For Christmas I bought myself a netbook, mainly so I can lay around on the couch, play video games, etc while I work. It’s been nearly a month now and I have been trying various Operating Systems to figure out which is best for what I need, what I need is just web access, SSH, and an RDP client. Anyways, »]]>

I started out with this refurbished laptop for $240 (including shipping). As I was waiting for it to be delivered I kept trying to figure out what OS I should run for best performance on the 1.6ghz and 1gb ram hardware it comes with, when it got here it had Windows 7 Starter on it. So I will explain how bad of an idea that is first.

Windows 7 Starter

Boot Time: 2-3 minutes
Initial Desktop load: 1 minute
Opening Chrome: 30 seconds

Slow as hell for the hardware, when I need to do something in a timely manner (eg: power on and answer a few support tickets / read a few emails) I can’t be sitting for 5+ minutes before it even allows me to open Chrome. So, let’s just toss this idea out altogether, it simply won’t work for a netbook.

Next I tried Win XP Pro simply because I had a disc and serial handy, don’t even bother. I spent 2 hours installing it to figure out that it’s completely incompatible with Atom processors, if you know anything you know Atom runs almost all netbooks, so toss that right out.

Ubuntu 10.10 (desktop) and Netbook Remix

Boot Time: 2 minutes
Initial Desktop load: 30 seconds
Opening Chrome: ~5 seconds

This came out a lot better than Windows as you would assume, but it turns out Ubuntu is more designed for retards than it is techs as it was in the past, I suggest against it for netbooks. As for the Netbook Remix, it was even worst.

Debian 6 + GNOME

Boot Time: 1 minute
Initial Desktop load: 30 seconds
Opening Chrome: Instant

Much better than Ubuntu but Gnome is just too damn bulky for netbooks, this is where I decided that I will NOT be using any OS with the GNOME Environment.

Debian 6 + XFCE Desktop

Boot Time: 30 seconds
Initial Desktop load: Instant
Opening Chrome: Instant

Everyone know’s Debian is fast but what they don’t know is that any desktop environment running under Debian looks like complete crap on small resolutions. While it is the fastest and overall the best for what I need I decided to go with something else entirely, if you can get over the grainy pixelated looking resolutions (and there are no fixes, trust me I looked) then go for it.

ChromeOS (Both Hexxah builds)

Boot Time: 2 minutes
Initial Desktop load: Chrome is the desktop…
Opening Chrome: 2 minutes (wtf?)

So after all that hype we went through thinking ChromeOS was going to be amazing for netbooks is a total sham, it’s slow as hell and let’s face it we need to be able to store and or open media files via our netbooks, not just use Google Docs. While the idea is good, the OS is complete crap even if you plan to only use Chrome you will find that functionality is broken.

JoliOS 1.2

Boot Time: 1 minute
Initial Desktop load: Instant (HTML5)
Opening Chrome: Instant

So this was the winner, JoliOS is a web-based desktop that runs off of a modified version of Ubuntu. Basically, you power up and everything is ready for you (assuming you have auto-connect to wireless enabled). Now, while it has the same idea as ChromeOS, it loads infinitely faster and still allows you to use the actual OS (Terminal) which allowed me to install tsclient for RDP. Overall the OS is just Ubuntu that loads up a web page that is your desktop. Your “desktop” is an HTML5 page that allows you to add links/icons/etc as you see fit. See the screenshot below of my laptops JoliOS Desktop:

Click for Full Size

Conclusion!

If you are looking for the perfect netbook OS but wanted to test a few out and see what’s best I highly suggest JoliOS or Debian 6 + XFCE.

Today I have something else for those people that love to see others screw up. This one had my wife and I laughing so hard, she is seriously broken… She seems like she had an on-air stroke or something but after some research that turned out to be untrue. I did some digging and found out what caused the problem, »]]>

Today I have something else for those people that love to see others screw up. This one had my wife and I laughing so hard, she is seriously broken… She seems like she had an on-air stroke or something but after some research that turned out to be untrue. I did some digging and found out what caused the problem, a “Terrifying Migraine”. You can read more about it at Hollywood Reporter. For those of you wondering this is Serene Branson of CBS Los Angeles.

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Normally I wouldn’t go to such lengths for something like this, but I figured it was deserved. A friend of mine linked me this earlier today and I decided I needed to help spread it, not like it needs the help, most people have already seen and or heard of it. Anyways, this video is of Tim and Audrey (soon »]]>

Anyways, this video is of Tim and Audrey (soon to be Tiah), do give their respective blogs a look and be sure to let Tim know how awesome he is. I mean, he deserves it for having the balls to do all that. You can also follow them on Twitter at @timothytiah and @fourfeetnineaud.

This time I am hosting the video myself as I just couldn’t seem to get Vimeo or YouTube to work.

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This was previously known as a mix between deadmau5 and Skrillex but that was due to an idiot that took 4.8 million views away from the actual artist, that being Al Bizzare. So I wanted to post this and link to them so people realize that it was not Skrillex or deadmou5. Anyways, I would consider this track to be »]]>

This was previously known as a mix between deadmau5 and Skrillex but that was due to an idiot that took 4.8 million views away from the actual artist, that being Al Bizzare. So I wanted to post this and link to them so people realize that it was not Skrillex or deadmou5.

Anyways, I would consider this track to be sudo-dubstep but mainly electro-trance, it’s pretty old but a lot of people are still unaware of it, so give it a listen and give them a visit. I mean, you could at least do that much, it’s a pretty good beat after all.

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I had to post this simply because Fanatical hasn’t yet and I need a place to listen to it that isn’t YouTube. This comes from Zedd, the dude is a sudo-dubstep genius (not to be confused with Zed’s Dead), most the time. Anyways enjoy the sweet sound of memories mixed with common day music, that being the sound of a transformer »]]>

I had to post this simply because Fanatical hasn’t yet and I need a place to listen to it that isn’t YouTube. This comes from Zedd, the dude is a sudo-dubstep genius (not to be confused with Zed’s Dead), most the time. Anyways enjoy the sweet sound of memories mixed with common day music, that being the sound of a transformer falling into the ocean. Yeah, I just referred to dubstep as electrical nonsense, what are you gonna do about it?

Original video was the wrong version, if the one you are playing is 3 minutes long its the electro mix, the 6 minute video is dubstep, it drops somewhat hard around 4:30. My bad, bros.

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