The Ubuntu 9.04 base code works out of the box on most netbooks. This means you can now easily run (via Kubuntu) a full desktop such as KDE 4.2 on a netbook. This is especially nice because KDE 4.2 uses the open source accelerated graphics driver capabilities to significantly speed up rendering of things like fonts and widgets and also to apply anti-ailiasing. As a bonus, 3D desktop bling, such as the desktop cube, is also now supported out of the box.

KDE 4.2 includes PowerDevil and other tweaks which will extend the time on batteries when running Linux. KDE 4.2 is also very nice because it does not utilise the problematic Mono libraries.

I left some comments on Distrowatch (comment #17)

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=2009042…

which I feel explains how to improve the default look of Kubuntu 9.04 into a very nice KDE 4.2 desktop which runs very nicely on a netbook.

This same Distrowatch Weekly explains that there is currently a performance problem running UNR on Ubuntu Jaunty.

So there is no need to run UNR from an obscure community, and burden your netbook with un-necessary Mono libraries, to get a very nice and well-performing desktop for a netbook. Just run the out-of-the-box Kubuntu Jaunty and tweak the default appearance settings to suit.

The Ubuntu 9.04 base code works out of the box on most netbooks. This means you can now easily run (via Kubuntu) a full desktop such as KDE 4.2 on a netbook. This is especially nice because KDE 4.2 uses the open source accelerated graphics driver capabilities to significantly speed up rendering of things like fonts and widgets and also to apply anti-ailiasing. As a bonus, 3D desktop bling, such as the desktop cube, is also now supported out of the box.

KDE 4.2 includes PowerDevil and other tweaks which will extend the time on batteries when running Linux. KDE 4.2 is also very nice because it does not utilise the problematic Mono libraries.

I left some comments on Distrowatch (comment #17)

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=2009042…

which I feel explains how to improve the default look of Kubuntu 9.04 into a very nice KDE 4.2 desktop which runs very nicely on a netbook.

This same Distrowatch Weekly explains that there is currently a performance problem running UNR on Ubuntu Jaunty.

So there is no need to run UNR from an obscure community, and burden your netbook with un-necessary Mono libraries, to get a very nice and well-performing desktop for a netbook. Just run the out-of-the-box Kubuntu Jaunty and tweak the default appearance settings to suit.

This same Distrowatch Weekly explains that there is currently a performance problem running UNR on Ubuntu Jaunty.