Linux for my mom


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Hey I need to find a linux distro for my mom. She has a desktop pc running xp. She has an old laptop with win98 on it. She is wanting to upgrade the laptop to xp but I told her it wont work.

12 inch laptop

375 or 400mhz k6 proc

256mb ram

5 or 6 gig hard drive.

She is wanting this laptop set up with wireless so she can do things like balance her checkbook on it and send emails/browse the internet. She may even edit photos (resize or just touch them up a little)

Im thinking a linux distro should do the trick. Im just not sure which one. The modern ones with newer gnome or kde are probably going to be too much for the old system. What choices do I have that my mom could use for what Ive stated above? It has to be easy to use and not need to be kept up constantly. Something I can install and get set up and not have to worry about all the time.

Thx in advance,

Wes

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Either one of the distro's in my sig will work on that machine. Both are rather minimalistic distros. Use xfce for your desktop and you shouldn't have any issues.

Personally,

I'd go with Blag.

Edited by cork1958
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For laptop is best win xp

I had an AMD Athlon XP 2200 (I think that was the speed) and it ran XP horribly. I would also suggest Xubuntu. It worked great on my laptop, but bootup time really wasn't decreased that much. On the plus side once it was up and running it did run much faster than XP did.

On another note, Xubuntu is by far one of the easiest linux distributions I have ever used but I know my mom would never have been able to use it. That may be something to consider.

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xp will run on it just fine

LOL?

"375 or 400mhz k6 proc

256mb ram

5 or 6 gig hard drive."

Becuase im sure it would be just fine on a 400MHZ machine with 256 mb of ram cmon guys be realistic here.

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LOL?

"375 or 400mhz k6 proc

256mb ram

5 or 6 gig hard drive."

Becuase im sure it would be just fine on a 400MHZ machine with 256 mb of ram cmon guys be realistic here.

My mother have a pc with 850mhz intel celeron with 256mb of ram and windows 2000, this **** run very slow, sometimes painful slowly. I can't imagine a 400mhz machine running XP :laugh:

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i agree, even though the min. system specs say that it would be fine, id recommend against it.

I ran xp on a p3 500 with 192 ram methinks. Don't know how the mobile cpu would fare, but xp could be an option. Just give it a try.

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I would also recommend Xubuntu. XFCE has plenty of nice GUI sweetness, and not too much of a penalty for resource footprint. I personally use Xubuntu with Fluxbox, but I would probably not recommend a *box window manager unless the end user was OK with it, as it has a very different interface than what most Windows users are used to.

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XP should indeed run fine on it, I used to run it perfect on a P2 400MHz, 128MB RAM, 8GB HDD and that wasn't even a stripped down version.

However... since you asked for a Linux Distro, I'd second Damn Small Linux if she's only wanting to do basic things.

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I kinda like ZenWalk as well but Xubuntu should be fine. I find it strange that for hardware devices Ubuntu/Kubuntu is better at picking up devices than Xubuntu is.

Zen is also based on XFCE. What no one suggested gOS? :)

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Why doesn't she stick with 98? That might help us in suggesting something.

About the only real reason I can see is that Win98 had no true account separation. So any account was "admin" and could make system changes. I could see this breaking a lot with mis-clicks and accidental installs of apps (possibly spy/mal/adware among them). Things would 'break' all the time by user error.

Either XP or Linux would allow creation of a user account that cannot make changes to the system configuration.

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Why doesn't she stick with 98? That might help us in suggesting something.

It's probably just because it's a 10 year old, unsupported, insecure, unstable OS. Nothing major.

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About the only real reason I can see is that Win98 had no true account separation. So any account was "admin" and could make system changes. I could see this breaking a lot with mis-clicks and accidental installs of apps (possibly spy/mal/adware among them). Things would 'break' all the time by user error.

Either XP or Linux would allow creation of a user account that cannot make changes to the system configuration.

Good answer Mark. How about Windows 2000 (if not Xubuntu)?

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Many people say 2000 has a better footprint than XP, and I don't see why it wouldn't (but I lack personal experience with 2k, outside of workstations at my job). If you can still buy a copy of Win2k (or transfer an existing license), it would probably be a better option than XP.

It is also at end of lifecycle, so just get what updates are available, and ensure you are behind a router firewall or such, and you will be relatively secure from worms and automated PC seekers. Anti-virus is probably recommended.

Set up her account as limited (regardless of OS: 2k, XP, Linux) and that's about the best you can expect. Good for web browsing.

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Good for web browsing.

With non-activation Os'es (or even Xp, I guess), you could even just have a total mirror of the hard-disc on a second HDD, so if one gets infected, you can just swap the other one in and retrieve your files (if still there) from the old one, on another computer.

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Yeah, Windows 2000 doesn't come with the flashy Luna rubbish XP does. Give her 2000 :)

It's probably just because it's a 10 year old, unsupported, insecure, unstable OS. Nothing major.

Who cares if it's unsupported? She doesn't need updates. And it sure as hell isn't unstable.

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My 2 Cents, Who's Sense?, You Sent for me...?....

My favs...

I suggest Puppy NOP ("Nearly Office Pup")

nop2hy9.jpg

puppynop301qemudefaultuj1.png

Available Here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22616

It looks and feels like XP but has a small foot print and thus is ideal for low end systems.

I successfully ran it on a 500MHz Celeron with only 128 MB of RAM; Ran pretty smooth, and can run completely in RAM for speed.

Puppy NOP ("Nearly Office Pup") is a version of the Puppy Linux operating system with several added features, put together by Puppy-enthusiast & aerospace engineer Gray. It uses the Xfce desktop environment and it is prepared for the addition of your choice of office productivity software

Another Distro to Look @ For such Low System Specs... is antiX Linux AntiX-globelogo.png

AntiX-Lysistrata-default.jpg

antix-rc5-2.jpg

antiX gave me the feeling or impression of a very minimalistic Mac OSX :p (Probly due to the skin.)

antiX is a fast, lightweight and easy to install linux live CD distribution based on MEPIS for Intel-AMD x86 compatible systems. antiX offers users the "Magic of Mepis" in an environment suitable for old computers.
It should run on most computers, ranging from 64MB old PII 266 systems with pre-configured 128MB RAM to the latest powerful boxes. 128MB RAM is recommended for antiX.

Draco_logo.png Just Came Out And Is Available @

http://www.dracolinux.org/ or http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=04842

xfce.png

Draco GNU/Linux is a distribution based on Slackware Linux and "pkgsrc", a package management system developed by NetBSD.
Draco GNU/Linux 0.3.0 is available for download either as a minimal base system or a "Desktop" edition, an installation CD with Xfce and Fluxbox window managers.

Draco uses XFCE so should run alright on system in question...

As others here have already suggested ZenWalk is also a nice choice.

It also uses XFCE; so should be lite on system resources.

logo.png

screenshot-zenwalk-5.0-desktop.png

Zenwalk Linux (formerly Minislack) is a Slackware-based GNU/Linux operating system with a goal of being slim and fast by using only one application per task and with focus on graphical desktop and multimedia usage. Zenwalk features the latest Linux technology along with a complete programming environment and libraries to provide an ideal platform for application programmers. Zenwalk's modular approach also provides a simple way to convert Zenwalk Linux into a finely-tuned modern server (e.g. LAMP, messaging, file sharing).

A good live distro is SLAX Linux

slax_logo.jpg3.jpg

Slax is a modern, portable, small and fast Linux operating system with a modular approach and outstanding design. Despite its small size, Slax provides a wide collection of pre-installed software for daily use, including a well organized graphical user interface and useful recovery tools for system administrators.

Something else to consider (what I did with my old box); reinstall Microsoft Windows 98 SE then Upgrade to Windows ME then use UberSkin.

Available Here: http://tihiy.ahanix.org/

Screen Shots:

capturesh7.jpgvelvet98.jpg

img-visual-styles-crystal-dlb-be-dlb-101.jpg

THE ONLY skinning engine capable of native taskbar skinning now with Windows 98, ME and even 95 shell support!

The LameSkin which is no longer lame!

Does not patches, not includes, not requires system files from other OSes

Yeah, no more pain and suffering. Now even eidenk can't blame me.

=compatible with all official and unofficial updates!

Still does not consumes process to run

Smoothly integrates into system

Clean install and uninstall

Can't mess up registry. One single exe and no worries.

Compatible with all applications

Unlike Revolutions Pack 7, UberSkin does not have problems with apps using Unicows, Nero and other tools.

Miserable resource impact

UberSkin consumes several times less resources than LameSkin (considering LameSkin already using less than commercial skinners). It won't ever use more than hundred KBs of physical memory.

+ Completely Free.

System requirements:

Windows 98, 98SE or Windows ME. It won't work under Windows 95, however, it would work with 98Lite.

Recommended updates: IE6, Unofficial Service Packs, 98SE2ME. If you don't use IE (98Lite), then comctl32 and user/user32 should be updated.

At any rate this should get you headed in the right direction. Hope this helps.

Kudos and Cheers

Edited by keuka
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