned, it's so easy to try them out - I haven't even scratched the surface yet as there are hundreds of differents applications. Best of all they are free!

gonzo127

meh i would go with either one of the Linux Mints or one of the Ubuntu's, they are designed to be the most newbie friendly versions and do have a large community forums to help if you have questions.

installation of them are very easy with no 'tech' speak and they include most things people are likely to need out of the box, and if it isnt there you always have the software centre.

stilltheone

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

OK then, you two have inspired me to install Ubuntu on my Asus Eee!
Do I need to make a third partition? My 160GB HDD's C Drive is 80GB (55GB free space) but D is only 62.1GB (I presume the netbook is using the other 17.9GB when automatically backing up).

Tesco Direct is selling a 3G netbook dual-booting with Android for a remarkable £149 (it appears it qualifies for the £50 off deal for laptops selling for £200+). It's got a 250GB HDD plus DDR3, although only one slot.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.212-4507.aspx

Remember to use the Windows Installer.

esuhl

S0litaire wrote: »

You'll need 2 partitions, one for the os, the other for "swapfile" (it's like windows pagefile.sys) it's best practice to be at least the same size as the ram in your system or at least 1gb.

It's better (performance-wise) to use up a dedicated swap partition, rather than use a swap file. I imagine the overhead in mounting the filesystem to read the swap file reduces performance somewhat.

The optimal size of swap partitions/files is a hotly-debated topic, but if you need to put the laptop into hibernate mode (i.e. suspend-to-disk), then the total size of all swap partitions/files needs to be greater than the amount of RAM you have.

Also, it's usually a good idea to keep /home on a separate partition too so you can keep your own files separate from the OS in case you need to re-install.

S0litaire

esuhl wrote: »

It's better (performance-wise) to use up a dedicated swap partition, rather than use a swap file. I imagine the overhead in mounting the filesystem to read the swap file reduces performance somewhat.

The optimal size of swap partitions/files is a hotly-debated topic, but if you need to put the laptop into hibernate mode (i.e. suspend-to-disk), then the total size of all swap partitions/files needs to be greater than the amount of RAM you have.

Also, it's usually a good idea to keep /home on a separate partition too so you can keep your own files separate from the OS in case you need to re-install.

typo! lol
it was 2am and i was typing on my mobile (think it auto corrected Swappartition to swapfile)

General rule of thumb (as I learned many moons ago!!) with swap partitions is that if you have less than 1Gb then swap should be:
Swap = 2 x ram + 1gb

Anything else it should be the same size as your RAM till you hit 4Gb then you really only need 1Gb of swap.

But if space is not a problem then i generally use:
Swap partition = ram + 1Gb

esuhl

Yeah - I've played about with various swap partition sizes over the years and I've not really noticed any obvious performance differences when you have plenty of RAM. On my Core i7 PC with 6GB RAM I only use a 512MB swap partition and haven't run into any problems. I've heard that having no swap can cause problems in some situations - although it worked fine when I tried!

Personally I'd aim to have a minimum of 4GB total memory (RAM+swap), and use just a small amount (~512MB) for systems with >4GB RAM. There's no "perfect" answer that suits everyone - it depends on your hardware, how you use the computer, etc. The best way to decide would be to change the total swap size and see how it affects performance... but it's far simpler to just lick your finger, stick it in the air and guess what the "right" amount is!

814man

Hi all
So took me about about 40 minutes to download and install Ubuntu. No tech knowledge needed and I'm loving it - very fast and responsive.
Thanks for all advice, why didn’t I do this before?