I used to play around with an original Eee PC 700 quite a bit.
The most interesting experiment was installing Debian without X and using that as a desktop OS.
I used links2 in framebuffer mode to browse the internet, alpine for mail, cmus for music, fbi to view images, mplayer to watch movies, mc for file management and tmux for multi-tasking. It worked surprisingly well and solved the issue of the tiny storage, anemic processor, low RAM and small screen, but only after you’ve memorized all the keyboard commands.
I still have my HP Mini311, it has a 11.6" screen, 1366x768, discrete GPU, can decode 1080p in hardware and output on tv via HDMI. In 2009 it was a beast!
I changed the 2.4bg with a 2.4/5n wifi, upgraded to 3GB of ddr3 ram, SSD, overclocked to 2GHz, and installed MX Linux on it, works perfect.
I still have my white 701 that I put a black keyboard on and soldered in a Bluetooth module. Some of the most fun I’ve had using a computer and I wish the form factor was still a thing.
I wonder how alpine linux would hold up on one of these, as a desktop of course. Alpine is ment for routers so therotically it should work really well.
Ha ha, a post about the Eee! Dug my 1000H out of the attic a few weeks back, put Mint xfce on it and it works great, pretty zippy! Then I put it back in the attic.
Had a 100X, back then with 2GB RAM. Worked OOTB with Linux w/o trouble, all hardware supported. Good times. Later, starting your browser maxed out the RAM so not a viable option anymore.
Nowadays I can happily recommend a HP Stream 11". Works perfectly with Fedora 39, good battery life. (Obviously you don’t want to use such a machine for more than casual work/internet surfing. But as a cheap/solid travel netbook, it is perfect. Typing this message on it.)
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