Ubuntu Netbook Remix (reviewed version 10.4) is Linux like you’ve never seen before. It has a smooth, attractive, interface that works very well with the netbook form factor. It is a clear winner, as good as if not better than operating systems from enormous corporations. There was a gotcha on my HP Mini installation in an otherwise great work.

This is not just a warmed over Gnome graphic user interface. It is a conscious effort focused on actual users for a specific form factor of computer. The result is an excellent user experience that other operating systems should envy. It has beautiful 3-d icons and a logical layout that takes the most advantage of smaller netbook display sizes.

Repartitioning with the installed Windows 7 Starter was easy using the disk shrink option in the computer management utility. There was a install gotcha on HP Mini 110 not present on another netbook the Eee PC 1005. After installation it would freeze on boot apparently because of the broadcom wireless driver. How to get past that glitch can be found here. Installation on a Eee PC 1005 proceeded without this problem. The HP Mini 110 worked perfectly after the wireless driver issue.

Web browsing, office productivity and game experience was very smooth. System administration no longer has dark corners. Icon graphics, screen resolution and sound simply work and are present in a nicely polished interface.

This is an excellent, highly recommended and worthy end user netbook PC operating system. Linux on the netbook desktop has come of age.