Best OS for watching YouTube on Netbook

[TheCino90]

Hi everyone,

 

Hope someone can help me finding a suitable OS for my potato device:

Asus Eee 1005 pe 

2GB Ram

Intel Atom 450n Processor (1,6 Single Core two threads)

i switched the hdd with a cheap ssd but that didnt help much. 
64 Bit System do run on this netbook. 

 

i mainly want to be able to use google apps like drive, docs and youtube, nothing more!

 

i tried the following:

tiny 10 latest 32bit Version -> too slow 

lubuntu->OS is great but as soon as i Open the browser it is not bearable. Not even 480p videoplay is possible 

chrome os flex- since i only need google apps -> failed to install (blackscreen after logo)

 

so i think the only thing that might help is a light OS with a light browser (still Need YouTube) ,or an OS with pre installed google apps that don’t need to be opened via browser, like chromeOS. 
 

any suggestions? Or am i beyond help here? 

[Skipple]

I mean, you best bet is going to be the lightest weight Linux distro you can get your hands on, but honestly your limitation is going to decoding on that processor, regardless of the operating system behind it. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

I don't think a different OS is gonna help you here. I just don't think you have CPU power here to play youtube. The CPU doesn't support hardware decoding of h.264 of newer codecs, so it has to all be done on the CPU. And the CPU is pretty darn slow. The OS doesn't really affect performance of apps that much typically, so a different OS isn't gonna be some magicaly solution here.

 

Is your CPU usage being maxed out when trying to play youtube?

[jaslion]

Its too old. The cpu doesnt have the power to decode the youtube stream and youtube moved away from h.264 encoding a while ago so your gpu cant assist which this cpu is banking on to work.

 

Its a ultra low end pc from 2010. Its 14 years old. Even the highest end rigs from that time are REALLY showing their age in anything. Even browsing starts getting rough for like an i7 920 and the gpu's from that time havent been able to help out in decoding for a while due to the internet moving away from h.264.

 

Simply put it's too old and slow time to replace it really.

[TheCino90]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I don't think a different OS is gonna help you here. I just don't think you have CPU power here to play youtube. The CPU doesn't support hardware decoding of h.264 of newer codecs, so it has to all be done on the CPU. And the CPU is pretty darn slow. The OS doesn't really affect performance of apps that much typically, so a different OS isn't gonna be some magicaly solution here.

 

Is your CPU usage being maxed out when trying to play youtube?

Yes it pretty much is sadly. It spikes up when using chrome. İ was hoping just like lubuntu helped delivering a smooth desktop experience compared to windows, that there is a similar workaround for chrome and youtube. 

[TheCino90]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Its too old. The cpu doesnt have the power to decode the youtube stream and youtube moved away from h.264 encoding a while ago so your gpu cant assist which this cpu is banking on to work.

 

Its a ultra low end pc from 2010. Its 14 years old. Even the highest end rigs from that time are REALLY showing their age in anything. Even browsing starts getting rough for like an i7 920 and the gpu's from that time havent been able to help out in decoding for a while due to the internet moving away from h.264.

 

Simply put it's too old and slow time to replace it really.

What a pity, because everything Else really worked Fine and got my hopes up. 

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, TheCino90 said:

What a pity, because everything Else really worked Fine and got my hopes up. 

Cant work around a ever harder to run internet sadly.

 

Lubuntu worked well in desktop because it has no bloat and is basic. Windows 10 in and of itself has SO MUCH CRAP running its mental.

 

To put it in perspective a mediocre pentium 4 is faster

[E-waste]

21 hours ago, TheCino90 said:

What a pity, because everything Else really worked Fine and got my hopes up.

The CPU is 64-bit according to Intel:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/42503/intel-atom-processor-n450-512k-cache-1-66-ghz.html

 

So that should allow newer software support.

 

The GPU (yes it has one) is Intel GMA 3150.  As stated, it does not support (what controls what codecs a gpu will support, isn't that odd?) newer h.264/265 and especially vp9.  There is a firefox addon (maybe it is still around) called h264ify, or maybe one similar.  You could also download the video file, and convert it in handbrake to another format.

 

You could save the command that has the right settings, and then drag and drop a file into the text console, and append the command.  Or, just don't use youtube with the machine and do other tasks with it.  VLC playback could also help slightly.

 

Another suggestion is instead of lxde, try lxqt, or go even lighter with windowmaker.  This one allows unlimited numbers of gradients for desktop, menus, titlebars, and selected items, so there is a lot of theming you can do in it, let your imagination run there.

 

Also, if most websites are too heavy, download the firefox addon privacy badger.  It is very simple showing all domains inside a webpage and you can block any of them to reduce both loading time and resource use.

 

Another option is NoScript, set to untrusted.  This prevents all javascript on a website, and most of the time you'll need to enable the main website to trusted to use menus and have proper page layout.

 

With 64-bit support, there isn't much stopping this machine, besides poor codec playback, otherwise you can do whatever you want with it.  I also suggest the program redshift, very similar to f.lux but it actually works with a smooth transition unlike xflux, the updated version by the f.lux devs.  It turns down the bright blue spike of the screen output from the cheap LED backlight as well as green brightness too.  This helps reduce the ability of the screen to look like a bright white cloud at night.  I also suggest not using black, due to the poor contrast, but a dark orange or dark brown to offset the glare of the poor contrast at various viewing angles, if you plan to use the screen at night a lot.  Or just hook it up into a higher quality monihor.

[Flavius Heraclius]

One thing that I have found with older laptops is that you can sometimes have better luck watching YouTube videos using a program like mpv than in a browser. It doesn't magically unlock hardware or anything, but the decoders seem to be more efficient.

 

Make sure you limit the framerate to 30 fps and cap the resolution at something like 480p or 720p (you can do this in the config file for mpv, I can provide more specific guidance if you like) and give it a shot. It may work a bit better for you. It certainly has worked for me in the past.

 

The one caveat here is that, because of the way that YouTube's API works, this bypasses monetization (i.e., no ads). Depending on how you feel about that, this may or may not be a viable option for that reason.

EDIT: Just to clarify how this is different from what E-waste suggested with downloading videos and vlc, mpv supports streaming video directly using yt-dlp (vlc probably does too, actually). You can open a YouTube URL in it and watch the video as it downloads, as opposed to needing to download it separately. This approach can sometimes be more convenient, and doesn't require any special browser plugins, etc. But that also means you can't transcode, so it isn't guaranteed to work for you if your processor still can't keep up.

 

 

[dragonfly43]

Try antiX.

[dight]

your best chances are either to use windows xp or a really lightweight linux distro like void linux or puppy linux. even windows 7 struggles on hardware that underpowered. as for a good web browser, try thorium. it's compiled with one goal in mind: to be fast. so it might give your system a fighting chance. as for an older os like windows xp or 7, try out supermium.

the atom n450 so underpowered that the youtube website legitimately slows down playback. maybe try pasting yt links into vlc media player or to use an invidious instance like yewtu.be?

[dight]

On 1/19/2024 at 6:14 AM, TheCino90 said:

64 Bit System do run on this netbook.

are you sure that your processor is actually an n450? it might be an older model like an n270 that doesn't have 64 bit support. even if it is you're still better off with a 32 os for the lower memory usage of the os and programs.