Windows 7 vs Linux: What's the Best OS for Your Netbook? | Maximum PC

Description

RELATED ARTICLES

Features

Windows 7 vs Linux: What's the Best OS for Your Netbook?

That shiny new netbook is light and portable, plays music and movies, and cost less than an iPhone (with service). Problem is: you might be ready to chuck it off a bridge. Running the Intel Atom processor at only 1.60GHz, netbooks are a bit on the clunky side when it comes to actual data processing. No one is going to play World of Warcraft on one of these thin machines, but it sure would be great if OpenOffice, a music player, and Mozilla Firefox could run a little faster.

The answer to the netbook dilemma is: find an alternative operating system. Of course, this is a time-consuming proposition, considering you have to download the OS, burn it to a CD or USB key, load the OS, and then configure it. To find out which OS will actually add pep to your Sony P – or any number of low-cost, Atom-based netbooks – we loaded six different options on the same machine and performed a series of tests – looking at the interface, networking features, the browser and built-in apps, and how much customization you can do and ended up picking a clear winner.

For testing, we used the Acer Aspire One AOD250. It uses the Atom N270 processor running at 1.60GHz, has a 533MHz front side bus, and a 512KB L2 cache. The unit ships with Windows XP, which made our baseline testing a hair easier. It has a 10.1-inch 1020x600 screen, runs on the Intel 945GSE graphics chipset, has 1GB of DDR2 533MHz DRAM, a 160GB 5400RPM hard disk, built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi, three USB ports, and a slim form factor – all for about $298. We picked it because it is so common, but ...

Original URL

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_7_vs_linux_whats_best_os_your_netbook

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_7_vs_linux_whats_best_os_your_netbook