Choose a lightweight OS like Linux or a simplified version of Windows, and ensure your hardware supports it.
Choose a lightweight OS like Linux or a simplified version of Windows, and ensure your hardware supports it.
The creation of the atom processor in this device is extremely flawed for several reasons beyond a typical processor. Despite being 64-bit, the firmware is only 32-bit and lacks a legacy BIOS emulation layer. This necessitates a 32-bit boot loader for the 64-bit operating system. The only Linux I’m certain supports this configuration is Fedora, but it runs GNOME by default and can consume a lot of memory quickly. For this configuration, you’ll likely need a lightweight, XFCE-based distro, and you may have to manually inject the 32-bit GRUB EFI file to initiate booting. Linux Mint XFCE is a solid option; I’ve shared a forum thread with someone successfully doing this on a comparable chip.
It’s not too bad overall. You just need to prepare the installer in the usual way, then fetch an additional file and place it in a designated folder on your main drive as well as the internal storage after installation. This can improve performance and responsiveness, but adding more than a few gigabytes won’t help much, and Chrome will remain unchanged—it’ll still be slow even if slightly faster.
Arch works well with nearly any system. It’s not ideal for beginners on Linux, but perfect for those who enjoy diving into system details. I use it regularly and didn’t switch from another distro. Before installing, I set up my drives using command-line formatting tools, which helped avoid issues. This approach suits people who prefer a hands-on start during installation.
I personally use ChromeOS Flex. I own several older laptops, all running the same version, and I’ve tried Linux Mint XFCE and ChromeOS Flex. The Flex version was significantly faster. Your choice depends on your needs.
Actually there is one dude who makes spins of Ubuntu and Lubuntu for these. https://linuxiumcomau.blogspot.com/ It has been a while but if I remember correctly, no newer than 20.04 goes for that old CPU, had pretty much the same in first Intel Compute stick. Newer OS spins there were meant for newer Atoms, Z8300- or whatever it was. Anyway, it has other info on subject if someone is really willing to play with those things. Compute stick has 2GB RAM and same Z3735 CPU and it's on the edge of any kind of usability with that old Lubuntu 20.04LTS. It has support until April. For OP, yes, opening menus is fast enough, sure, but no matter even if you stick some KolibriOS or RTOS made in Assembly which weights couple megabytes (not actually very realistic) like it has been mentioned for many times, it only helps if all you do is click on menus and open notepads and so on. Web browsing, Youtube and so on will still be total pain no matter what OS is there. And realistically there isn't that much difference between mainline Linux distros, it's the graphical enviroment that makes the difference and you can install any of those in any distro. Yes, there are several very lightweight distros which have their own problems, especially when you have specialized hardware. Some work better, some worse. Q4OS and Puppy are some of these. Or you might as well just use outdated OS if want OS to be snappy and use it for notepad or whatever. Oh and almost forgot, ditch resource hog Chrome if you want to use web, don't even think about such heavyweights.