Need your OS advice for my needs

[Millan]

Greetings, I hope you've all had a great Christmas!
Now I'm willing to change my Vista Basic OS to something that consumes a lot less on my 3-cell-battery while I'm using this HP 2133 in school. I usually have about 1h 50min of battery time but it's still not enough sometimes. I know I have the option to upgrade to a 6-cellbattery but it'll be perhaps my last resort if nothing else helps. The booting time should of course be better than Vista. I've made a backup of all my files on to an external hard drive so I won't be risking anything if things were to go wrong.

I only use the mini-notebook for surfing on the net, watching films, listening to music and working on my school work which includes some multimedia programs. I tend to use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Office programs, Flash and CAD (Autodesk Inventor) most of all. If there are any OS that don't support them, than what programs can be used instead?

I've looked up: Google Chrome OS, Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Window 7 Professional (autherized for me as a student). Are there any other OS to choose from that qualify my needs? I don't see Win XP as an option but if you do, please explain why.

The specs are:
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Basic Service Pack 2
System Model: HP Mini-Note c7-M
Processor: VIA C7-M Processor 1600MHz, ~1.6GHz
Memory: 1790MB RAM (2GB)
Battery: 3 cells

What is your advice to a more efficient and less battery consumable HP 2133?

SUMMARY: Want to change Vista Basic to an OS that saves more battery time, a good plus if the boot time is better. Using the mini-notebook for surfing, films, music and school work only.

Thanks for reading.
//Millan

[mikez]

It reads to me as if what you need is a regular laptop, not a NetBook.

Most of the things you mention are graphics or cpu intensive tasks,
not a strong point of NetBook. All of those are also energy consuming.

Sort of like driving your vehicle with your foot to the firewall all the time and
then complaining about poor fuel milage.

Since you don't mention size, weight or portability in your requirements,
trade in you 2133 for a 6 to 9 pound laptop intended for the uses you put it to.

[Millan]

It reads to me as if what you need is a regular laptop, not a NetBook.

Most of the things you mention are graphics or cpu intensive tasks,
not a strong point of NetBook. All of those are also energy consuming.

Sort of like driving your vehicle with your foot to the firewall all the time and
then complaining about poor fuel milage.

Since you don't mention size, weight or portability in your requirements,
trade in you 2133 for a 6 to 9 pound laptop intended for the uses you put it to.

Sorry for my confusion perhaps. I only use these intensive programs, like CAD, quite seldom. Usually during the times when I can't get access to any stationary computers or that I don't have my power cable with me. I might have exaggerated a little but I usually watch films and listen to music with the help of the internet, streaming through Youtube and Spotify. I try to keep things as light weighted as possible for this mini-notebook so that I know I won't overburden it.

I just talked to my dad and I was willing to give Windows 7 Professional a try. Can you guys recommend it rather than sticking to Vista?

[mikez]

Give up "Watching Films" and you are back into NetBook land.
At least in the land that VIA is willing to support.
Otherwise, trade it in for something better suited to "Watching Films", "Graphics" and better battery life.
Something without "VIA" on the spec sheet anywhere.

[Millan]

Alright, I've probably already had that "Watching films" thought for a while now, having mentioned that already I do have a good awareness and knowlidge of what I should and not do while consuming from the battery. But the my main subject is that I want to change the Vista Basic OS. Can you recommend Windows 7 Professional, Google Chrome OS or Ubuntu Netbook Remix? What will be more efficient and perhaps less battery consuming?

I'm not willing to do any trading nor do I want buy anything since I'm happy with what I've already have and it still works. All I ask is a little bit of tweaking hopefully by changing OS.

[mikez]

Tweaking the OS is probably your best route.
Since you have ruled out XP and Win-7 still has power consumption issues...
Guess your stuck with Vista and hand-tune it for minimum power consumption.

As to Linux, it doesn't really matter which distribution you use, except for the
artifact of which version of the kernel that distribution loads by default.
Of course, you can select a kernel version of your choice with any of them.

Linux, like any *nix system, is a end-user defined collection of parts, not
a "single box - what you get is what there is" solution.

Although most end-users start out by letting the "Distributor" play the part of B.G.
and decide for them what parts they get by default.

That is what a "Linux Distribution" is - a pre-defined set of default parts.
Linux, as all *nix systems, include a package manager so the end-user can
pick and choose what (of about 30,000) packages they want on their own system.

All Linux kernels can be "adjusted" to match response / performance / power consumption
to the end-user's likeing.
And of course, setting up a dual or triple boot system is well documented.
So you don't really have to choose one or the other, Propriatry System or Open System.
Install both, use each as/when required to meet your needs.

Translation: Your asking for the solution to a problem that does not exist.

[Millan]

Okay thanks, I just did a quick comparison between Vista Basic and Windows 7 Professional myself, on the system requirements. It was better to have Vista Basic as you just mentioned.

But I don't fully understand or if you mentioned anything about the details of the light weighted Ubuntu Netbook Remix OS: Ubuntu Netbook Remix | Canonical
I've been reading that a few have been struggling with it due to some driver problems and perhaps some hardware probs too. Though as I read on there are some solutions to solving these bugs/problems.

I just want it to be more clarified and know if Ubuntu Netbook Remix is not an option for me? Isn't it more greedy on the CPU compared to Vista Basic?

It's not a must for me to depend on these intensive programs. Most important is to have either the Office packet or OpenOffice.

I looked at Google Chrome OS, which will be released some time in 2010, and it seems to be a future solution for all net/notebooks I guess.

[mikez]

OK, I think I follow now...
"Netbook Remix" is a modified window manager (the software object, not the company) -

Under nearly all Linux distributions, you can install more than one window manager (GUI) and
choose which one to use in the login dialog box.

Ubuntu give a different name to their distributions, depending on which window manager (GUI)
is the default:
Ubuntu : Gnome
Kbuntu : KDE
Xbuntu : XFCE
etc, etc, etc, etc

You can install any/all of them on any/all of them - including the "UNBR" (Ubuntu NetBook Remix) GUI

[mikez]

OH, and Google Chrome is Google's own attempt at repeating the failure of Sun Java-PC OS (if you recall that one).