Login
Login

Comparison of netbook-oriented Linux distributions

{{short description|None}}

Netbooks are small laptops, with screen sizes between approximately 7 and 12 inches and low power consumption. They use either an SSD (solid state disk) or a HDD (hard disk drive) for storage, have up to 2 gigabytes of RAM (but often less), lack an optical disk drive, and usually have USB, Ethernet, WiFi and often Bluetooth connectivity. The name emphasizes their use as portable Internet appliances.

Netbook distributions

There are special Linux distributions, called netbook distributions, for these machines. All such distributions purport to be optimized for use with small, low-resolution displays. They tend to include a broad mix of VOIP and web-focused tools, including proprietary applications rarely seen installed by default by mainstream desktop distributions{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}. For instance, Nokia Maemo and Asus' customized Xandros both ship with Skype and Adobe Flash installed, and Ubuntu's Netbook Edition offers the option to do the same for OEMs.[http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook Ubuntu 10.4 UNE]

Comparison

=Features=

class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; width:auto;"

|+

Distribution

! Working State

! Aim

! Creator

! Producer

! Base Distribution

! Installed Size (MB)

! Initial Release Date

! Interface

! Linux Kernel

! Default File System

! Architecture Support

! Approximate Number of Pre-compiled Packages

! Default Package Management Tools

! Default Installer

Aurora

| 2009

Last Release, development stopped

| Asus Eee PC optimized

| Eeebuntu community

|

| Ubuntu

|

| 2009-05-15

| Gnome or Gnome + Netbook Remix

| Array kernel (modified kernel){{Cite web |url=http://www.eeebuntu.org/index.php?page=array |title=Array kernel site |access-date=2009-05-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090517201608/http://www.eeebuntu.org/index.php?page=array |archive-date=2009-05-17 |url-status=dead }}

|

|

|

| APT

|

CrunchBang Linux 11-20130119

| 2015-02-06

Development Stopped

| Limited hardware machines

| Philip Newborough

|

| Debian

|

| 2013-01-19

| Openbox

| 3.2.35

|

| x86 + x86_64

|

| APT

|

Debian Eee PC

|

| Asus Eee PC

|

|

| Debian

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

Debian Wheezy

|

|

|

|

| Written from scratch

|

|

|

|

|

| i386, AMD64, PowerPC, SPARC, ARM, MIPS, S390, armhf, s390x. Loongson{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.debian.org/DebianYeeloong|title = DebianYeeloong - Debian Wiki}}

|

|

|

EasyPeasy 1.6

| 2012

Last Release, development stopped

| All netbooks

| EasyPeasy Community

| Jon Ramvi

| Ubuntu

|

| 2010-04-24

| Gnome + Netbook Remix

| 2.6.32

| ext4

| x86

|

| APT

| Ubiquity

Eeedora[https://code.google.com/archive/p/eeedora Eeedora project at Google Code]

|

| Asus Eee PC 701

| Martin Andrews

|

| Fedora

|

|

| Xfce

|

|

|

|

| RPM

|

Firefly Linux 1.0 Beta 1

| 2009

Last Release, development stopped

|

| Firefly Linux community

|

| Arch Linux

|

|

| LXDE

| 2.6.29.4

|

| x86

|

| Pacman

|

Fuduntu

| 2013-04-14

Last Release, development stopped

| All netbooks{{cite web | url= http://www.fuduntu.org | title= Fuduntu Website | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110317083940/http://www.fuduntu.org/ | archive-date= 2011-03-17 }}

| Andrew Wyatt "Fewt"

| Fuduntu.org

| None (Originally based on Fedora 14)

|

| 2012-10-01

| Gnome

| 3.6.9

| ext4

| x86{{cite web | url=http://packages.fuduntu.org/cgi-bin/getiso?name=Fuduntu-2012.4-i686-LiveDVD.iso | title=Fuduntu i386 | access-date=2012-12-18 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016003211/http://packages.fuduntu.org/cgi-bin/getiso?name=Fuduntu-2012.4-i686-LiveDVD.iso | archive-date=2012-10-16 | url-status=dead }} + x86_64{{cite web | url=http://packages.fuduntu.org/cgi-bin/getiso?name=Fuduntu-2012.4-x86_64-LiveDVD.iso | title=Fuduntu x86_64 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

|

| RPM + YUM

|

gNewSense

|

| Free software

| Brian Brazil and Paul O'Malley

| Sam Geeraerts with sponsorship from the FSF

| Debian

|

|

|

| Linux-libre 2.6.32

|

| Loongson, x86, x86-64

|

| APT

|Ubiquity (software)

Joli OS 1.2
(formerly named Jolicloud)

| 2013-11-22 Last Release, development stopped

| All netbooks{{cite web |url=http://www.jolicloud.com/product/compatibility |title=Jolicloud Compatible Devices |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110112020736/http://www.jolicloud.com/product/compatibility |archive-date=2011-01-12 }}

| Joli OS

| Joli OS

| Ubuntu

|

| 2011-03-09

| HTML5 + Gnome

| 2.6.35.10

| ext4

| x86

|

| APT

|

Kuki Linux 2.0

| 2009

Last Release, development stopped

| Aspire One optimized

| Kuki Linux community

|

| Ubuntu

|

|

| Xfce

|

|

|

|

|

|

{{Anchor|Linux4One}} Linux4One 1.5

|

| Aspire One optimized

| Linux4One community

|

| Ubuntu

|

|

| Gnome or LXDE

|

|

|

|

|

|

Leeenux Linux v10

|2016 Last Release

|All netbooks

|Aleksandar Ciric

|

|Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

|

|

|LXDE, XFCE

|

|ext4

|x86, AMD64

|

|APT, Synaptic, Software center

|Ubiquity

Leeenux 2020

|Supported until April 2023

|All netbooks

|Aleksandar Ciric

|

|Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

|

|

|LXDE, XFCE

|

|

|x86, AMD64

|

|APT, Synaptic, Software center

|

Lubuntu

15.10

|2015-10-22

Active Development

|Limited hardware machines

|Lubuntu Community and LXDE Foundation

|

|Ubuntu

|

|2011-10-13

|LXDE

|

|

|

|

|Synaptic

|

Manjaro Netbook Edition[https://sourceforge.net/projects/manjarolinux/files/community/Netbook/ Manjaro Netbook Edition at SourceForge]

| 2015-07-25

Active Development

| All netbooks

| Rob McCathie

| Manjaro Linux

| Arch Linux

|

|

| Xfce

| Intel Atom-optimized Manjaro kernel

| ext4

| x86, x86_64

|

| Pamac (graphical frontend for pacman)

|

Midinux

|

| All netbooks

| Red Flag Linux

|

|

|

| 2007

|

|

| ext3

| x86

|

|

|

MeeGo 1.2

| 2012

Last Release, development stopped

| Intel Atom processor netbooks, Nokia ARM smartphones

| Intel, Nokia, Maemo community

| Intel, Nokia, Linux Foundation

| None (it is a distribution developed out of Maemo and Moblin)

|

| 2010-10-28

| "Netbook User Experience" (based on Clutter)

| 2.6.35

| btrfs

| x86 with SSSE3 support

|

| RPM

|

Moblin 2.1

| 2009-04

Last Release, development stopped

| All Intel Atom processor netbooks and MID

| Intel

| Intel/Linux Foundation

| None (borrows components for various distributions[http://moblin.org/documentation/moblin-overview/faq Moblin FAQ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528172731/http://moblin.org/documentation/moblin-overview/faq |date=May 28, 2009 }})

|

| 2009-11-04

| Clutter

|

|

|

|

| RPM (may change)

|

OpenGeeeU 8.10

| 2012-08

Last Release, development stopped

|

| Luca De Marini

|

| Easy Peasy[http://opengeu.intilinux.com/News/Voci/2009/3/23_OpenGeeeU_8.10_Live_CD_for_Asus_EeePC_released!.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501041412/http://opengeu.intilinux.com/News/Voci/2009/3/23_OpenGeeeU_8.10_Live_CD_for_Asus_EeePC_released%21.html |date=May 1, 2009 }}

|

| 2009-03-23

| Enlightenment plus Gnome

| 2.6.27

| ext3

| x86

| 26000

| APT

| Ubiquity

Puppeee Linux 4.3X

|Linpus is 64-bit only

| Asus Eee PCs with Intel Chipsets

| Jemimah Ruhala

|

| Puppy Linux 4.3.1

| 200MB

|

| Choice of IceWM / OpenBox / Flwm with ROX-Filer / PcManFM / LxLauncher

| 2.6.33

| AUFS + SquashFS + EXT2

| Atom / CeleronM

|

| Pet

| PetGet

Trisquel Mini

|2014-11

Last Release, development stopped

|Limited hardware machines

|

|

| Trisquel

|

|2010-09

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10

| 2010-10

Last Release, development stopped

| Intel Atom processor netbooks{{Cite web |url=http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr |title=Canonical {{!}} About the company |access-date=2009-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214213943/http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr |archive-date=2009-02-14 |url-status=dead }}

| Canonical Ltd.

| Canonical Ltd.

| Ubuntu

|

| 2010-10-10

| Unity

| 2.6.32

|

| x86

| 32000

| APT

|

Distribution

! Working State

! Aim

! Creator

! Producer

! Base Distribution

! Installed Size (MB)

! Initial Release Date

! Interface

! Linux Kernel

! Default File System

! Architecture Support

! Approximate Number of Pre-compiled Packages

! Default Package Management Tools

! Default Installer

==Specific Features==

class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; width:auto;"
Distribution

! Target Boot Time

!Whole OS Loads to RAM

(Default)

!LIVE

Medium

!Target Users

! SSD Write Optimization

(SSD degradation, I/O optimization, etc.)

! Specific Supported Hardware

Aurora 3.0

|

|

|

|

|

|

EasyPeasy 1.6

|

|

|LIVE Medium

|Beginner, highly mobile netbook users.

|

|

Eeedora

|

|

|

|

|

|

Firefly Linux 1.0 Beta 1

|

|

|

|

|

|

Joli OS 1.2

|

|

|

|

|

|

Kuki Linux 2.0

|

|

|

|

|

|

Linux4One 1.5

| 40 seconds{{Cite web |url=http://www.linux4one.it/ |title=Features of Light version of Linux4One |access-date=2009-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125134847/http://www.linux4one.it/ |archive-date=2009-11-25 |url-status=dead }}

|

|

|

|

|

Manjaro Netbook Edition

|

|

|

|

|

|

Moblin 2.0

| 5 seconds[http://moblin.org/projects/fast-boot Fast boot in Moblin page] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121075339/http://moblin.org/projects/fast-boot |date=January 21, 2009 }}[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7NxCM8ryF8 Youtube video showing Moblin 2.0 prerelease booting in 5 seconds.]

|

|

|

|

|

OpenGeeeU 8.10

|

|

|

|

|

|

Puppeee Linux 4.3X

| 30s

|Loads to RAM

|

|

| Layered filesystem - caches writes in RAM

| Lightweight kernel compiled for EeePCs only

Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10

|

|

|

|

|

|

=Google Trends=

While no public numbers measuring the install-base of these operating systems are available, Google Trends data on a handful of them indicate their relative popularity:

File:Netbook linux compared June 2010.jpg

References

{{Reflist|2}}

See also

{{Portal|Linux|Free and open-source software}}

{{Netbooks}}

{{Linux}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comparison Of Netbook Distributions}}

Category:Netbooks

Linux distributions