Hello, This may be in the wrong forum but I was thinking of Android.
I've got a "for spares or repair" mini netbook. I'm not certain of it's type but it looks similar to a MenQ EasyPC790 which has a Samsung 400mHz processor. It should run windows CE but on power up it simply shows a screen displaying "SMART BOOK" and "Loading OS image". This, apparently, is a common fault with this sort of cheapo Chinese kit. I'm told that it can be fixed by booting from an SD card with the suitable, downloaded software but I'd prefer to install an open source OS.
I've no idea which distro if any would be compatible with what I assume is an ARM processor (Puppy would be nice).
Does anyone out there have any experience with this?
I'd be grateful for some input.

Apparently android can be installed on it...

http://maximumitblips.dailyradar.com...easypc-e790-1/

Interesting at the least for $80.

http://www.debian.org/ports/index

Has ports for ~a lot~ of different distributions and a netinstall of debian is only a couple hundred megs and it can be trimmed down further if you want.

Thanks rweaver,
I've scratched around and identified it as an EPC Smart Book which has a WM8505 processor so, yes, Android should work. I've also found a source of a "rescue" version of CE and I'm just awaiting delivery of an SD card so that I can try it.

Good luck and let us know what you think of it when you get a new os installed and any pitfalls you ran into along the way.

Hello rweaver,
The SD card arrived today. I copied the downloaded OS on to it and shoved it in the net book. It took about 5 minutes and it was up and running, as smooth as silk.
Many thanks to astounder for the software: http://www.sendspace.com/file/1tpri9 and thanks to the others who showed interest in this problem.

Nice, I may need to pick a few of those up for toys

For most people, in order to view tod videos with dvd player