Linux in a tiny package...

So I recently had a wacky notion that I wanted some ultraportable Linux action. Had a line on a Vaio P, but then read too much about it not being easy to shoehorn Linux onto it.

I had an eeePC 701, but it was too small to be of use to me (the Vaio P is smaller, but a slightly different form factor).

Those of you running Linux, what 10-13 inch notebooks are you running on? Any issues?

Since it is Linux, I do not mind hardware that is a generation behind.

 

Both of the ones I own right now are great machines, the Lenovo X220 and ASUS U24E.

Also the earlier Asus UL series and any of the Eee PCs would be great.

The Eee 1025C and 1025CE are coming out sometime (I guess early 2012, delayed again) and will be a good budget choice.

I'm sure there are others, too...

 

I've run several versions of linux on my Vaio SR 13.3" over the past few years. I think the 13" Vaio Z does ok with linux. Most of the issues I have seen are:

• ati graphics drivers not working right
• getting Fn+[key] to work on some distros (mostly volume and brightness)
• updating *buntu versions sometimes totally breaks the above mentioned stuff
• unable to figure out why hibernation / standby doesn't work right in some distros

Other than those issues, linux works great on my Vaio.
Systems with (dual) switchable graphics and Optimus may be a problem.

I would love to get a Vaio P and put linux on it!

 

I have a 12" Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Si 1520, an Asus EEE 901 and an EEE 1018p. All are running Debian Squeeze.

The Fujitsu runs Gnome and the only thing that doesn't work completely is the internal card reader. SD(HC) works, Sony Memory Stick does not, MMC and xD not tested.
The EEEs both run LXDE. On the 901 everything works. The 1018p is primarily a file server so I never tried WLAN. But there's nothing in this machine of which I know it doesn't work.

My secondary/rescue OS is Slax but due to its age I'm in the transition to Porteus right now.

 

I've been running linux mint debian edition on my eeepc 900a. It's surprising how snappy a full gnome desktop can be on a debian base.

I'm almost to the point where I'm going to pull the trigger on a lenovo x120e to replace it.

 

I've run Linux on a variety of ThinkPads, and have found the hardware to support Linux quite well.

I'd recommend the X200 with the AFFS mod as a cheap, great notebook with fantastic Linux support. You can pick one up for well under $500, and the mod only adds about a hundred bucks onto that. Even cheaper would be the X61s, though you don't have many screen upgrade possibilities there...

 

What do you want out of the system? I ask because I use the N900 as a non plus ultra portable Linux system. I can ssh into the office servers and administer them using VNC. I can run Python and Qt/gtk programs on it. I mean, i can even run the gimp and OpenOffice on it.

OpenOffice.org and the Gimp on the N900 An alien’s viewpoint

So, what do you want the device to do?

 

Is your N900 overclocked and if yes, to which frequency? Even at 850MHz and with a 2nd swap partition on a class 10 SDHC I still find OO and Gimp much too slow (mostly due to their memory consumption). I use Abiword and Gnumeric instead of OO and let's face it Gimp on the tiny screen doesn't really work well.

 

I had it overclocked for a while, but I am now back to native speed. It is actually faster for some things this way. And sure, OOo is slow to start. But, I certainly only use it when I have to. Most of the time I just use leafpad. But, I find that the gimp works rather well. I put the tools and pallets on their own virtual desktop. That leaves the main window in its own desktop. That helps a lot!

 

My phone is a N900 too, it's pretty slow but it's a swiss army knife. I've owned it since December 2009, so that's forever in phone years. It's a tradeoff. Mostly it's memory constrained. The lack of a compass is annoying too. The N9 looks great except I can't get it here in the USA for less than the cost of a notebook. I've installed U-Boot on my N900 and I have been experimenting with weekly builds of MeeGo.

Speaking of tiny packages I haven't seen anyone mention the Eee X101 in a while, which comes with MeeGo and is dirt cheap. I wonder if anyone here has one...

 

ive been running ubuntu on a DELL xps m1210 no problems there
moved on to a Asus 1201N had issues with wireless but changed it anyway.
Now currently using a UL20A with crunchbang out of the box

all these machines listed are 12.1 inch

 

I've been running Arch on a Toshiba R835. Everything works perfectly except that you cannot change brightness after waking up from suspend.