It must have been nearly six years ago that the “netbook” craze came into vogue. This was before the iPad and tablet computing. As one who travels frequently, I bought into the craze, looking for something lightweight but powerful enough to carry with me and allow me to check email, browse the web, review work, and generally keep me online.
So I bought an Asus Eee PC 900A.
Asus Eee PC 900A
Admittedly, it was underwhelming. Powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270, 1 GB RAM and a meager 4 GB SSD, it was plain from the beginning that this machine wasn’t going to replace even a bulky laptop in the long run.
It ran a custom version of Ubuntu Linux called Eeebuntu. At the time, it was a serviceable OS on a miniaturized laptop. The keys were tiny (even for someone whose fingers aren’t that large to begin with), but everything worked.
Then the death knell began to toll. The first sign of the end was that Eeebuntu was discontinued. Well, there was an attempt to evolve it into something called Aurora OS, but to my knowledge, a finished product (even an alpha or beta) never saw the light of day.
As tablets came into prominence, I relegated the Eee PC to storage.
About eight months ago I came across this little machine while I was renovating my home office. After doing some research on DistroWatch and other sites, and having a plethora of USB sticks, I decided to use the thing as a ‘sandbox’ to try out light, nimble Linux OSes.
By this time, even most Linux distros had become large (bloated, some might say?) and would not install on the meager 4 GB internal drive. Fortunately, I came across Puppy Linux. It was perfect! It installed entirely on the internal SSD (Asus included 3 USB ports and a SDHC card reader for additional storage). It was loaded with utilities, links, and features. However, it was not without bugs: many windows would not size to the somewhat abnormal screen dimensions (1024 x 600), and while useful, some of the programs and utilities were just downright ugly! Help was also confusing. So, while I used Puppy for a while, I always felt there must be something “better.”
I let things rest to let life get in the way, and just recently returned to this “project.” Once again, I searched and researched. I downloaded numerous 32-bit lightweight Linux distros, such as Lubuntu, Bodhi, LXLE, Mageia. Manjaro and Peppermint OS. None of them quite fit—they either didn’t load, or the interface just wasn’t to my liking. Finally, I came across Simplicity Linux, which is a Puppy derivative. What makes Simplicity Linux appealing to me is that
- It’s currently being developed and supported (Puppy’s original creator discontinued work on it)
- It has an interface I like. In some ways, it’s Mac-like, in that it has a configurable “dock” on the screen that contains shortcuts to frequently used programs.
The version I’ve been using is a beta: 15.7. As such, there are still some rough edges and bugs. But it too, installs on the internal SSD, loads into RAM (for faster execution), and may just keep my Eee PC alive for a while longer!