Thowback to an Easier Time: EasyPeasy and Netbooks

One thing that people know about me is that I rarely throw out anything that has anything to do with technology. Old hard drives, DDR2 RAM, an old computer tower from the Windows 98 era…I keep it all. Partially because I don't want to make the e-waste situation worse, but also because you never know what will come in handy in the future. Most of it doesn’t work, and keeping it doesn’t really do much other than take up space and cause dust, but I can never quite bring myself to throw out old tech. Call it a quirk of mine.

A few days ago, I decided to go through my old USBs and see what I could find on them. I have a small container full of them; well over twenty. Some simply refused to respond after plugging them in and one’s casing came apart as I made to do so. I found plenty of old photos (some of which embarrassed me greatly!) and some early writing works which, honestly, made me cringe something horrid.

And then I came across a folder full of ISOs I’d previously downloaded on an old external hard drive. In this context, an ISO refers to "optical disc image", or rather, a single file that contains the complete contents of what you would find on an optical disc, or CD. The installation of Linux requires an ISO file. In times gone by, you'd burn such a file to a CD; these days, you can do so on a USB using certain applications. This is something that I will explore in the future.

Getting back to the story, I found this folder full of ISOs. Some were the older versions of systems that are still in play today, such as Linux Mint and Ubuntu. But there was one in particular that caught my eye, and I stopped, stunned, that I still had the file. It’s a system that has been discontinued, but one that I loved when I used it. I believe it was one of the first I ever used, the first I ever experimented with.

EasyPeasy.

Image: Asus EeePC 

Formerly known as Ubuntu Eee, EasyPeasy was a distro that was built upon Debian and Ubuntu. First released in 2008, it was marketed towards those with netbook computers and was touted as a low-power, low-resource option to the traditional operating systems that were available at that time. In it’s day, it was quite different to anything else that was available in terms of systems, even in the open-source world.

EasyPeasy was designed with the netbook in mind. No, that’s not a typo - I don’t mean the notebook. Young people today may have never heard of a netbook, but back in the late 00s, they were quite popular. The first mass-produced netbook was the Asus Eee PC in 2007. Smaller than the traditional notebook, they featured a display that was only 7 inches, and a keyboard that was significantly smaller than the notebook. The Asus Eee PC featured a custom, lightweight version of Linux that was primarily geared towards being able to access the internet and perform basic tasks.

It featured a SSD (solid state drive), and cost significantly less than notebooks of its time. After it’s release, other brands such as Samsung soon jumped on the netbook computer bandwagon and released versions of their own. I, personally, had a Samsung netbook that had Windows XP installed on it. 

Image: Samsung NC10

It was the Samsung netbook that I owned that drew me to EasyPeasy, all those years ago. My trusty netbook, the Samsung NC10, felt like a dream when I first got it in 2010. The battery was a champ, and it didn’t even feel all too small to use, as it featured a 10.2 inch screen. However, as time wore on, Windows XP seemed to lag and drag. It only had 1GB DDR2 RAM, and the Intel Atom processor started to cause a serious lag problem.

It was great…until it wasn’t. In 2013, I had found myself increasingly frustrated with the little thing and I had the insane idea of googling “software to make netbooks faster”. That, my friends, was my first foray into the wonderful world of Linux.

In the months that followed, I trialed a fair few systems on that old Samsung netbook. Ubuntu didn’t run so well, and the screen size meant some just weren’t feasible. And then I eventually came across this strange little system that was supposedly very light on resources and was being called the “best thing” for netbooks. 

That strange little system was, of course, EasyPeasy, and I downloaded it without much expectation. By the time I’d come across it, it had already been discontinued - the final version, Alpha 2.0 - had been released in 2012 - so I thought, eh, it probably wasn’t all that good if it’s already been discontinued! 

I was wrong.

So, lets break it down.

Upon startup, EasyPeasy would boot directly into the live environment. This allowed the user to test the system thoroughly, before committing to the installation. Despite the system being quite old, the installation isn't really any different to what you'll encounter today when installing any version of Linux. It has the standard questions regarding your location, the keyboard layout, where you wish to install the system, etc. The installation itself was relatively quick, especially when compared to systems such as Microsoft Windows - as was the start-up time.

The Desktop

Netbooks were known for their smaller screens, and this was something that EasyPeasy capitalised on. By default, the system boots into what could only be described as a full-screen custom menu that featured easy navigation and large icons.

What I was struck with, when I first installed it, was how different the layout was to the traditional desktop of Microsoft Windows. In fact, to me, it looked more like what you'd find on a smartphone or tablet.

To the left, you’d find what was often referred to as a “top level” menu, where you’d find the categories of your programs. After selecting the program category, the rest of the screen would display the programs contained within those categories, complete with a scroll bar where needed. You had the option of adding programs to the "favourites", too, which was something I enjoyed back in the day. It certainly made it easier to access the applications I used on a regular basis without losing space on the taskbar. Many applications would also open in the full screen, furthering the comparison to a tablet or phone.

Speaking of the taskbar, at the top of the screen, you’d find the panel. This isn’t altogether different to the panels you can find in some systems today - though perhaps it was a more condensed version. The taskbar displayed the icons of your open windows and the name of the program you were active in. The panel also provided easy access to the network plugin, sound preferences and power settings.

System Settings

Now, this is something I always get excited about in terms of Linux in general, because you can customise so much.

Before I speak further on that, I'll say that one of the benefits of installing EasyPeasy was that it worked straight out of the box. This refers to the ability to use the system without having to tweak or install any extra packages or programs. This was especially beneficial if one was new to Linux, as you'd be able to get right into it and start work.

However, there were also plenty of things you could tweak.

Selecting “settings” on the left-hand menu would open a number of options for you, including the appearance. Upon opening the “appearance” application, you’d find a selection of pre-installed themes that would change the window border and panel’s look and feel. You’d also be able to change the fonts for your applications, documents, desktop and window title. 

This is not something that has changed in regards to Linux. In fact, it was what drew me to the open source world in the first place, as it meant that you could change every little bit of your system to reflect you and your personality. Your favourite colour is bright orange? That's all good, you could install a theme that reflected that! You like a cursive font? You can use that for your desktop so that all applications and window titles can reflect that!

The Social Side

As stated above, one of the benefits of EasyPeasy was that you could use it right out of the box. Like many systems that have been built upon the Gnome desktop, it has many of the programs and components you may still find in Gnome-based systems. Evolution, for example, is an application that integrates your mail, calendar and address book. However, EasyPeasy has plenty of features that are specific to this distribution. Most versions of Linux, at the time, shied away from proprietary software such as Skype, but EasyPeasy did not. 

But the best feature of EasyPeasy was the integration with social networking.

When it comes to staying in contact with the outside world, EasyPeasy was a shining star, especially for the time. You could tell it was geared primarily towards internet usage, thanks to two applications.

First, there was the Empathy IM client, where you could add chat accounts for a number of different social media platforms. The plugin on the panel meant that any messages received would pop up there, and you’d also be able to adjust your availability.

The types of accounts you could add included, but were not restricted to, Facebook Chat, Google Talk (now known as Chat), MSN and MySpace.

The other peice of software that was designed for the web user was what was called “Broadcast” tools. There, you were able to add Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and more which allowed the user to easily publish content without having to navigate to the specific websites within the browser.

This, too, could be accessed via the panel, where the user’s name was located.

The Verdict

EasyPeasy was one of the first systems I ever used on a long-term basis. The small size of the install and lightweight use of resources meant it was perfect to breathe some life into an old machine, especially a machine that had a tiny screen. It wasn’t for everyone, but that could be said about many versions of Linux that are still available to this day. It certainly wasn’t as well-rounded as some of the other systems out there, nor was it designed for someone who needed to use wide range of programs. However, it was most certainly a nifty little system that gave me as much joy in the last few days, in testing and remembering it, as it did way back when I installed it on my old netbook.