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- Easy Peasy has a unique netbook-oriented interface.
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- If you’ve installed Ubuntu, you’ll be right at home installing Easy Peasy.
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- Use Synaptic to add or remove software.
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- System updates worked fine in Easy Peasy.
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- The Easy Peasy login screen.
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- YouTube videos played very well in Easy Peasy.
(10 votes, average: 3.30 out of 5)
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Hi Jim, thanks for the review. I have played around with a number of netbook based distros, and while I don’t have a netbook either, I’ve played with a few of them at Staples and Best Buy to get an idea what they are like. (Generally speaking, the most expensive ones have decent keyboards, though a bit tight and the cheapest ones are just that, not only small, but cheaply built as well. Most netbooks are quite adequate, though, when it comes to just browsing the Web, viewing low grade videos and stuff like that).
As far as Easy Peasy goes, I am not sure if I have used Version 1.5 or not, but I have tried Easy Peasy in the past. It’s OK, nothing to get all excited about as an OS in terms of features, but I think it is one of the better early versions designed for netbooks. Note, however, that a lot of distros, even mainstream ones, have, in recent months, added support for eeePC and similar types of netbooks, have made specific provisions to make certain that they support the Intel Atom processor and a couple of other low power consuming, low end CPUs, and they’ve made adjustments for small screen real estate as well.
For those reasons, it may be worthwhile for someone interested in a Netbook based system to look at that as well.
Xandros and a couple of other distro makers wisely jumped into the fray when netbooks were first coming out and made some bucks on them, but now the playing field has leveled. Today I’d look more at a netbook based OS in terms of whether or not it puts too much of a load on the system, but after that, whether it offers the features you want.
I’d give Easy Peasy OK marks on that score, but if I were actually in the market for a netbook (not right now) I would look for other alternatives as well. This one would get a seven or eight in an informal review, based on what I can remember, but not a ten. I would be inclined to look at Puppy and antiX on my short list when looking at a low end system, but as an advanced user, I’d give sidux a look, and I would consider Mandriva and SimplyMEPIS as well, all of which I believe can also support netbook hardware.
@Brian Masinick
I love Puppy and think it is one of the top distros for an aging system. However, I find it very unsuitable for a netbook, especially those with screen sizes on the smaller end of the spectrum.
I have an Asus Eee 701, and put Puppy on it. Everything is simply either too small, or completely out of whack with the resolution. I think that unless you are very familiar with how Puppy works, it would become very frustrating to use it for an extended period of time on anything within the 7-9 inch screen size, and possibly even the 10.
The best distro I have found so far (and this includes Easy Peasy, which I admittedly tried a good while ago, before the name change) was a minimal install of #!Crunchbang. All the power and versatility of Ubuntu, but you aren’t held back by the size limitations of your desktop. It holds up exceptionally well speed wise (though I admit I’ve upped the machine to 2g ram) and is incredibly functional. By going with the minimal install, I’ve saved precious drive space, and can tailor the packages to what I need.
[...] #EasyPeasy #GNU #Linux 1.5 in #Review http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2009/10/22/easy-peasy-linux-1-5/ [...]
You used a “how to skin a squirrel” video for this review?????
@jellmoo: Thanks for the feedback. Not actually owning a netbook, but only using them in stores to check out the look and feel, I can only speculate on how a distribution would work on particular hardware. I know for those various systems that I could adjust things, because at the very worst, I could hand modify the xorg.conf, and if necessary, even the desktop config files for the environment.
You are absolutely right though. Who WANTS to do that, except to learn or tweak for reasons of study and learning? But after that, it becomes irritating to have to do such things over and over again.
I like Puppy, but even on a laptop or desktop, one irritating feature in the recent past has been the sheer number of network setup programs, none of them the same or consistent in their interface. On the positive side, every couple of release iterations, they streamline some of that and generally provide stuff that works.
Crunchbang is nice and simple, that’s for sure. About the only thing you have to get used to is the somewhat different – but VERY FAST – interface to select the programs and menus. Directions are right there though, so it’s not hard at all, and it sure is light and fast, especially once you are used to it.
Since I have not really messed with antiX with netbook hardware (and anticapitalista does not, to my knowledge, have netbook hardware either), there may be some question on how well antiX might work with a netbook. IF you have any feedback on that, I’d love to hear it, and the guys on the antiX forum would undoubtedly love to hear it too, because we all try to help anticapitalista continually improve his distro as well.
I tried easy peasy when I first got my netbook about a year ago. I actually don’t like the netbook remix interface on a netbook. It wastes too much space. I really question whether a different kind of interface is needed for netbooks. In my experience the standard desktop works fine on a small screen. I’m running karmic koala RC 1 on my Asus 900 and loving it. KDE 4.3 is runs fine (much better than Jaunty). Mu system is fast and responsive even with desktop effects enabled. I have the panel set on auto hide, and run most applications in full screen mode. I’ve set the theme to have really small window boarders, but haven’t really needed to make any changes other than that.
I agree that the netbook remix interface is interesting. But at the end of the day, I don’t think it’s an improvement over standard KDE or Gnome.
“I really question whether a different kind of interface is needed for netbooks.
”
+1 I use live{CD|DVD) images on my MSI Wind (the XP version, the GNUlinux version is almost unusable as it has a too tiny screen) : its processor(s) are fast enough for me, I put the maximum of RAM the mobo could address -after, it becomes more complicated) and the disk is big and fast enough (twice the size of my workstation). I am not at all annoyed with the fact that it is used a a normal PC.
However, the small size of the screen makes that some applications are not usable, either because menus stretch beyond the little limits of the tiny sceen (Inkscape with the MSI wind under SUse, shipped by default : it does not seem to have been carefully tested) or because they *need* big screens (grass , shipped by default with the MSI wind, would lead to errors (at least using it would be very tiring :in a train one has to care not to miss the station, the state of the “net”"book” battery… plus the work).. A friend of mine, who designs gears, told me he could not work with a 17 inches screen; with a 18 inches one, he does not make too many errors.
Another ugly feature of Suse MSI wind was the easiness one could get asiatic sets of characters, and be trapped in them….
A feature which is often missed in reviews is the way key,qps and native languages are treated (Sabayon, Wolvix and Scientific Linux were satisfying for me)….
The choice of applications (and the removal|careful tweaking of some apps, as it takes space on the disk and they cannot be used as they are) seems for me more important than claiming one has a specially netbook oriented distribution : however, it would have needed more work/common sense than a public relation operation….
Re AntiX on netbooks, I have the pleasure to confirm that it works great on my eee 900. With the exception of suspend, all the rest is OK: function keys, wireless etc. Speed and responsiveness are very good. Thanks Anticapitalista!
Can I puhleeze see a few weeks without something talking about buntubuntubuntu?
BTW: the UNR9.04 that I have used on my EeePC 900A looks exactly the same as the screenshot above…tell me Easy Peasy doesn’t use the same repos! Why reinvent buntubuntu? Aren’t 35 buntubuntu derivatives enough?
I have this distro installed on my net-book and out of curiosity i opted to try the live cd on my regular desktop visa-vie the live cd.
so far as i can tell without installing this distro seems to be a good candidate for those whom are younger elderly and or low vision or vary unexperienced in any kind of computer which is something i have been looking for for quite sometime. Ill post my findings as far as an actual install at a later date
@ here:
i tried this iso on a regular computer for my elder relaitives exept for the lack of special effects drivers it works fine and they are happy with it as far as for the kids im sticking to a regular desktop
@ Ista:
I’m curious, did you get to have the webcam & microphone running?
Could you share how, please?
I have used this on an eeepc900A with atom proc. I think that the NBR layout is great on these 9″ screens. I use Debian on my Desktop and have Mint7XFCE on my girlfriend’s netbook. She likes mint alot, but I still fall beck to the simple GUI layout of easy peasy for netbooks. It is by far the best netbook OS I have used so far.
Nice review and intriguing comments. Please check out the 1.6 release which was just pushed :) http://wiki.geteasypeasy.com/EasyPeasy_1.6/Release_Candidate
@ Jon Ramvi:
Easy Peasy 1.6. works very well with my Eee Pc 4G 701. The major difference between UNR and Easy Peasy is that all of the codecs are already pre-installed and work straight “out of the box”. Skype also finally works “out of the box”. although there are some occasional crackling sounds on my installation.
The pre-installed programs are also very wisely chosen (o.k., I got rid of Picasa) ;-), which in return, keeps the footprint of the OS a bit smaller, compared to UNR’s footprint.
Easy Peasy 1.6. for the EeePc 4G 701 is completely non-problematic, so far, at least for me. ;-)