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2ndLife: Revive HP Stream Notebook PC 13 Again With Bodhi Linux

** Just a update that the HP Stream Notebook PC 13 had died on me for a while back. Since with limited or slow hardware, I just thrashed it into a electronics recycling box near my place. So the experience for this laptop was really BAD. 


I have posted before about reviving my HP Stream Notebook PC 13 in my previous post. However, I noticed that the laptop lags when loading applications, for too long and is sometimes non-responsive when not so heavily used. Frustrated, I decided to try out a lightweight Linux distribution: Bodhi Linux. It uses a customized Enlightenment desktop environment, so it is lighter on resources than Xfce. 

    During installation, I noticed that Bodhi Linux is able to detect my laptop's Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter. Surprisingly, I was overjoyed as I do not need a physical network connection to install and update the laptop after installation. 

Bodhi Linux comes pre-installed with a dark theme Moksha theme by default. I removed and shifted some widgets and changed the wallpaper that my wife liked. 

As for performance, it beats Linux Mint Xfce hands-down. It is definitely more responsive and smoother to use. It only uses 292MB of RAM after bootup. It also uses 940MB of RAM with a Chromium web browser with three tabs running. Glad I made the switch and now happily typing this blog post. 

**NOTE: There is some hardware issue on this laptop after using on and off for a while. Now the laptop is in the recycling bin now, shipped to be recycled electronics now. Think this laptop is not made to last and is to me, a joke to be called a laptop. Paying money for this trash is sad. Obviously HP did not think through when they release this model. 

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