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Asked by pliut

I need a very light de but not for netbook: could Unity be right choice?

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Best mycae (mycae) said : 		#1

No. unity will be heavy on resource usage, at least until the non-3D version is shipped (maybe).

A more "lightweight" ubuntu based distribution is lubuntu, or xubuntu, which will have considerably less reliance on the speed of the graphics card you use, and also have smaller memory footprints.

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pliut (paolo-liut-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#2

now it is quite clear, but, just curiosity, are netbook so powerful? I thought they were not

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mycae (mycae) said : 		#3

>just curiosity, are netbook so powerful? I thought they were not

"netbook" is a marketing name that describes the form factor of the device; not the specifications.

The initial "netbook" devices that sold well in this area were the original EEEPCs. IMHO, they were successful because they were cheap, had long lasting batteries, the unit can fit into a small bag or large handbag, and because no-one cares about specs.

They were not "powerful" by modern standards, but they can outpace computers from six odd years ago; it is *enough* to do what is needed. Hell, I have and do run very complicated programs on an EEEPC. It works, and it can be moved. Great.

The EEEPCs sold so well, that soon everyone started copying their form factor, and started optimising battery life (ads for 12hrs of battery life are not uncommon, as opposed to the more traditional 2-3 that you get on a del, thinkpad, or a mac, which means you always have to carry the charger).

More recent netbooks have retained the form factor, but increased the price and stuffed it full of faster components, to appeal to users who do buy based upon specs.

Yes, unity has recognised that many netbooks simply cannot run due to the current requirements for their 3D accelleration -- many netbooks use integrated graphics cards that are cheap and cheerful. Unity will not work on these at all; hence (as i mentioned) there is currently a 2D unity that has started development.

Calling unity the "netbook" edition was a bit silly IMHO, but was referring to the simplified interface that was so popular on the EEEPC and more recent iOS devices.

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marcus aurelius (adbiz) said : 		#4

what is a form factor? is it an enpowerment of a dog's breakfast in a copacetic paradigm shift?

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marcus aurelius (adbiz) said : 		#5

translation of what mycae said in layman's terms:

netbooks were originally meant to be used as a portable device in competition with the iphone for surfing the web and reading email. they originally came with very limited memory and disk space. an acer would ship with 512 mg ram and have 1 gig ssd drive. i believe the original eeepc offered less memory and an even lower capacity drive.

however, the netbooks suddenly became attractive to those who didn't want to lug a so called "portable" laptop around. but at the same time, laptops were becoming more powerful and increased in size, thus making them as heavy as desktops IMHO.

the also grew an attraction for those who couldn't afford a laptop that was escalating in cost and to those who knew nothing about computers/laptops and wanted something cheap.

yes, they originally were underpowered and underperforming, and still are. dual core netbooks run at 1.5 to 1.66 ghz only, while desktops and laptops run at a min of 2.5 ghz.

as far as using netbooks for anything serious, it is problematic, as they do not have sufficient cooling and because of their small size, they have no cooling fan.