Over the past three months, I've spent some time using a number of different operating systems for use on my Lenovo S10 netbook. Thus far I have tried the following:

• Ubuntu 8.04
• Ubuntu Netbook Remix
• Good OS (gOS)
• Windows XP (this is what my netbook came with)
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7 Beta

I'd love to write up something reviewing each of these in depth, but I just don't have the time. Instead, I'll offer up a few basic, point-form comments.

Lenovo S10 Specs

• Atom 1.6GHz processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB SSD
• 10.1" 1024x600 Display
• ExpressCard 34 Slot
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (GMA 950)
• Integrated 1.3-megapixel Webcam

Ubuntu 8.04

• I was not able to get the drivers for the Intel GMA 950 chip to work correctly, which is somewhat shocking considering that this is a relatively old, and fairly common graphics chip.
• I was not able to find drivers for the integrated WebCam or ExpressCard slot.
• Note that this was the one of the first operating systems I tried on the Netbook, and there are currently newer version of Ubuntu which may resolve these problems.
• This distribution of Linux (obviously) isn't intended for Netbooks, and it shows; there are a significant number of applications, services, and other items that you don't really want on a netbook. They're easy enough to remove, and my understanding is that it's possible to build ISO images without any of these extras, so this isn't really a big issue, it was just a small annoyance.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR)

• This is basically a custom version of Ubuntu targetted specifically at Netbooks.
• I was able to get the video driver to work, but was still not able to find drivers for the integrated WebCam or ExpressCard slot.
• UNR includes a fantastic desktop application launcher called "Ubuntu Mobile Edition (UME) Launcher". There are some good screenshots of this (and other UNR features) in the ArsTechnica review of UNR.
• UNR also includes a somewhat innovative, and very useful application/task/program manager, which basically consists of a set of tab style application icons at the top of the desktop. This is a fantastic feature.

Good OS (gOS)

• gOS is a cut-down version of Linux intended for lower-powered computers. It focuses on being extremely simple to setup, use, and maintain.
• I can't say for sure, but I believe there was a memory leak in one (or more) of the applications. After an hour or so of doing general web browsing, reading email, and using Skype/IM, the system would nearly grind to a halt and require a restart. This basically made the system unusable.

Windows XP

• This was the first operating system I tried out, as it is what my netbook came pre-loaded with.
• It's Windows XP, what more is there to say?
• OK, there's a few things; a number of Windows applications are not really designed to be used on a screen with a vertical resolution of only 600 pixels. I know, this isn't a criticism of Windows itself, but it is a problem. In particular, Windows Messenger, Internet Explorer (I know, but I had to test it),

Windows Vista

• Vista worked, but not very well. Vista just isn't designed to run on such a low-powered system.
• There's not really much more to say about this. Even after disabling a number of services, the experience still wasn't great. It was usable, but applications started up slowly, and running more than two applications at once would really slow the system down. More RAM might have fixed this problem.

Windows 7 Beta

• This might be a shocking statement, but I've saved the best for last.
• Seriously.
• Windows 7 runs (I'm still using it) absolutely fantasticly on this netbook.
• I wasn't expecting much after running Vista (Windows 7 is, after all, just a tuned, cleaned up, and polished version of Windows Vista) but wow was this experience shocking.
• Windows 7 boots incredibly fast. I didn't time any of the other systems, but I would say Windows 7 was just as fast as Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and faster than all of the other systems.
• I'm not sure what Microsoft has done "under the covers", but Windows 7 seems very comfortable with only 1GB of RAM.
• The new taskbar in Windows 7 works really well with the smaller screen real estate.
• All of the systems hardware was correctly detected, and all of the drivers just worked.

Conclusion

In the long term, I'll probably end up using Windows 7 once it's out of Beta and available at retail (Interestingly enough, there's talk of a very-close-to-free version of Windows 7 intended for Netbooks becoming available). While most of this has to do with the great experience I had running Windows 7, honestly, some of it has to do with my familiarity with Windows. While I've been using Linux for more than 10 years now, I mostly use it as a server operating system, and not as a desktop. This isn't to say there's anything wrong with Linux on the desktop, far from that, it's just that I don't use it every day on my own desktop, so I'm not as familiar with it.

That said, if I was to pick a Linux distribution for my netbook, the clear winner for me would be Ubuntu Netbook Remix. It came the closest to just working out of the box, and it had a very attractive, functional, and usable user interface.