Questionable "Netbook" question

Windy

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Hello, I'm a linux noob currently researching which distro to go with to avoid windows 10. I came across Qimo http://www.qimo4kids.com/ and immediately thought of setting up an old machine for my little 4yo niece. This distro project ended back in 2016 so I was looking on ebay for an old HP mini or something similar and found this- https://tinyurl.com/y85rcesv -weird unbranded android "netbook."

My question is whether it seems likely I could get Qimo working on that product. I'm comfortable messing about with cmd line and in the bios and windows recovery environment (by necessity), but I don't know much about android. Could I even boot this device from a usb? If I get Qimo installed what's the probability that it will work with whatever unknown hardware is inside?

Thanks for any advice, apologies if this post is in the wrong place.
 


No, a linux distribution will not work on an android device, as far as a novice is concerned.
One thing I remember is a program one laptop per child that you may want to look into.

The link at tinyurl refers to a laptop good mainly for simple surfing of the internet and emails.

With the pandemic, laptops ar in high demand. However, linux does not require the resources in a laptop that most people using the dominant OS want. On can most likely find one -- somethng like an old Dell Latitude with a minimum of Core2duo processor and 4GB RAM

See Best Linux Distros for Kids link
of which I am most familiar with Sugar

https://www.sugarlabs.org/
 
An old laptop is likely to be a bit on the heavy side. I have a Toshiba A135, much like what sp331yi described, except mine is maxxed out at 2GB RAM. But it runs almost anything you can throw at it - in the 32 bit category. I've tried probably a dozen distros on it. But, it's also pretty heavy, so kids may not like it. But look around on Google, there are lots of used laptop sites. Older Lenovos, Dells, some HPs are all good basic, fairly Linux friendly units.
 
Thanks for the replies. So basically anything with ARM architecture is out it looks like. I think most old notebooks will be too heavy, as well as not really 'cute' enough, which is why I was originally thinking an HP mini or Aspire One. Unfortunately there aren't many of these around being offered for more than parts these days, and I'm concerned about the battery holding reasonable charge for those that are still functional.

I found this - https://tinyurl.com/ycbbj5gj - Win10 netbook that looks promising. Doesn't come in pink, but I suppose she could cover a white one in decal stickers. Apparently the Atom X5-Z8350 is often difficult with ubuntu (e.g. https://medium.com/home-wireless/run-headless-ubuntu-on-an-atom-z8350-pc-48df5645bb ), but from what I've been able to find searching around the Celeron N3450 seems ok. So I'd have to go with the higher end option I believe.

Any reason not to give this device a shot? Keep in mind the distro I'm looking at is specifically for children and isn't very demanding. The developers say Qimo needs a minimum of 256MB of memory to run from the CD, or 192MB to install. At least 6 GB of hard drive space is recommended, and a 400MHz or faster CPU. It also doesn't matter if every little thing doesn't work, she won't need HDMI out for example, and if the webcam is inoperable I'd actually consider that a bonus.
 
There resources that can help find a Linux for an ARM processor, such as www.distrowatch.com which has a really good search facility. Since that netbook uses an eMMC for storage, you may need to consider additional plug-in storage. I didn't see a reference to an SD card reader, which many small form eMMC machines do have.

So either processor can be made useful, but I would go fo the larger eMMC since it seems to be tied to more RAM, also.
 

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