Netbook Linux Distro For Software Development

Hello All, I am a newbie to Linux I have used computers for years & would say I'm certainly not computer illiterate, however I am completely new to Linux. Hubby & I have a netbook each & I wanted to give linux a go on them. I installed Mint 17.1 Xfce on mine & am loving it, not really having any problems. However this is not the case with hubby's netbook....which has the following spec:

eeepc 904HD
80 GB HDD
Intel Celeron M, 897 mHz (512 cache, 32 bit)
995 mb RAM
VGA - intel 915/GMS/910GML express graphic controller (rev04)

(mine has the atom processor & was shipped with windows 7 starter which I have dual booted with mint

On hubbys we have tried the following distros:
Mint 17.1
Mint 13
Lubuntu
Xubuntu
Zorin 9 lite
Bhodi 3.0.0

The problem we're experiencing with each & every distro is the mouse/touchpad freezes. In the live version all is OK, then once installed still OK...but only last for a couple of shutdowns & then the above problem kicks in. sometimes after the freeze it may work ok again the next time it is booted but not long before the freeze occurs again.....obviously xinput shows the elantech touchpad is not listed
I know it is a low spec netbook but there are many distros which claim to work on a much lower spec than this. I am not sure if this processor supports PAE as it often mentions PAE not supported on celeron M's but I also read that the pc usually needs to be pre 1995 to not support PAE & this netbook was made around 2008
I must say that most of the distros we've tried seem to be running OK until the 'freeze' put top hat on hit...so I am stumped as to what the issue is and hope some of you more experienced guys can point me in the right direction....i.e. a suitable distro for use on this eeepc netbook. My hubby does nothing fancy on the pc, he's just really browsing, skyping would be nice....OH & he is very computer illiterate....so something simple to use, fast & lightweight is all that is required.
The next distro I was going to try was leeenux linux, which is supposed to be perfect for the eeepc, but the only 2 free versions I could find is version 5.1 extended & v6 lxde SSD 2g
Many thanks in advance !!

I am a basic computer user as far as operating systems are concerned. I do a little programming here and there but nothing special yet.

I have tried Linux many times, but I'm always left to getting *another* distro, after I fail to properly install Linux. Basically I resort to simple installs and found that Linux Mint and Ubuntu, most of the time work out of the box. However, after an installation, ... here and there I get error messages and sometimes crashes and i understand that my installation is not stable, simply because I did not properly configure some conf file or similar.

Another even more important problem I have is device drivers. Working from the command prompt (console) and the GUI is very confusing to me. I'm not sure if I'm setting something right with one and then unsetting it with the other. So basically I'm here with some noob questions and a couple specific ones.

1. Can someone recommend a good distro to learn to correctly configure drivers with manually. Remember, that I understand that there are distros that work out of the box mostly, but I actually am not worried about complexity as far as someone can guide me through errors. Which will lead to more questions of course.

2. After an installation there are sometimes a dozen errors during bootup, but no stops. Since it all scrolls by fast (most distros), where can I check after bootup what I need to fix?

The Goal is an *error free* stable installation of a linux distro, with enough common sense learned to take it to other distros.

Is there any non-obscure linux distro that will boot on a computer with a atom chip without having to build the grub bootloader yourself. By non-obscure I mean opensuse,redhat,ubuntu,arch,mint.
I don't understand this whole efi/uefi thing and I don't want to know either, all I need is a stable linux computer.
Thanks

EDIT
It's a 1.3GHz Intel Atom Z3740 Bay Trail Atom processor, Asus Transformer Book T100

First time Linux Mint user and fist time poster to this forum. Need to install a Linux distro on my family member's HP Mini 1000, an older netbook with minimal hardware (1 GB memory stick, Intel Atom N270 processor, 80 GB ATA HDD, and it runs XP SP3. . I advised her to uninstall XP and buy Windows 7, but she doesn't want to spend the $93. So ...

I have been testing different Linux distros from flash drive on my HP Probook 4530S laptop. Have tried Ubuntu 14x and now Mint, which I prefer. Ubuntu wouldn't boot to desktop on the netbook after choosing "Use without installing." Mint runs OK on it, but I can't configure the wireless connection. I suspect that either the network hardware isn't compatible or I am missing something when trying to manually configure the settings. I read some info from the Mint web site about this issue, but not sure about whether the Mini's wireless card is compatible: Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN. Does updating Windows drivers help with this?

TIA,

Don

Hey guys, what's the best way to try out distros? Do I completely reinstall each time I want to change a distro and if so, would nt that wipe all my data? Or does my personal data , text files etc etc stay on the system and only the distro changes?

My Linux computer comes today and it has Ubuntu installed which I believe is a very popular and stable system but I really want to check out the so evolve distro because it looks fantastic and the reviews were very favorable. BUT I was warned on this forum not to get involved with beta distros until I know what I'm doing.

Does swapping distros erase all data ?

I have installed linux(mint and ubuntu) on a few laptops, but i have an ASUS eEEE netbook PC..Atom processor...No DVD drive...

I have chosen PUPPY Linux distro, and I have booted from a thumb a few times to make sure everything seems to work....but...when I start trying to install...well...its asking me about using the partition tool to change the types of partitions that are best for linux...

I am not understanding the instructions...as far as what i need to do...has anybody done this install ,,,the current netbook OS is Windows Starter 7. I just want to REPLACE it entirely with linux puppy. I did not encounter this on my laptop installs..i just said yes...replace the current OS..but somehow the netbook install is acting different....do i need to change the partitions or can i just take the defaults...I forge the exact partition extentsions..something line ntfs and it says to change to ext2 and ext3...not sure how to do that...

Can some direct me to the best way to do this? thx.

Hi

I'm a telecom/IT contractor and my work laptop died so instead of buying a new one, I decided to give my spare laptop a try. It's a cheap Lenovo G585 with only 2Gb ram and a AMD E1. Needless to say this is a real slow laptop. W8 was preinstalled and barely runs. Even for simple work related tasks its too slow.

Instead of wasting money on it, I am contemplating the idea of installing a Linux distro. I manage via ssh a few linux servers for my customers (centos, red hat, ubuntu server) but actually never used it as my main OS.

I just want something lighter than W8 so the laptop will be faster. Which distro should I get? I was thinking about LXLE but there's too much distros I can't choose.

Speed is the priority in this case. I also like a good looking UI.

Also, how's Microsoft Remote desktop from a Linux client? Is it fast and well optimized?

Thanks!

In August of this year I'm going to build a dedicated linux audio computer. I have been using ubuntu studio on my cheapo dell optiplex to learn linux and to get used to different programs and see which ones I need.

Lubuntu seems to use less cpu than ubuntu studio for the same program. I don't want any other programs on my system part from ardour, jack and a few misc MP3 players. All audio. It says that ubuntu studio is a low latency program, does this mean that Lubuntu isn't low latency? It seems that Lubuntu is running the program easier but I'm nervous to go with it because I fear it may be missing certain components to keep it less needy of cpu power.
What are your thoughts on this.

Hello.

I am a newcomer to Linux, coming from Windows, desktop PC user. I already have a few months' experience with Ubuntu and Mint. I can handle some basic terminal commands, but I prefer the GUI whenever possible.

I'm not an IT specialist, far from it. Just a normal average computer user who can read a few things if they are understandable enough, and wants a decent operating system. So please speak to me in simple human terms, I can handle high tech jargon only so much. Thanks.

I have 2 main questions:

1. I've encountered problems when booting from LiveCD (written to USB) with both Mint and Lubuntu. The boot menu appeared but when I pressed any of the “try live” or “install” options, the screen froze with garbled checkerd pixels. Web searching for solutions, I found the thing with accessing special boot options and adding kernel parameters like 'nomodeset' and 'noaccel' and doing that I could proceed with installation. Then, after installing proprietary drivers, everything was fine.

This is not the first time this happened. As far as I understand this is related to the nouveau driver.

Does this happen only with some distros, like, for example, Ubuntu and its derivatives, or is it a larger problem from the main Linux kernel? From what I've read on some forums, such problems happened with other graphic cards as well, and it seems to be an old problem as old as 2011 if not older.

Why nothing could have been done to fix these issues so far? Couldn't all distros use some option from boot menu to either go with simple safe vesa graphics mode or a text based helpful install that might guide the user afterwards in downloading the proprietary drivers if s/he desires?...

And what is the main cause of the problem? Nvidia not doing FOSS drivers? Nouveau not being flexible enough? Linux kernel not keeping up? Particular distros that don't care about adding an extra boot option? A combination of all these? What is to be done? Would switching to other distro help in this regard? how would I know which distros use nouveau and which don't?

2. I'd like to look into other distros as well. What I need is stability, meaning as bug free as possible, as few apps hanging or crashing as possible, while still being user friendly. But no rolling realeases, please. I want to update the system without fear that I won't boot into desktop – again!

I need distros that come with multimedia codecs, Flash and stuff out of the box and also an easy option to install the proprietary video card graphics driver. I am all for FOSS, but for now I'm also being realistic, and unfortunately have to go with proprietary drivers.

What recommendations do you have?

Thank you.

Hi all,

I'm aspiring new Linux Administrator and I have been given tasks of looking at various Linux servers and clients. As a newbie, I often forget/confuse about the series of steps I should take to accomplish certain tasks against various types of Linux distro. So I have some large no of notes in text file format, which i often refer to.

Earlier I used Microsoft OneNote, which can be used to view/update/create notes from my home PC, my Android phone or through various web browsers at client's site. But now, I am not able to access notes simply because, (1) MS SkyDrive is too slow, (2) Many of Linux machines have no GUI, (3) I'm not allowed to carry my Android phone inside server rooms, etc.

Long story short, I should be able to access my text notes in terminal from any machine which has internet connection. And also if I may extend, also in my android phone.

What I have with me is one .com domain with hosting space for next 1 year.

Any Idea on how I should proceed will be really appreciated.

Many thanks.