Netbooks are fast becoming a valid replacement for larger and more expensive laptops. But despite some early enthusiasm for Linux amongst netbook manufactures, most will come with Windows. The good news is installing Linux is not difficult, even without a DVD or CD drive.

As the proud new owner of a Asus 1201N netbook I was keen to get rid of Windows and install my favourite Linux distribution: Linux Mint. The biggest hurdle to installing Linux on a netbook is usually the fact that they don't come with DVD drives, almost all Linux distros publish ISO files that are designed to be burnt to a disk.

Fortunately UNetbootin makes it easy to transfer an ISO image onto a USB memory stick, which you can then boot from just like the original CD. This article will look at the process of installing Linux Mint 9 from a USB stick.

Step 1

You will initially need a functioning PC with a connection to the internet. For this I used to original Windows install on my netbook. You first need to download the UNetbootin application for its homepage here. A windows and Linux birnary is available for download, and the process for using both is much the same.

Step 2

You then need to download the ISO image for your chosen Linux distribution. Since the Asus 1201N uses a 64 bit processor, I went with the AMD64 Linux Mint ISO image.

Step 3

Run the unetbootin-windows-471.exe executable (the exact name of the exe file will change depending on the latest version). The application runs directly without needing to be installed first.

Here I have selected the Diskimage option, and specified the location of my ISO image. I've also pointed it to my USB memory stick, which is setup as drive V.

When you click the OK button, UNetbootin will proceed to extract the ISO image onto the USB stick, along with a boot loader.

Step 4

The USB stick is now ready to be booted from. For me booting from the USB drive involved modifying the hard disk boot order, as a USB memory stick showed up as a hard disk.

If you select the Default option Linux Mint will fire up as if you were booting from a Live CD. It can then be installed as normal.

Conclusion

So how well does Linux Mint 9 run on a netbook? I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised. The NVidia ION graphics easily trumps the Intel graphics I was using in my old laptop, and having 4 cores, even if they Atom CPU's, provides more than enough grunt for the kind of day to day operations I use a laptop for.

I also found that all the hardware was detected and installed without any additional work from me. The only exception was the restricted NVidia drivers, which were easy enough to active Hardware Drivers applet.


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Another method: 

http://www.mynetbookworld.com/netbook/how-to-install-linux-mint-10julia-on-a-netbook.html