Yeah, I use Windows 7 Starter on my Dell mini 910 Netbook. I've been meaning to help make it a little faster (I hope) by striping crap from Starter with NTLite. Linux would be more suitable, but I'd refrain from BS Ubuntu. Try DSL (Damn Small Linux) Or Puppy Linux.
In my install of 7 Starter I maxed out the RAM to 2GB and turned off the page file (swap file). Reason being is that the flash drive has a very finite write cycle ability and I've already burned through two drives. I'll explain my application below.
Yes, these computers are very slow, but have niche computing potential. Absent of a Raspberry Pi, they could be used for wardriving with Kismet, a nice all band Alfa branded WiFI USB dongle, nice long range Bluetooth USB dongle and a GPS USB dongle.
My particular use with my Netbook is for two uses. One is that I have an FTP server on it to transfer files back and fourth between my computers and smartphone. I use the WinSCP client on the computers and AndFTP on my phone. The server software is called Serva. Serva offers much more than FTP as well...
My second use is for a program called PhoneTray. A high quality Conexant USB dial-up modem meant for POS (Point Of Sale) is connected to the Netbook and my landline using Ooma (a VoIP provider). When a call comes through, the caller-ID is passed to the computer via the dial-up modem and to PhoneTray. This allows me to block calls and have distinctive rings for callers. Ooma, which also uses Nomorobo for premium accounts, is the first spam/telemarketing firewall in my landline phone setup. If a dirty telemarketer call gets passed Nomorobo it then has to get passed my setup with which I can block names or numbers with wild cards. Yes, this Netbook is on 24/7 and is connected to an external monitor, mouse and small wireless Rii keyboard. It's in the kitchen and I dubbed thee the Kitchen Kiosk.
The browser I use on the Netbook is Pale Moon (used to be the the Atom version), but I should try Librewolf. I eventually want to replace this setup with one of those small computers running a more modern CPU.
Why a landline you ask of this old Gent? Because handing out your cellphone number to all will guarantee you to go mad with BS texts and phone calls. Believe me when I tell you I have this under absolute control. Both on phone calls and spam in the email inbox. LOL! I have used my FCC account in the past to report idiots (takes several reports but it worked for me). With email spam I send the headers on over to Spamcop (a Cisco owned company). I don't allow the parsing of HTML or remote content as well so that helps to mitigate spam by virtue of telling the spammer or potential hacker I never opened the email. I also reported spam to the Federal Trade Commission, but they don't do that now and apparently run their own honeypots. Same applies for text messages. NEVER view the actual message. Just delete it straight away. Once you do view the message they (the spammer) will get a read receipt and now you're on a s
hit list. Already did that? Get a new phone number. And hope it's never been more used then say.... well, just get a new number. LOL Did I mention I can use the Ooma App on my cellphone?
Landline? In the 21st century? Not really... (with SIP protocol).
Cloning.
I Clone this Netbook to a USB stick, and I've successfully cloned back the whole OS entire via the USB stick as well. I used AOMEI's Linux live boot disk to do it. I booted AOMEI via USB, and then plugged in a USB drive for the clone after about two to three seconds of booting. For some reason if both sticks were inserted at the same time I couldn't boot AOMEI. And the other stick for the clone was already blank. I wanted to use my main cloning method I use now for my desktop which is the unorthodox method of using Hiren's Boot CD and portable HDD Raw Copy Tool. But it seems like Ventoy (which I use to boot Hiren's Boot CD) didn't play well with the Netbook's BIOS. I should ask Ventoy's forum about that because Ventoy should boot in BIOS and UEFI.
Another potential use for the Netbook is if you're into scanners or radio communications. I currently have my scanners connected to a laptop on 24/7 sitting here on the desk. They are controlled and programed with a program called Proscan. Audio transmissions are recorded along with date & time. This could probably be achieved with a Netbook as well, but I never tried it and I'm not sure how Proscan will fair under the snail power of an Atom CPU. Going beyond that there's also DSD+ potential. DSD+ decodes unencrypted audio modulation from P25 digital radio communications. It'll also decode MOTOTRBO and some other things. Then there's also OP25 uses or GNURadio. LOL!
Anyway... yeah, these small Atom based computers are nice little niche computers.
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You could also try Raspberry Pi Desktop. My current Netbook HDD size is 7 GB so it would work. I'm sure there are larger capacity drives for these netbooks, but I haven't searched for them.
Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC and Mac – Raspberry Pi
For my Netbook I use an SD card for spill over and the FTP storage space. The SD card is at least seven years old and still going. You can clone the SD card with the aforementioned HDD Raw Copy Tool to an IMG file...
