Article 6HBET ASUS W202 compatibility with linux ?

ASUS W202 compatibility with linux ?

by
oberto
from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6HBET)
Hello.

I am looking to buy an Inexpensive laptop as my first linux machine.

Can you please tell me if Asus W202 11.6" laptop will be compatible with Linux ( mint preferably ) ? I`ve searched online but couldn`t find any info.

It has intel celeron N3350 cpu, 4GB RAM, 128GB eMMC storage, SD card reader, intel HD graphics 500, Wi-Fi 5(802.11ac)+Bluetooth 4.2 (Dual band) 2*2 and it comes with Win10 pro OS installed.

Some info about me.. I am a very "light computer user", I am also nearly "computer illiterate".

I dislike windows more&more ever since Win7.

I use the computer for web browsing, watching videos, document/email writing, storing music,photos,videos.. listening to music.

I don`t play any games, I don`t do video or photo editing (except for cropping a photo and such)... but,

I have recently been gifted an astro camera... And things were going well until my very old AMILO Fujitsu Siemens laptop with Win7 OS "died".

I am writing this on my Asus C202 chromebook. It is in essence the same as asus W202 except with even lower specs ( 2GB ram and only 16GB eMMC).
I`ve done some research and as I understand it, this ( C202 ) laptop is difficult to use as a linux machine because (short of replacing the eMMC) it is impossible to get rid of the chrome OS entirely. Could this be the case also with W202 model.

I really like this small laptop & I`m thinking if my old Amilo comp. could run astro camera software (stacking & such) so should this one (asus W202)... Am I wrong?

I can get the asus W202 (year 2022) used for 100 eur... I can also get a used Thinkpad x270 ( year 2019, fullHd IPS, i5 7gen cpu, 8gb ram, 256gb samsung ssd...) for 200 EUR.

I had a look at this (x270) comp. & it is in very good condition, batteries are at roughly 85% capacity of new ones, it has a back-lit keyboard which I like a lot & also the swapable batteries seem usefull...

Things I dislike about it... Its bigger than the asus W202, it has a fan & it`s somewhat noisy... but the biggest issue is the sound quality... I`ve read before that the sound on thinkpads is bad, but i assumed that the people are just overly critical... I mean, i`m perfectly happy with the sound of my asus c202 chromebook... so how bad could it really be? Oh man, I was shocked, it`s that bad... Listening to my chromebook seems like I`m in concert hall compared to the thinkpad... I can`t get over it... When new, this was an expensive machine... It seems as if Lenovo had to put some serious effort in to making this laptop sound as horrible as it does... and there doesn`t seem to be any fix for it.. I`ve looked into replacing the speakers but I couldn`t find much... Can you shed some light on this? Is there a fix?

This is the only thing holding me back from buying the x270 as it is certainly a more capable machine than the asus W202... and it should work great with linux ( or so I read)... but the sound quality is shockingly dreadfull & perhaps it`s an overkill for my level of use anyway...
I know i could use earphones and/or external speakers... but mobility is very important to me so i don`t feel like hauling extra speakers around and i dislike using the earphones a lot... I don`t use them at all. So there`s that...

What do you say... should i go with the x270 or...?

Any thoughts, opinions, advice is very welcome... Thank you.
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