OS For Dell Mini 12

J

jbltecnicspro

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Aug 18, 2006
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Hey guys. So I'm typing this up on a little Dell Mini 12 that I got back in 2009. Why the hell I purchased this instead of a "real" notebook back in the day, I'll never know. Anyways... Currently, I'm using Windows XP on it, and while it's not too bad, I am a little concerned about the security issues on it and it is a little on the slow side of things. I'm looking for an OS alternative that will allow me to take notes and email correspondence to people. That's pretty much it. And it has to do it while feeling somewhat responsive. Hardware specs on this thing are pretty pathetic: Intel Atom Z530 and 1GB of RAM, along with a slow PATA 4200 RPM drive make this thing patience-trying. Also, the Intel GMA500 "Poulsbo" graphics chipset has probably some of the worst driver support known to man.

I was going to probably go with an older version of Linux Mint with a lightweight desktop environment because of the lack of power this thing has. But I was wondering if the latest Linux Mint is doable on this thing, provided I run a thin desktop environment? Again - I just need it to take notes and shoot the occasional email. Thanks for your responses.
 
I think Lubuntu will run just fine, since LXDE is very fast and have a low resource usage.

And if you're going to use an email client, I would recommend Claws Mail.
 
nightmike said:
I think Lubuntu will run just fine, since LXDE is very fast and have a low resource usage.

And if you're going to use an email client, I would recommend Claws Mail.
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Looking at it, I may try this. Thank you. Download size is reasonable (will fit in a CD), too. ;)
 
Try some Linux distro if its not good enough for you try windows 8, windows 8 is the fastest OS I have tried on older hardware. The problem with windows 8 is it will cost money and when you can get brand new windows 8 tablets that are way faster then what you have for $200 it gets to be a hard sell to get someone to shell out up to $100 on the OS alone.
 
rudy said:
Try some Linux distro if its not good enough for you try windows 8, windows 8 is the fastest OS I have tried on older hardware. The problem with windows 8 is it will cost money and when you can get brand new windows 8 tablets that are way faster then what you have for $200 it gets to be a hard sell to get someone to shell out up to $100 on the OS alone.
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Thanks to my time at college, I have a copy of Windows 8 Pro sitting here waiting for me to use. :)
 
B00nie said:
Just think carefully if you want to spend the license to this old computer.
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Oh I hear you. I haven't used the license yet. And it probably won't be on this POS. In other news, I tried out Lubuntu, and lo and behold - I need to download some firmware or driver (or something - it was almost bedtime, damn thing took so long to install) for the wireless to work. Other than that, it seemed promising. Graphics are a tiny bit sluggish, but I suspect that it's because the CPU's probably doing all of the work. Ah well, it's what I get for getting a turd.
 
B00nie said:
Just think carefully if you want to spend the license to this old computer.
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What is the problem? You can move windows 8 to a new PC if you don't like it on the current one.
 
Well, Winders 8 won't work. I forgot, it's 64-bit. This Mini 12's Atom ain't a 64-bitter. Sigh... Guess I'll have to play "find the best distro."

Also, is it illegal to download an ISO, even if I have the key? If I remember correctly, I should be able to use my key, regardless if it's 32-bit or 64-bit, correct?

EDIT: Nevermind, searching for it brings up the usual suspects. Ah well... Looks like Windows 8 is a no-go for this one then... :(
 
You don't buy a copy of windows. You buy a license. The ISO isn't the license so it's perfectly legal. In fact you should probably get the ISO directly from Microsoft.

You can try windows 8 without a key. It will just nag you to activate for a while.
 
You should be able to download windows 8 32 bit and use your key if you want to. Otherwise there is a post in the news section that suggests 50 different Linux distros of which one of the smaller ones should work.
 
Yes, I read the news article yesterday. I may give a couple of them a shot. As for the Windows 8 Pro download... Is there a link on Microsoft's site that I can download Windows 8 Pro 32-bit ISO? I appreciate all the help. :)
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Oh I hear you. I haven't used the license yet. And it probably won't be on this POS. In other news, I tried out Lubuntu, and lo and behold - I need to download some firmware or driver (or something - it was almost bedtime, damn thing took so long to install) for the wireless to work. Other than that, it seemed promising. Graphics are a tiny bit sluggish, but I suspect that it's because the CPU's probably doing all of the work. Ah well, it's what I get for getting a turd.
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If the graphics are sluggish you need to enable the proprietary graphics driver. The open source drivers often suck in performance.
 
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