[Church rummage sale] $5.00 Netbook! But what to do with it?

[AjD]

Couldn't resist picking up a near mint-looking Netbook at the local church rummage sale last weekend. Five dollars, complete with case, power adapter, wireless mouse, and a whole bunch of jpgs of somebody's kids and their Grandma at Disney World in 2010.

It's an Asus Eee PC S101. Seems to work perfectly, battery holds charge, etc. 2GB memory. 64GB SSD. Windows XP installed.

But what do I do with this thing... Windows XP seems really slow on it (no surprise); too slow for my taste to ever use it as-is. Maybe I could install Linux on it?

Would appreciate any ideas on how to best set this up to work faster, and be useful in 2016! What would you do with one of these if it dropped into your lap?

[Isgrimnur]

I would probably explore a light Linux build, perhaps something like a Krebs Live CD. Booting from a disc or USB key makes it lightweight and would keep you from storing anything of any importance on it in the off chance that it goes walkabout.

[hitbyambulance]

$5 is a total score. this is definitely going to be a Linux machine. try Lubuntu (Ubuntu with LXDE), Xubuntu (Ubutnu with XFCE), Mint with LXDE or XFCE, or Puppy, or... well, there are a ton o' options. i've also used Crunchbang, which is (really) minimal but works well. i've also used Bodhi and that was decent.

http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2013/1 ... s-for.html

i would utilze the HDD on it as well. full Linux kernel and OS install shouldn't take more than 2GB on the drive. any ideas on what you want to use it for? i'd use it as a dev. machine for PICO-8 or assembler programming. you can install the Linux Steam client and run less-demanding/older games on it (and don't expect anything 3D past the late 90s to work particularly well). one of the advantages to doing this is it lets (makes) you focus on games that you wouldn't otherwise think of, or get back around to playing on a more powerful system. out of the Windows games i own on Steam, about 1/3rd of them have Linux versions - a huge difference from five years ago, and astounding compared to a decade back. (on Humble Bundle, the ratio is more like 9 out of 10)

[AjD]

Thanks for the ideas guys... I guess I don't know what I'm going to do with this thing. It's a purchase in search of a purpose at this point.

I like the idea of a super light Linux load (Lubuntu intrigues me). Maybe this will be a good "throw it in the car, always have a laptop handy" kind of box. Come to think of it, it's small enough it could almost be a car computer of sorts.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Lubuntu is definitely a great option for netbooks (I've used it in the past myself to breathe new life into otherwise-outdated systems). The LXDE desktop is incredibly light on resources, and Lubuntu also includes a solid selection of applications that cover all the basics, e.g. Firefox web browser, Sylpheed for email, Audacious audio player, Gnome-mplayer for video playback, Evince PDF viewer, as well as Abiword and Gnumeric for a minimalistic office suite.

[AjD]

Lubuntu is definitely a great option for netbooks (I've used it in the past myself to breathe new life into otherwise-outdated systems). The LXDE desktop is incredibly light on resources, and Lubuntu also includes a solid selection of applications that cover all the basics, e.g. Firefox web browser, Sylpheed for email, Audacious audio player, Gnome-mplayer for video playback, Evince PDF viewer, as well as Abiword and Gnumeric for a minimalistic office suite.

That's exactly what I was hoping to hear... will try Lubuntu this weekend.

The only hitch is whether this particular Eee Netbook will play well with various newer flavors of Linux (I'm thinking driver issues). I found this Web site, which is a Linux Wiki for the Asus Eee S101. It doesn't look like it's been updated in years. No mention of Lubuntu, but it's worth a shot.

(If all else fails, their also appears to be something called Eeebuntu -- although that looks like it hasn't been updated in 3.5 years.)

[Isgrimnur]

Here’s a step-by-step guide that should get you up and running in no time flat, with Puppy Linux, an extremely lightweight and fast version of Linux. If you’d prefer to try another distribution, there are dozens to choose from.

Link includes a Last Release column, which is click-sortable.

[hitbyambulance]

The only hitch is whether this particular Eee Netbook will play well with various newer flavors of Linux (I'm thinking driver issues). I found this Web site, which is a Linux Wiki for the Asus Eee S101. It doesn't look like it's been updated in years. No mention of Lubuntu, but it's worth a shot.

Linux (unlike some other operating systems i could mention) does not usually deprecate old drivers - they just keep accumulating. see this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/lowendgaming/c ... intel_gma/

search "asus eee s101 lubuntu" on the web for relevant results, if you need help. a lot of the links are old, due to having been posted when the machine came out, but they'll get you pointed in the right direction.

i wouldn't go with AuroraOS (f/k/a eeebuntu) - i'm pretty sure it's not being developed anymore.

(i also discovered the eee S101 had an MSRP of $700 when it was released in 2008...)

[Anonymous Bosch]

Indeed, you shouldn't have much difficulty at all, given that the Eee PC line was specifically designed to use a Linux-based OS from the get-go (support for Windows was only added later).

[hitbyambulance]

support for Windows was only added later).

...after Microsoft realized they were being threatened in this market segment, and reversed their stance on not letting WinXP be preinstalled on new PCs anymore.

[AjD]

That's interesting... didn't know these were originally sold as Linux rigs. That makes me feel even better about loading up Linux.

Also, $700? This was a good score, indeed.

[BooTx]

What would you do with one of these if it dropped into your lap?

I would tell myself that I was going to use it to write a novel. After reality sank in I would install ScummVM, some 8 / 16 bit emulators, Fallout 1 and 2, et cetera, and play old games in bed.

Oh and just because it's running like shit doesn't mean it can't handle XP (it probably can). It probably just needs to be cleaned up (or just reformatted). Most common folk maintain their computer like they maintain that kitchen drawer that's full of coupons that expired 3 years ago and manuals for appliances they got rid of 10 years ago.

[hitbyambulance]

That makes me feel even better about loading up Linux.

no, the fun part is getting Linux to run on devices that were never intended for it