Best Linux for the N10J

Erm...Ubuntu actually IS the easiest way of learning Linux. The term 'Ubuntu' itself means 'human', pointing to the goal Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) is trying to achieve: creating a Linux that anybody can use. If you have absolutely no idea what Linux is, Ubuntu is about as good as it gets to get you starting. Later on you might want to check out SuSE or Fedora (latest releases are also very user-friendly!) for some more Linux-typical features.

The question isn't really "What Linux should I get for the N10?" because any Linux distro will just run fine. Your question should be "What Linux distro is right for me?", although this might not be the correct forum to pose such question
If you want a super user-friendly distro, then Ubuntu definitely is the way to go. If you're quite familiar with computers and tech, you might as well skip Ubuntu and hop on to Novell SuSE or Red Hat Fedora. If you really want to get to know the Linux core system, then I'd suggest you check out Debian, a very basic and barebone Linux distro (which is also the core of Ubuntu) that is very robust.

only issue I've run into so far is accessing the local hdd after creating the persistent file. But this is fixed by loading the ntfs driver from root terminal:

Create a directory to mount your volume to:

mkdir /mnt/c

Mount your volume:

ntfsmount /dev/hda1 /mnt/c

I have Ubuntu 8.10 on a partition of the HD in dual boot with Vista biz, and use a lot of other distro installing them in persistent mode (not live) in 8 GB SD, i've tried Puppy, Fedora, Open Suse, CrunchBang, Mint, Slax, but the one that i'm actually prefering is Mandriva 2009.

That is one hell of a guide you've got there! Was a real pleasure going through, had some great tips in there I didn't heard as of yet. Much appreciated it

I finally erased Vista and installed 3 diferent Linux distro on the hard disk. I can choose at the start between Ubuntu 8.04 netbook remix, Linux Mint Felicia and Mandriva One 2009. I think i'll try to put into the HD also Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope Alpha 6.
P.S. All sound problems that there were in Ubuntu are not present in Mint, Mandriva and Ubuntu JJ.

No, it needs ath9k, ath5k will not work.

I'm actually trying this distro:

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

also this one works fine.

I have installed and tested Ubuntu 9.04 (gnome), Ubuntu 9.04 NBR (netbook remix gnome), and KUbuntu 9.04 (kde), all works right: sounds, wi-fi etc. only exception is the webcam that works but is down under.

what's with expressgate asking for an install of adobe flash player in some linux/ubuntu form for example deb, tar, and two others. do we need this, or is there a way to get rid of the adobe nag off the Eg desktop screen.  i know what a tar is but got no clue about the other three choices.  what are our options do we need or not, what is the fix

SIR< still love the gun/cat

have u seen what i am seeing in eg, can u or others tell me why it is asking for this adobe flash player download, if the request is not valid can we get rid of it----THANKS

thanks for the info, i tried a post in eg but as usual no one would answer, and since eg is linux based, this was the next best, and i knew i had a chance of getting some sort of  answer from you,  thanks again.

Hi everyone

The good news is that I just installed LINUX Mint 8 (nick name Helena) on my new ASUS N10e netbook. It boots and runs much faster than Win XP did (win XP came pre-installed). In fact it boots almost as fast as Express Gate did. This makes me glad I didn't bother keeping a Windows partition and just told the Mint installer to reformat the entire HD.

But, there is one hic up. If I hit the 'Express Gate' hotkey (dedicated key at the top of the key board) it corrupts my disk or something. I pressed the express gate hot key out of curiosity and then I couldn't boot but by starting Mint in recovery mode and running fdsk  or something was able to recover. I'm guessing that even trying to boot express gate once it's gone messes up a boot record or whatever. Obviously I can simply avoid pressing the hot key but I'm worried that every time I accidentally bump it or hit it I'll have to go through recovery mode and one day maybe the recovery won't work.

So, my question is: does anybody have a solution to either keep express gate (which probably means re-installing Win XP and then re-installing Mint but this time leaving a small Windoze  partition) or editing the MBR or whatever so that the express gate key takes me to LINUX or just disabeling the express gate hot key? I'd really prefer to avoid having non-LINUX partitions on my HD because I've found in the past that this causes instability.

Thanks for any suggestions.