Best OS for an old netbook?

nxwing · Feb 7, 2016

So I recently got this netbook from my dad while I'm saving up to buy a MacBook. It's an Acer Aspire One D270 and it's running Windows 7 Home Basic and it's shitty as hell. I want to get an alternative OS that will increase it's performance at least just a bit so that it won't feel shitty.

Here are it's specs:
Intel Atom N2800 (1.86 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache) x86
2 GB DDR3 Memory
500 GB HDD

Right now I'm looking at elementaryOS and Remix OS though other alternatives will also do. Thanks for your time.

Piluvr · Feb 7, 2016

I would try linux mint, as it takes up a verry small amount of ram for me.

Lucar · Feb 7, 2016

I'd recommend Arch Linux, as you can customize it to your specifications, and it can be extremely lightweight if you set it up properly.

Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Elementary, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu even.

Also if you aren't afraid of not using APT-GET as a Package Manager, Linux Mint.

I've also heard Kali Linux is nice, but I can't vote for it, since I've never used it.

Daggot · Feb 7, 2016

Why not Arch? I used it a year ago on an old hand-me-down laptop I got from a friend and it wasn't very resource intensive. You could also try other arch based distros like Manjaro but I have no experience on that end.

Jayro · Feb 7, 2016

Linux Mint is a bit heavy for a netbook, I find Lubuntu 15.10 (LXQt) works really well and fast as hell.

Lucar · Feb 7, 2016

Jayro said:
Linux Mint is a bit heavy for a netbook, I find Lubuntu 15.10 (LXQt) works really well and fast as hell.

I was expecting you to say Mini Windows 10.

tiduscrying · Feb 7, 2016

Daggot said:
Why not Arch? I used it a year ago on an old hand-me-down laptop I got from a friend and it wasn't very resource intensive. You could also try other arch based distros like Manjaro but I have no experience on that end.

Manjaro is pretty much a pre-set up version of Arch, so if the OP isn't down for a vanilla arch install, that would be the way to go.

But anyways, I had a similar quest a long time ago back when I had an Acer ZG5 with 1GB of ram and a single core 1.6GHz processor, haha. I ended up settling for Crunchbang linux as it was debian based (a.k.a. not bleeding edge, but super stable), but that is now dead. In it's place there is Crunchbang ++ and Bunsenlabs Linux, both of which are pretty good. But the best part of CB was how low resources it was. It didn't run a desktop environment and instead ran something called OpenBox which was just a window manager. This meant that with my 1GB of ram, the system was barley using 200MB on any given day. Super nice.

Another alternative on the Linux side of things would be Puppy linux, which loads the entire system into RAM, making the system super snappy. It kinda looks dated to me, but then again, I haven't used it since the days of Ubuntu 14.04, so what do I know...

If you are uncomfortable with linux, you could give Chrome OS a shot on your system through CloudReady. It'll completely wipe your drive, and it is very unfriendly if you want to dual boot multiple OSes, but Chrome OS itself is very light and very capable. Keep in mind though, you can run most windows applications on Linux through a compatibility layer called Wine, but on Chrome OS you are pretty much stuck with chrome-os applications only (I.E. botched android apps, web apps, stuff from the chrome web store).

Elementary OS is still a lighter linux OS, but it is still based off of gnome, which isn't exactly lightweight. Remix OS is also a fair option, but keep in mind that it is still heavily in development and more of a POC (in my opinion) at this point!

You could also check out Windows 10 for your machine, which is supposedly a lot lighter than Windows 7, but your mileage may vary. I'd also recommend researching your machine and seeing if you can upgrade the ram. Sometimes a simple ram boost of 512MB-1GB can make your computing experience oh-so-much smoother!

Jayro · Feb 7, 2016

Lucar said:
I was expecting you to say Mini Windows 10.

Mini Windows 10 is just a preinstall environment for PC repair.

Lucar · Feb 7, 2016

Jayro said:
Mini Windows 10 is just a preinstall environment for PC repair.

I kinda wish it was installable, actually. :3

nxwing · Feb 7, 2016

I also forgot to mention that I need an OS that is user friendly

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Also I found out that some distros require you to have a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 but my netbook's resolution is only 1024 x 600 but i can sclae down to 800 x 600

Xanthe · Feb 7, 2016

Lubuntu. Its the best OS for an old hardware computer. I use it on my laptop from 2005 and it works great. Lubuntu is designed for an old computer

Sono · Feb 7, 2016

Adamant Lugia said:
Lubuntu. Its the best OS for an old hardware computer. I use it on my laptop from 2005 and it works great. Lubuntu is designed for an old computer

Yes, Lubuntu serves a good job both on my PC, and on my ancient laptop

InsaneNutter · Feb 7, 2016

Try Windows 10? it's a free upgrade from Windows 7.

I installed Windows 10 on my MSI Wind U100 netbook which consists of the following:

Intel Atom N270 (Single core processor at 1.60 ghz)
2gb of DDR2 ram
160gb hard drive

I thought it ran ok for basic web browsing / Microsoft Office use, as the Atom N2800 is vastly superior you shouldn't have any real problems. Just don't go loading it with rubbish.

Deleted User · Feb 7, 2016

Remix OS

Sono · Feb 7, 2016

InsaneNutter said:
Try Windows 10? it's a free upgrade from Windows 7.

I installed Windows 10 on my MSI Wind U100 netbook which consists of the following:

Intel Atom N270 (Single core processor at 1.60 ghz)

2gb of DDR2 ram

160gb hard drive

I thought it ran ok for basic web browsing / Microsoft Office use, as the Atom N2800 is vastly superior you shouldn't have any real problems. Just don't go loading it with rubbish.

Sorry for contra, but I wouldn't really suggest installing *that* new version of Windows, if the laptop is too old.
I tried out Win8 (not 8.1, 'cuz it's even worse), and the thermal-hardware-shutdown mechanism kicked in after less than 15mins, because Windows Update (to be more precise, TiWorker.exe) ate up the whole processor (similarly like Chrome eats up the RAM).
Even disabling everything doesn't really help, the neutral load is always around 30-70%, while on XP it's around 4-20%. Okay, to be fair, Win8 runs alot better than XP, doesn't take ages to redraw the desktop, but it's not optimized for single-core processors, so it overhets *really* fast, and opening Firefox freezes the *whole* computer (while generating ridiculous amounts of heat).

nxwing · Feb 7, 2016

InsaneNutter said:
Try Windows 10? it's a free upgrade from Windows 7.

I installed Windows 10 on my MSI Wind U100 netbook which consists of the following:

Intel Atom N270 (Single core processor at 1.60 ghz)

2gb of DDR2 ram

160gb hard drive

I thought it ran ok for basic web browsing / Microsoft Office use, as the Atom N2800 is vastly superior you shouldn't have any real problems. Just don't go loading it with rubbish.

I originally opted or Windows 10 but it doesn't seem to support my laptop anymore as the graphics are not good enough.

I'm currently opting for Xubuntu which is lightweigt and graphically friendly. Should I get the LTS or the current release which is Wily Werewolf.

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How do I also find out if my processor supports PAE

grossaffe · Feb 7, 2016

I used to run Xubuntu on an old Atom netbook. Wasn't bad, all things considered. One thing I did do to greatly improve the experience, though, was go into the BIOS and allocate more memory to the integrated graphics, because it came with so little memory allocated for graphics that it would lag when scrolling a simple text document.

As for LTS vs. latest, well if you're planning on upgrading to a new computer in the near future, may as well go with the latest. If you're worried about the hassle of upgrading, you can always put your /home folder on a separate partition of the hard-drive. Then you can upgrade to a newer version of Xubuntu and keep all of your personal files intact, as well as your settings.

TR_mahmutpek · Feb 7, 2016

I think windows 7 because windows 7 doesnt need more power like windows 10/8/8.1. (I tested 7 and 10; and 7 more stable than 10 for me) My specs:
İntel i5 3317u 1.7ghz-2.6 turbo boost
4gb ram
Nvidia gt740m
500 gb hdd

Sono · Feb 7, 2016

TR_mahmutpek said:
I think windows 7 because windows 7 doesnt need more power like windows 10/8/8.1. (I tested 7 and 10; and 7 more stable than 10 for me) My specs:
İntel i5 3317u 1.7ghz-2.6 turbo boost
4gb ram
Nvidia gt740m
500 gb hdd

Well, that's a powerful computer!
Well, if you disable the transparency on the windows, and on the taskbar, the performance can compete with Win8, but otherwise Win7 uses a bit more resources. On shitty graphics chips, switching to Win8 results in a great graphics performance improvement, compared to Win7.

And in my opinion, you pay for your data to be stolen, if you choose Win10. It's a piece of shietballz.

TR_mahmutpek · Feb 7, 2016

MarcusD said:
Well, that's a powerful computer!
Well, if you disable the transparency on the windows, and in the taskbar, the performance can compete with Win8, but otherwise Win7 uses a bit more resources. On shitty graphics chips, switching to Win8 results in a great graphics performance improvement, compared to Win7.

You are saying true, I didnt try this but even so I will use windows 7

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Best OS for an old netbook?

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