Windows XP / Linux dual boot??

Kernel_Sanders

I'm thinking of doing this on my Asus Eee because I spend time on webcam sites where the Flash Shockwave Plug-in often crashes whatever browser I am using with XP. Can anybody recommend a flavour that would be more stable? I don't use the machine for anything more strenuous than streaming BBC iplayer, and I have 1GB of RAM.

esuhl

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

I'm thinking of doing this on my Asus Eee because I spend time on webcam sites where the Flash Shockwave Plug-in often crashes whatever browser I am using with XP. Can anybody recommend a flavour that would be more stable? I don't use the machine for anything more strenuous than streaming BBC iplayer, and I have 1GB of RAM.

I got sick of running XP on my Asus EEE 901 (with one of the older single-core CPUs). I installed Arch Linux and it's just so much faster and more stable. It's now a pleasure to use, although it does take a little bit of tweaking/configuring to install. I'm definitely not a Linux expert, though - I just looked at the excellent Arch Wiki pages - there's the Beginners' Guide, Installation guide, and pages that specifically help with Asus EEE installations.

I was actually surprised at how well-supported the Asus EEE hardware is - the drivers were all readily available and stable.

If you're not comfortable with installing a new OS, Arch is probably more complicated than most and designed to be installed by people who want to be in control of everything (which is part of the reason that it runs so fast - it's very modular and you just install what you need), but if you can follow simple instructions and don't mind spending a little time setting everything up as you like it, then Arch will be like a breath of fresh air!

Hammyman

No need to install Linux on a partition at all. Just install Ubuntu using Wubi. You do it from within Windows and it sticks in an entry in Add/Remove programs. When you start the computer you'll be given the choice of Windows or Ubuntu as you would with a dual boot install. However once you've decided you have had enough, you just need to boot into Windows and remove it through Add/Remove programs. No repartitioning or changing the boot loader or any of that nonsense. You get a full speed Linux distro experience as it just creates the filesystem for Linux as a single file in the Windows partition.

kabayiri

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

I'm thinking of doing this on my Asus Eee because I spend time on webcam sites where the Flash Shockwave Plug-in often crashes whatever browser I am using with XP. Can anybody recommend a flavour that would be more stable? I don't use the machine for anything more strenuous than streaming BBC iplayer, and I have 1GB of RAM.

Arch Linux is quite good.

Personally I like CrunchBang. Perhaps have a look at that?

Run it off a usb stick , see which you like

DCodd

Update.

I downloaded ubuntu to a fash drive last weekend but couldn't get it to boot. Turns out that my laptop sees the flash drive as a USB HDD and not the USB Key that I had set as first in the boot list. After a couple of days of being stupid, I realised that I needed to boot from the USB HDD and up came ubuntu!

Still tweeking it but even from the flash drive it seems so much quicker and a nicer experience than XP.

Thanks for all your help people, may need to pick your brains again at a later date.
:beer: