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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : What to do with a old netbook

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Gizmo

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Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5116
Posted: 05:54am 06 Feb 2025
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I bought this netbook on the weekend for $20. It runs Win7 starter, has 1Gig ram, 250G hd. Intel N450 at 1.66GHz, web cam, 10inch screen, wifi and network connector. 2 USB, card adaptor, VGA out and audio

It boots up and runs fine, actually very snappy. Win7 complains its not authentic and its very outdated, none of the modern browsers will install.

So I'm wondering what to do with it. Tempted to install a Linux distro, any suggestions? Thinking maybe as a terminal for programming over a USB/Serial adaptor.  





Glenn
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
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PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1358
Posted: 06:43am 06 Feb 2025
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A recent post reminded me of this.

I had it many years ago and loved it. Might just a netbook myself, to try.
 
hhtg1968
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Joined: 25/05/2023
Location: Germany
Posts: 136
Posted: 06:49am 06 Feb 2025
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I made good experience with a linux distribution from raspberry which exists for x86 too.

raspi os for x86

it is based on debian.
 
Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 5050
Posted: 07:43am 06 Feb 2025
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Gizmo,

Depends on what you want to do with it.
Browse the internet: ditch it. don't even try. Even if you get it to work, it will be very slow. There are NO recent kernels anymore that support the build in video accellerator so you need to use framebuffer (the celeron has to do all the graphics).

I think you will need to fall back to an older linux, or maybe XP may run on it.

Maybe Ubuntu 12.04 will work. Ubuntu is know to have build in compatibility with a lot of hardware. I remember there even was a special "ubuntu netbook edition"
Or try Puppy Linux. On the puppy linux forum you can ask advise what would work best.

In linux the most critical HW relation is in
1/ touchpad
2/ audio
3/ WIFI
4/ screen backlight

In most cases keyboards and video work oob, as does an external mouse.

Volhout

P.S. this is a 32 bit core. It will not run 64bit os. Ironically one of the few browsers that still compile to 32 bit is Chrome. Most only offer 64bit.
P.P.S. On a 3 years more modern netbook I ran Ubuntu 16.04. Until it broke down 1 year ago.
Edited 2025-02-06 17:48 by Volhout
PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS
 
phil99

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Joined: 11/02/2018
Location: Australia
Posts: 2603
Posted: 07:47am 06 Feb 2025
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  Quote   Thinking maybe as a terminal for programming over a USB/Serial adaptor.
Perfect for that. For MicroMites etc I have a very old Compaq Pentium 3 / Win 2000 laptop using TeraTerm.
Though have not been able to install the USB driver for the Pico.
 
Volhout
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Posted: 07:51am 06 Feb 2025
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deleted
Edited 2025-02-06 17:51 by Volhout
PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS
 
Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1448
Posted: 07:54am 06 Feb 2025
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Glenn I do have some old linux disks UBUNTU V6.06.1LTS and KUBUNTU V7.04 they are genuine linux disks too. So if you want them just sing out and PM me your address and I can send them off this week.




I did use these back in the days of 32 bit when a HD would fail on a computer and winsucks just wouldn't load. Now getting the net shouldn't be a problem using this old version.
Edited 2025-02-06 17:57 by Bryan1
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7852
Posted: 08:03am 06 Feb 2025
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I installed Puppy Linux on an old netbook. It's a nice little lightweight distro which is also rather good for rescuing errant Windows machines as it can run totally from USB.
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Volhout
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Joined: 05/03/2018
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 5050
Posted: 08:30am 06 Feb 2025
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Bryan,

The n455 core is from 2010. Any distro before it (Ubuntu 6 or 8) will not have a kernel that supports the peripherals. The netbook is probably from 2011/2012. Earlies that would work is Ubuntu 10, but I know 12.04 has had a very long support time. That is probably your best guess, -or- the Ubuntu Netbook edition.

netbook edition

Volhout

P.S. I have Ubuntu 8.04 disk. Nowadays you cannot imagine that anymore, but at that time Canonical send out FREE CD's if you wanted them. I received one in the normal mail.
Edited 2025-02-06 18:37 by Volhout
PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS
 
robert.rozee
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Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 2436
Posted: 09:25am 06 Feb 2025
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XP is not a bad choice, but not for web browsing - or, indeed, getting anywhere near the internet!

linux mint 19.3 will work, and available for 32-bit. PLUS, the nice folks from Mozilla will offer to upgrade your firefox to the current version built for 32-bit i686; i've recently had a couple of machines running 19.3 (one 64-bit, the other 32-bit) out of the blue offer in the browser to upgrade. the instructions are fairly easy to follow and gives you ongoing firefox upgrades via Mint's update manager.

btw, your machine will almost certainly accept a 2gb SODIMM, which while not ideal (4gb would be ideal) will still help considerably. both the above mentioned netbooks have just 2gb.


cheers,
rob   :-)
Edited 2025-02-06 19:28 by robert.rozee
 
electricat

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Joined: 30/11/2020
Location: Lithuania
Posts: 299
Posted: 03:27pm 06 Feb 2025
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Install FreeDOS , enjoy oldies. Instant DOOM pleasure??
or
Install FreeDOS --> install MpxPlay --> Listen music
or
Install FreeDOS --> install WARAJEVO ZX spectrum emulator --> configure so it will boot stright to WARAJEVO --> play ZX spectrum games

Mentioned already Puppy Linux is  

Personally I always found these oldies being too much power hungry  
My MMBasic 'sand box'
 
stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2534
Posted: 04:16pm 06 Feb 2025
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https://twisteros.com/twisterui.html
Edited 2025-02-07 03:04 by stanleyella
 
PeteCotton

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Joined: 13/08/2020
Location: Canada
Posts: 543
Posted: 04:38pm 06 Feb 2025
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Turn it into an Amiga!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbDJBZQ-NR4



Edited 2025-02-07 02:41 by PeteCotton
 
stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
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Posted: 05:06pm 06 Feb 2025
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Duke nukem
 
Martin H.

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Joined: 04/06/2022
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Posts: 1220
Posted: 08:59pm 06 Feb 2025
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Maybe build a small Game-Machine
Batocera
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