I've got an old HP Netbook, which is just fine for taking with when I'm travelling, to check email and news. I have a very old Ubuntu netbook-remix on it, and it really, *really* needs to be updated to something current. I, of course, would prefer CentOS....
The question is: I see that *if* the specs I just looked up (I'm at work, not home, where I could just turn it on, but they sound right) Atom N270 CPU, 2G RAM, 160GB drive - what should I put on it, C6 or C7? Upgrading the memory's not going to happen, so it's got to live with that size.
Opinions (please, no flame wars), just what will be most responsive on a machine this small?
mark
On 06/05/2017 09:31 AM, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
I've got an old HP Netbook, which is just fine for taking with when I'm travelling, to check email and news. I have a very old Ubuntu netbook-remix on it, and it really, *really* needs to be updated to something current. I, of course, would prefer CentOS....
The question is: I see that *if* the specs I just looked up (I'm at work, not home, where I could just turn it on, but they sound right) Atom N270 CPU, 2G RAM, 160GB drive - what should I put on it, C6 or C7? Upgrading the memory's not going to happen, so it's got to live with that size.
Opinions (please, no flame wars), just what will be most responsive on a machine this small?
1 GB RAM is the minimal to install/run CentOS-7, so that will run. You will have to try it to decide if it meets your requirements of usability.
I was using CentOS-7 on one of these with 2GB RAM, it worked OK:
https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-inspiron-11-3000
I have since upgraded that machine to 8GB of RAM .. because I could .. but I used it for a couple years at 2 GB w/ CentOS-7.
On Mon, Jun 05, 2017 at 10:31:10AM -0400, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
I've got an old HP Netbook, which is just fine for taking with when I'm travelling, to check email and news. I have a very old Ubuntu netbook-remix on it, and it really, *really* needs to be updated to something current. I, of course, would prefer CentOS....
The question is: I see that *if* the specs I just looked up (I'm at work, not home, where I could just turn it on, but they sound right) Atom N270 CPU, 2G RAM, 160GB drive - what should I put on it, C6 or C7? Upgrading the memory's not going to happen, so it's got to live with that size.
Opinions (please, no flame wars), just what will be most responsive on a machine this small?
I think the Atom N270 is a 32-bit processor, no?
that means either no C7, or you will have to use the unofficial 32-bit build, and I don't know if it is being kept up to date.
also, 3rd-party repositories (epel, et al) aren't offering 32-bit packages for C7, either, so if you depend on any of them for packages you really care about (e.g., I can't use gnome-3.x, I use epel's Mate Desktop packages) you'll be stuck.
On Mon, Jun 05, 2017 at 10:31:10AM -0400, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
I've got an old HP Netbook, which is just fine for taking with when I'm travelling, to check email and news. I have a very old Ubuntu netbook-remix on it, and it really, *really* needs to be updated to something current. I, of course, would prefer CentOS....
The question is: I see that *if* the specs I just looked up (I'm at work, not home, where I could just turn it on, but they sound right) Atom N270 CPU, 2G RAM, 160GB drive - what should I put on it, C6 or C7? Upgrading the memory's not going to happen, so it's got to live with that size.
Depending upon what desktop you want or need, a Fedora 25 is still available in i386. You can download the netinst, do a minimal install then add your desktop. It's probably the closest thing to CentOS for now. Something like openbox, or even better, dwm, probably wouldn't strain its resources too much.
On 06/05/2017 11:15 AM, Fred Smith wrote:
On Mon, Jun 05, 2017 at 10:31:10AM -0400, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
I've got an old HP Netbook, which is just fine for taking with when I'm travelling, to check email and news. I have a very old Ubuntu netbook-remix on it, and it really, *really* needs to be updated to something current. I, of course, would prefer CentOS....
The question is: I see that *if* the specs I just looked up (I'm at work, not home, where I could just turn it on, but they sound right) Atom N270 CPU, 2G RAM, 160GB drive - what should I put on it, C6 or C7? Upgrading the memory's not going to happen, so it's got to live with that size.
Opinions (please, no flame wars), just what will be most responsive on a machine this small?
I think the Atom N270 is a 32-bit processor, no?
that means either no C7, or you will have to use the unofficial 32-bit build, and I don't know if it is being kept up to date.
also, 3rd-party repositories (epel, et al) aren't offering 32-bit packages for C7, either, so if you depend on any of them for packages you really care about (e.g., I can't use gnome-3.x, I use epel's Mate Desktop packages) you'll be stuck.
We have an i386 version of CentOS-7 from the altarch SIG:
https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/i386
It should theoretically work with that processor .. at least one could test it and see.
Johnny Hughes wrote:
On 06/05/2017 11:15 AM, Fred Smith wrote:
On Mon, Jun 05, 2017 at 10:31:10AM -0400, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
I've got an old HP Netbook, which is just fine for taking with when I'm travelling, to check email and news. I have a very old Ubuntu netbook-remix on it, and it really, *really* needs to be updated to something current. I, of course, would prefer CentOS....
The question is: I see that *if* the specs I just looked up (I'm at work, not home, where I could just turn it on, but they sound right) Atom N270 CPU, 2G RAM, 160GB drive - what should I put on it, C6 or C7?
Upgrading
the memory's not going to happen, so it's got to live with that size.
<snip>
I think the Atom N270 is a 32-bit processor, no?
I think so. Given the date, and the price (had I paid full price, it would have been well under $400US)....
that means either no C7, or you will have to use the unofficial 32-bit build, and I don't know if it is being kept up to date.
also, 3rd-party repositories (epel, et al) aren't offering 32-bit packages for C7, either, so if you depend on any of them for packages you really care about (e.g., I can't use gnome-3.x, I use epel's Mate Desktop packages) you'll be stuck.
We have an i386 version of CentOS-7 from the altarch SIG:
https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/AltArch/i386
It should theoretically work with that processor .. at least one could test it and see.
Mmmm... looks like I may go for C6, then, since unlike that Ubuntu, I will want to do updates at least every time I get ready for a trip (other times, it sits in the closet turned off).
And I really don't want fedora, with its 'how many updates today?!' That's why I like CentOS: stability.
Thanks to all.
mark
On Mon, 5 Jun 2017, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Mmmm... looks like I may go for C6, then, since unlike that Ubuntu, I will want to do updates at least every time I get ready for a trip (other times, it sits in the closet turned off).
I went for C6 on a Samsung NC10 (1.6GHz Atom N270 1GB RAM), only because it refused to boot off the C7 ISO for some reason, and I didn't want to waste time tracking down why.
Works like a charm without any fiddling with an alternate DE like I would have with C7. I have no complaints.
jh
On 06/06/2017 02:53 AM, John Hodrien wrote:
On Mon, 5 Jun 2017, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Mmmm... looks like I may go for C6, then, since unlike that Ubuntu, I will want to do updates at least every time I get ready for a trip (other times, it sits in the closet turned off).
I went for C6 on a Samsung NC10 (1.6GHz Atom N270 1GB RAM), only because it refused to boot off the C7 ISO for some reason, and I didn't want to waste time tracking down why.
Because that is a 32-bit (not 64-bit) processor. There is an AltArch 32-bit CentOS-7 distro as well:
http://mirror.centos.org/altarch/7/isos/i386/
Works like a charm without any fiddling with an alternate DE like I would have with C7. I have no complaints.
C6 does also use less resources than CentOS-7, so this might be the best bet in any event, but I did want to point out an alternative does exist.
Things like EPEL and ElRepo do not exist for the CentOS-7 32-bit distro either, so the experience is somewhat limited as well.
On 06/07/2017 12:39 PM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
On 06/06/2017 02:53 AM, John Hodrien wrote:
On Mon, 5 Jun 2017, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Mmmm... looks like I may go for C6, then, since unlike that Ubuntu, I will want to do updates at least every time I get ready for a trip (other times, it sits in the closet turned off).
I went for C6 on a Samsung NC10 (1.6GHz Atom N270 1GB RAM), only because it refused to boot off the C7 ISO for some reason, and I didn't want to waste time tracking down why.
Because that is a 32-bit (not 64-bit) processor. There is an AltArch 32-bit CentOS-7 distro as well:
http://mirror.centos.org/altarch/7/isos/i386/
Works like a charm without any fiddling with an alternate DE like I would have with C7. I have no complaints.
C6 does also use less resources than CentOS-7, so this might be the best bet in any event, but I did want to point out an alternative does exist.
Things like EPEL and ElRepo do not exist for the CentOS-7 32-bit distro either, so the experience is somewhat limited as well.
I might add that NOT using GNOME on a notebook is a big processor/battery win. I switched to Xfce some years ago.
On Wed, 7 Jun 2017, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
I might add that NOT using GNOME on a notebook is a big processor/battery win. I switched to Xfce some years ago.
I get far more hours out of this old NC10 with C6 and Gnome than I can cope with the cramped keyboard, so I don't need to tweak anything.
jh
On Wed, 7 Jun 2017, Johnny Hughes wrote:
On 06/06/2017 02:53 AM, John Hodrien wrote:
On Mon, 5 Jun 2017, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Mmmm... looks like I may go for C6, then, since unlike that Ubuntu, I will want to do updates at least every time I get ready for a trip (other times, it sits in the closet turned off).
I went for C6 on a Samsung NC10 (1.6GHz Atom N270 1GB RAM), only because it refused to boot off the C7 ISO for some reason, and I didn't want to waste time tracking down why.
Because that is a 32-bit (not 64-bit) processor. There is an AltArch 32-bit CentOS-7 distro as well:
I was using the AltArch i386 release. I put it down to a grumbly BIOS not liking the ISO I'd put on a USB stick, but couldn't be bothered to sort out a 32bit PXE install.
C6 went on just fine, and given what I'm using the netbook for, wasn't really a worse option.
jh
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Fred Smith -
John Hodrien -
Johnny Hughes -
m.roth＠5-cent.us -
Robert Moskowitz -
Scott Robbins