8 years ago
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Five lightweight Linux desktop environments
In today's open source roundup: Five of the best lightweight desktops for Linux. Plus: Ars Technica reviews Linux Mint 17.2. And DistroWatch reviews Semplice Linux 7.
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What would people suggest for light weight grandma proof distro? I have a dozen or so PCs that will get donated to people in need. I am looking for something easy to use, MS GUI like, and easy to maintain. I have been leaning towards Lubuntu but am open to other distros that fit the bill.
I like Xubuntu, myself.
Xubuntu, for sure. The desktop is easy to use, it's not introducing new concepts like the shell/search environment and everything should be usable via the start menu. It's also reasonable fast on older hardware. I replaced a Windows PC with Xubuntu at my parents in law a few months ago without any problems. If you have technically adept people you could also go for Ubuntu, but I found the gnome shell to be a too new concept to go without problems.
I ended up trying Xubuntu. Runs well on a old desktop that was running XP. If I have time should start handing off the machines in the next day or two.
You could consider chrome OS? It's lightweight, easy to use, fast, secure and free
How is Chrome OS in offline/slow internet situations. Internet around here is spotty. The one place to start with is just looking for something their kid can type up stuff for school, they currently do not have the internet. I have not played with Chrome OS yet myself but have heard its great for students, but if its completely gimped without internet it might not be the choice.
I'm sad to report, it's pretty gimped without internet. it's not unusable, but you do lose a good chunk of it. Though things like docs and drive have an offline feature now, so it's really not that bad.
I use regular Ubuntu 14.04 on my old laptop (purchased new in feb. 2010). I have internet at home but it is very slow so I don't use it too much. In fact, it seems like Ubuntu does best when you aren't surfing the internet. The wifi and bluetooth work just fine by default. I didn't have to make any changes to get them to work.