recommend an OS for me

[nageov3t]

I'm not committed either way to linux, windows, or mac

I've got a pretty old netbook, with a 16gb hard drive running Windows XP. I'm not interested in investing in a drive upgrade because all I use the netbook for at this point is recharging my iPod and listening to music in my kitchen (either using my iPod via iTunes or streaming music like youtube or last.fm)

however, with just XP and iTunes, I'm perpetually running out of disk space... I've uninstalled basically everything except the OS, patches, MSSE, and iTunes and I'm still getting a warning about low disk space every time I turn it on.

my current plan is to reformat with XP OEM and not patch it to save space since it's not as if it contains any important information, but I'm curious to see if there are other options out there.

I did try ubuntu netbook on it in the past, but wasn't able to get networking to work.

 

[Maximilian]

Windows ME :thumbsup:

 

[lxskllr]

What model netbook? Netbooks generally have good Linux compatibility. I'd suggest one of the *buntus. Ubuntu if you like the new interface, and Xubuntu if you don't. My Eee900 has PLENTY of room on the 16gb drive running Ubuntu 10.04.

 

[nageov3t]

What model netbook? Netbooks generally have good Linux compatibility. I'd suggest one of the *buntus. Ubuntu if you like the new interface, and Xubuntu if you don't. My Eee900 has PLENTY of room on the 16gb drive running Ubuntu 10.04.

HP mini 1000

I read an article online of someone setting it up with ubuntu-netbook, which was why I tried it out, but the no networking killed it a bit for me.

 

[lxskllr]

A quick Google says that Ubuntu should work well on that unit. It's free to try if nothing else. *buntu or Mint will give you the best OOTB experience, but if you feel like playing, and ultralight distro, or Debian should work too. You might have to put some effort in though, and it doesn't sound like you care that much.

 

[Venom20]

done

also these people say it works fine

 

[themillak]

often with linux and networks, it works much better if you connect the computer to the network with an ethernet cable. When it does its post-install update you can grab what you need to get the wireless working.

 

[nageov3t]

often with linux and networks, it works much better if you connect the computer to the network with an ethernet cable. When it does its post-install update you can grab what you need to get the wireless working.

I installed linux mint 11 and it worked pretty much right out of the box.

I really loved the ubuntu-netbook UI, though, so I reinstalled it and am patching it now to see if the wireless works afterward.

if this fails, I think I might give Jolicloud a try (replacing wine + iTunes perhaps with Squeezebox streaming from my desktop) and falling back to mint if that fails.

 

[Nothinman]

often with linux and networks, it works much better if you connect the computer to the network with an ethernet cable. When it does its post-install update you can grab what you need to get the wireless working.

It really depends on the wireless chipset, if it requires firmware to be loaded, the redistribution terms of the firmware, etc. I'm almost always near a wired connection though, so I tend to use that because it's faster.

 

[nageov3t]

fully updated ubuntu-netbook worked fine with the wireless and sound...

now I just need to see if I can find a solution for streaming music off of my windows desktop that's prettier than just mapping a drive or using a NAS