Not the flagellate the subject any further, but it seems you'd want to 
put something minimal but with cutting-edge hardware support (i.e. 
netbook-specific)* on the netbook and SSH into the "real" 
computer/server that's running SL.

A typical netbook isn't (and shouldn't be!) a reasonable 
computation/analysis platform... it's a mobile client. Just because you 
can, doesn't mean you should?

Andy

*http://www.ubuntulinux.org/getubuntu/download-netbook

Chris Tooley wrote:
> Troy Dawson wrote:
>> Jon Peatfield wrote:
>>> On Mon, 24 Aug 2009, Chris Tooley wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello all,
>>>>
>>>> I'm helping to do some research for coworker of mine, and I was 
>>>> wondering if anyone has tried to install SL on a netbook yet? And if 
>>>> so, what are your experiences?
>>>>
>>>> We're currently looking at an HP Mini 110 as a possible option, and 
>>>> I know there is a "Mobile Internet" version which is built on linux, 
>>>> but is everything working on SL? I'd assume so, but I would like to 
>>>> have some confirmation...?
>>>>
>>>> Are all netbooks pretty much a safe bet?
>>> As with all laptops I'd be very dubious about it working with SL (or 
>>> RHEL or any other 'enterprise' linux distribution).  These 
>>> distributions are aimed at stability and hence are somewhat 
>>> conservative about having the 'latest' versions of software.  Our 
>>> experience with all kinds of laptops (including various netbooks), is 
>>> that to support the graphics chipsets and things like the networking 
>>> and wireless you are often better off with a 'leading edge' 
>>> distribution - such as Fedora or Ubuntu.
>>>
>>> We recently got a few S9e Lenovo netbooks (now sadly no longer 
>>> available), and I was quite surprised that the Ubuntu 9.04 live image 
>>> (PXE booted) supported pretty much all the hardware out-of-the-box.  
>>> Those particular netbooks came with Windows XP only and since they 
>>> are only being used for note taking we have left them as-is...
>>>
>>>   -- Jon
>>
>> I haven't had too much luck with Scientific Linux, except SL 5.3, on 
>> netbooks.  But I have been able to use Fedora 11 on every one that 
>> I've come across thus far, and it's recognized everything on them and 
>> just worked.
>> Troy
> 
> Thanks for all your input everyone! I'll try out SL 5.3 first on 
> whichever netbook we decide, then I'll let you know the results :)
> 
> Thanks again,
> -Chris