Which distro to use, and how to install over W7 OS installation via micro SD on acer

Discussion in 'Linux' started by timesurfer, Jun 7, 2014.

  1. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    Hi, I have friend with aspire one comp with 1gb ram and atom cpu who has W7 Ultimate OS who is complaining of super slow comp usage who heard that linux might be less drain on cpu and memory likened to xp. He pretty much uses vlc to watch/listen movies/music and surf's the net

    Will linux speed up his comp and which distro to use?

    Also how can I burn to micro SD and get BIOS to detect micro sd?

    Want clean install...

    Any help would be great :D

    :shisha:
     
  2. Mutagen

    Mutagen MDL Addicted

    Feb 18, 2013
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    Mint and Ubuntu are quite popular, but there are at least a dozen "flavors" up to the task. Search for "top linux distros" to get some idea of what's available and the interface/gui they might prefer. Also tons of YouTube videos promoting their favorites.

    No experience on the microSD/BIOS question. Good luck!
     
  3. Nimbus2000

    Nimbus2000 MDL Senior Member

    May 5, 2010
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    I would stick with a distribution using a light desktop. I really like Cinnamon, but it along with KDE and Unity are resource hogs that will bring an atom power machine to a crawl. LXDE, XFCE or perhaps Mate should work well. Some suggestions include Lubuntu, LXLE, WattOS (either LXDE or Mate) and Mint with XFCE.

    While there are some other very light distributions such as Puppy and Bodhi (E17), they have interfaces that have a steep learning curve.

    As long as the aspire will boot from the memory card, Rufus is a good choice to create the boot media.
     
  4. zpimp

    zpimp MDL Novice

    Dec 25, 2013
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    peppermintos (based on mint with lxde) is pretty light
    i use rmprepusb with easy2boot (you can boot iso's directly without unpacking)

    if you want even lighter you can go with antix, (~70mb ram usage when idle) has fluxbox/icewm
     
  5. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    I've got unbuntu burnt to sd micro but upon unbuntu msg to restart to boot to unbuntu drive, no sd micro is detected

    Just boots into windows

    Tried two burning softwares

    1. wumi
    2. LiLi - which actually gave error about bios maybe being needed to upgrade or force "something"

    I just want to, when able to boot to unbuntu drive, test along side W7

    Any help in the BIOS to get detection of SD micro drive (is burnt to drive just not getting detecting at boot)

    :suicide: + :shisha: = :shisha:
     
  6. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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  7. Mutagen

    Mutagen MDL Addicted

    Feb 18, 2013
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  8. EFA11

    EFA11 Avatar Guru

    Oct 7, 2010
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    only option I found to work the best with aspire one was to use an external CD drive hooked up to the usb.
     
  9. timesurfer

    timesurfer MDL Developer

    Nov 22, 2009
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    Inside windows I can see drive and stuff inside. Also did current W7 Ultimate install with same microSD :suicide:...lol

    If only I had one

    Thanks everybody for trying to help

    I'll probably use a regular USB and see if it see's it at boot

    :shisha:
     
  10. Paiva

    Paiva MDL Developer

    Apr 9, 2011
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  11. ar_seven_am

    ar_seven_am MDL Senior Member

    Mar 7, 2010
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    i'm using winsetup from usb (u can search in google or msfn for that) for copying the linux iso source into usb harddrive, but i'm not very sure it can be used with microSD? if u can install windows 7 with that, is it clean install or not? if it was clean install, I'm sure there's menu option for boot in the bios (or f12 for select booting menu) into micro SD.
     
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  12. Kim100

    Kim100 MDL Addicted

    Jun 17, 2009
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    Take a look at Zorin, there are a number of versions including a games edition with Steam and a Lite release for low spec PCs. Zorin is easy to get going with as its very like Windows 7/XP