OT: good simple linux distro for laptop?
I figure there are some linux fans here, so hopefully someone has a suggestion. My 70+ year old dad has a very old laptop that's still running XP. It's not worth paying money to update, but he still wants to use it. I figure linux was the way to go normally would go right to Ubuntu. But I know a few years back they started their Unity front end and I don't think my dad could handle it. Is there something super-easy that a completely non-tech savvy older person could use? I've heard some decent things about Mint, but know nearly nothing about it. If not, I'm just going to boot nuke the thing and tell him to give it away and buy a new computer. Thanks, Paul ᐧ
RE: good simple linux distro for laptop?
Hi Paul its worth seeing what drivers his machine uses and doing some research as to what drivers are available. For my personal preference I really like the Mint releases, Go for the Long Term Support ones. Think the most current LTS one is version 13. From: Paul Griswold [pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com] Sent: 01 April 2014 08:54 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: OT: good simple linux distro for laptop? I figure there are some linux fans here, so hopefully someone has a suggestion. My 70+ year old dad has a very old laptop that's still running XP. It's not worth paying money to update, but he still wants to use it. I figure linux was the way to go normally would go right to Ubuntu. But I know a few years back they started their Unity front end and I don't think my dad could handle it. Is there something super-easy that a completely non-tech savvy older person could use? I've heard some decent things about Mint, but know nearly nothing about it. If not, I'm just going to boot nuke the thing and tell him to give it away and buy a new computer. Thanks, Paul [https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=acGdyaXN3b2xkQGZ1c2lvbmRpZ2l0YWxwcm9kdWN0aW9ucy5jb20%3Dtype=zerocontentguid=a2adcbc8-b0d6-4152-8380-3259134f77e8]ᐧ table width=100% border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style=width:100%; tr td align=left style=text-align:justify;font face=arial,sans-serif size=1 color=#99span style=font-size:11px;This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary. /span/font/td /tr /table
Re: good simple linux distro for laptop?
I have a good portion of this islands retired population on mint15/16 (most from xp). once people get over the slight bump that passes for a learning curve (it usually amounts to panicked text messages about not having antivirus) they couldn't be happier. i'd go for the ubuntu base if possible (deb edition is a lot faster but you'll need to go with sid/testing for wifi/skype phones etc) -- Jon Swindells jon_swinde...@fastmail.fm On Tue, Apr 1, 2014, at 09:58 PM, Angus Davidson wrote: Hi Paul its worth seeing what drivers his machine uses and doing some research as to what drivers are available. For my personal preference I really like the Mint releases, Go for the Long Term Support ones. Think the most current LTS one is version 13. __ From: Paul Griswold [pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com] Sent: 01 April 2014 08:54 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: OT: good simple linux distro for laptop? I figure there are some linux fans here, so hopefully someone has a suggestion. My 70+ year old dad has a very old laptop that's still running XP. It's not worth paying money to update, but he still wants to use it. I figure linux was the way to go normally would go right to Ubuntu. But I know a few years back they started their Unity front end and I don't think my dad could handle it. Is there something super-easy that a completely non-tech savvy older person could use? I've heard some decent things about Mint, but know nearly nothing about it. If not, I'm just going to boot nuke the thing and tell him to give it away and buy a new computer. Thanks, Paul [t?sender=acGdyaXN3b2xkQGZ1c2lvbmRpZ2l0YWxwcm9kdWN0aW9ucy5jb20%3Damp;t ype=zerocontentamp;guid=a2adcbc8-b0d6-4152-8380-3259134f77e8] ᐧ This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If y ou have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and d estroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are compet ent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the Univ ersity and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, J ohannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
Re: good simple linux distro for laptop?
and by 'this Island' i mean Zakynthos. apologies to the non-psychics out there ;) -- Jon Swindells jon_swinde...@fastmail.fm On Tue, Apr 1, 2014, at 10:09 PM, Jon Swindells wrote: I have a good portion of this islands retired population on mint15/16 (most from xp). once people get over the slight bump that passes for a learning curve (it usually amounts to panicked text messages about not having antivirus) they couldn't be happier. i'd go for the ubuntu base if possible (deb edition is a lot faster but you'll need to go with sid/testing for wifi/skype phones etc) This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
Re: good simple linux distro for laptop?
Thanks! I've been reading more about Mint it might do the trick here. The laptop is a Dell Vostro running a Core 2 Duo (not sure the speed). As long as it'll run Chrome he can listen to his 1950's streaming radio station, I think he'll be in good shape. ᐧ On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 3:21 PM, Jon Swindells jon_swinde...@fastmail.fmwrote: and by 'this Island' i mean Zakynthos. apologies to the non-psychics out there ;) -- Jon Swindells jon_swinde...@fastmail.fm On Tue, Apr 1, 2014, at 10:09 PM, Jon Swindells wrote: I have a good portion of this islands retired population on mint15/16 (most from xp). once people get over the slight bump that passes for a learning curve (it usually amounts to panicked text messages about not having antivirus) they couldn't be happier. i'd go for the ubuntu base if possible (deb edition is a lot faster but you'll need to go with sid/testing for wifi/skype phones etc) This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
Re: OT: good simple linux distro for laptop?
mint /thread. On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 8:54 PM, Paul Griswold pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com wrote: I figure there are some linux fans here, so hopefully someone has a suggestion. My 70+ year old dad has a very old laptop that's still running XP. It's not worth paying money to update, but he still wants to use it. I figure linux was the way to go normally would go right to Ubuntu. But I know a few years back they started their Unity front end and I don't think my dad could handle it. Is there something super-easy that a completely non-tech savvy older person could use? I've heard some decent things about Mint, but know nearly nothing about it. If not, I'm just going to boot nuke the thing and tell him to give it away and buy a new computer. Thanks, Paul ᐧ
Re: OT: good simple linux distro for laptop?
Mint is like Ubuntu with a lot of the suck removed, and, IME, better media handling out of the box by far. It's worth at least considering, and it can definitely be made a lot less twitchy and resource hungry than Ubuntu straight out of the install. If you're ok with Deb based distros (and if you're OK with Ubuntu it sounds like you would be) I can recommend it. It won't run Soft reliably, if at all, but it doesn't sound like your dad is into that ;) On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 7:15 AM, Ognjen Vukovic ognj...@gmail.com wrote: mint /thread. On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 8:54 PM, Paul Griswold pgrisw...@fusiondigitalproductions.com wrote: I figure there are some linux fans here, so hopefully someone has a suggestion. My 70+ year old dad has a very old laptop that's still running XP. It's not worth paying money to update, but he still wants to use it. I figure linux was the way to go normally would go right to Ubuntu. But I know a few years back they started their Unity front end and I don't think my dad could handle it. Is there something super-easy that a completely non-tech savvy older person could use? I've heard some decent things about Mint, but know nearly nothing about it. If not, I'm just going to boot nuke the thing and tell him to give it away and buy a new computer. Thanks, Paul ᐧ -- Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!
