DIY: Create a Linux Netbook Take 2

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asus eee pc, geek gurl, install, lady ozma, linux, linux mint with unity, mint, netbook, talk about tuesday, ubuntu, unity

It’s “Talk About Tuesday” around the blogosphere and I’m going to lay off the sewing this week and go tech.

You people seem to like it when I show off my hot Geek Gurl status and I had a little set-back with the latest sewing project. Namely you scrawny and curveless people on the net. I hope you get hips the size of New Hampshire when baby-making like me!

I’m sure you remember my entry: The Making of a Chromebook. If not, go check it out. (It was one of my top hits last year.)

Seems people want to know how to make their own Chromebook and with a cost of $300-500 USD, I can’t blame you. That’s a nasty hit in the gut for what is little more than a giant web browser.

The back story sum up: My friend’s son had a netbook. Sisters, being sisters, dropped it. Out a window. Ouch. Hello dead hard drive.  I installed the Chrome OS onto a 4GB SD card and gave it back.

The benefits to Chrome OS that I saw primarily lay with the power of “in the cloud computing” and the age of this child. A middle-grade child doesn’t need a whole lot of specialty software.

The downside – no Skype app for Chrome. This kid likes to Skype. Can’t say as I blame him. Vid-calling is the way to go for all those loved ones not local. It’s the way I talked with family when I moved out west in ’97. I’m really glad vid-chatting is far easier now.  (Can I get a holla for those that used Eyeball Chat? Oh yeah!)

Finding out they could get the hard drive replaced under warranty, the family went that route. The problem? This is a netbook so they had no OS to put back onto it. Brilliant. They couldn’t get a Windows replacement under warranty. I hate Windows so very much.

I ended up with the netbook once more. This time with a nice hard drive to load Linux on, with the express request to find something Skype friendly.

I spent WEEKS trying to get straight up Ubuntu for netbooks to work. Forget it. I installed so many different patches and tinkered with microphone settings until my eyes crossed. I simply could not get it to accept the onboard microphone.  I finally went with Linux Mint with Unity.

Here goes:

Start with one slightly abused but well-loved netbook:

Really, it looks none the worse for wear, all things considered.

Yes, that’s the same picture from the previous post. I wasn’t taking another one.

After installing Ubuntu Netbook Edition I reveled in the beauty.

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