Which kiosky-esque Linux?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark Carter
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Mark Carter

My dad has managed to get UnSpyPc on his Win 98 computer - a piece of
shiteware posing as a spyware scanner.

I had tried to convert him to Linux before (Slackware) - an attempt that
proved a dismal failure. My dad has an old machine, and only needs to
browse the web and perhaps do a bit of emailing. It must be
pathologically easy for him to use - to start up and shut down - none
of that root malarky.

I suppose I could take another crack at Slackware, but I was wondering
if there was any more suitable custom-made solutions out there.
 
Mark said:
My dad has managed to get UnSpyPc on his Win 98 computer - a piece of
shiteware posing as a spyware scanner.

I had tried to convert him to Linux before (Slackware) - an attempt that
proved a dismal failure. My dad has an old machine, and only needs to
browse the web and perhaps do a bit of emailing. It must be
pathologically easy for him to use - to start up and shut down - none
of that root malarky.

I suppose I could take another crack at Slackware, but I was wondering
if there was any more suitable custom-made solutions out there.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Old you say. The "easy" linux's I know are easy because of their
gui which, depending on how old Dad's PC is, could be a problem. First
disto I'd suggest is Ubuntu.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

For browsing, emailing, office productivity stuff, it's pretty
straight-forward. Regardless of what you decide, pls post back w/the
why's & wherefore's.

cya,
Craig
 
Mark Carter said:
My dad has managed to get UnSpyPc on his Win 98 computer - a piece of
shiteware posing as a spyware scanner.

I had tried to convert him to Linux before (Slackware) - an attempt that
proved a dismal failure. My dad has an old machine, and only needs to
browse the web and perhaps do a bit of emailing. It must be
pathologically easy for him to use - to start up and shut down - none
of that root malarky.

I suppose I could take another crack at Slackware, but I was wondering
if there was any more suitable custom-made solutions out there.
Click to expand...

Give him a try on DamnSmallLinux if all he needs is mail and the net
(superbly simply to setup and use ... none of this root business)

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/


--
Regards

Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group
www.it-mate.co.uk

Keeping it FREE!
 
Craig said:
Hmmm. Old you say. The "easy" linux's I know are easy because of their
gui which, depending on how old Dad's PC is, could be a problem. First
disto I'd suggest is Ubuntu.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

For browsing, emailing, office productivity stuff, it's pretty
straight-forward. Regardless of what you decide, pls post back w/the
why's & wherefore's.

cya,
Craig
Click to expand...

I second that one--Ubuntu is about as friendly as Linux gets.
 
Mark said:
My dad has managed to get UnSpyPc on his Win 98 computer - a piece of
shiteware posing as a spyware scanner.

I had tried to convert him to Linux before (Slackware) - an attempt
that proved a dismal failure. My dad has an old machine, and only
needs to browse the web and perhaps do a bit of emailing. It must be
pathologically easy for him to use - to start up and shut down - none
of that root malarky.

I suppose I could take another crack at Slackware, but I was wondering
if there was any more suitable custom-made solutions out there.
Click to expand...

SimplyMEPIS. Drop dead simple. Easiest install imaginable, GUI so
similar to Windows that he'll be able to have at it immediately. Comes
with Firefox, will have to add Thunderbird.
 
My dad has managed to get UnSpyPc on his Win 98 computer - a piece of
shiteware posing as a spyware scanner.

I had tried to convert him to Linux before (Slackware) - an attempt that
proved a dismal failure. My dad has an old machine, and only needs to
browse the web and perhaps do a bit of emailing. It must be
pathologically easy for him to use - to start up and shut down - none
of that root malarky.

I suppose I could take another crack at Slackware, but I was wondering
if there was any more suitable custom-made solutions out there.
Click to expand...

A lot depends on your dad's older machine. How old is it?

Others have made several very good suggestions. I'll add two more.
PCLinuxOS is probably the most polished distro currently available and
suitable for newbies. Not suitable for very old and slow machines.

Vector Linux SOHO comes with an excellent KDE gui and is built on
Slackware. It runs extremely well and fast on any decent machine. A
very nice distro, though the installation is not as easy as, say,
Mepis; but installation is a one time thing. They list the hardware
requirements as:
Processor: Pentium III compatible or better (so you may use AMD). Hard
disk: 3 GB for the system, then you need more for your personal
files.
Memory: 128 MB, spare 256 MB for comfort.
Video card and Monitor capable of 1024x768 resolution, 24 bits. Standard
mouse, keyboard, sound card, CDROM, etc.

Both these distros are more hardware demanding than Damn Small Linux or
anything in that class, but are very comfortable for Windows users.

For really limited computers, it's hard to beat Windows 98 without getting
geeky.

Andy
 
Mark said:
SimplyMEPIS. Drop dead simple. Easiest install imaginable, GUI so
similar to Windows that he'll be able to have at it immediately. Comes
with Firefox, will have to add Thunderbird.
Click to expand...

Another drop dead simple distro to install and use is Xandros. The free
OCE (Open Circulation Edition) version is only available via torrent
download, but its GUI (especially the file manager) is about as close to
a Windows "replacement" as you can get. Again, comes with Firefox, will
have to add Thunderbird.
 
Both these distros are more hardware demanding than Damn Small Linux or
anything in that class, but are very comfortable for Windows users.

For really limited computers, it's hard to beat Windows 98 without getting
geeky.

Andy
Click to expand...
On that note, I tried ubuntu on my old compaq laptop, (amd k6 2 266) and
it worked ok but was really laggy and it didnt pick up my sound card,
and I had a little problem with my screen res. It might work just fine
on your dads dependong on "how old". I was impressed with ubuntu though
and will try it on some of my newer computers later.
 
sudo rm -rf /home/Mark Carter:
My dad has managed to get UnSpyPc on his Win 98 computer - a piece of
shiteware posing as a spyware scanner.

I had tried to convert him to Linux before (Slackware) - an attempt that
proved a dismal failure. My dad has an old machine, and only needs to
browse the web and perhaps do a bit of emailing. It must be
pathologically easy for him to use - to start up and shut down - none
of that root malarky.

I suppose I could take another crack at Slackware, but I was wondering
if there was any more suitable custom-made solutions out there.
Click to expand...

I would try SLAX Linux, it is a Slackware-based distro but very easy to
use.
It runs as a Live-CD but can easily be installed into the hard drive.

http://slax.linux-live.org

Install it, then go to www.linuxpackages.net, download Firefox and
Thunderbird, install the packages ('installpkg <file name.tgz>') and
you're good to go.

And it can be easily expanded using the "modules" available on its
website, or Slackware (.tgz) packages.
 
On that note, I tried ubuntu on my old compaq laptop, (amd k6 2 266)
and it worked ok but was really laggy and it didnt pick up my sound
card, and I had a little problem with my screen res. It might work
just fine on your dads dependong on "how old". I was impressed with
ubuntu though and will try it on some of my newer computers later.
Click to expand...

Any PC that old will not run well at all with most of the newer "user
friendly" distro's that are very graphical in nature. I am using Xbuntu
(Ubuntu with XFCE as an interface) on a Celeron 400 with 512 megs RAM
and 3 older HD's (25 gigs total space). It makes an ok file, torrent,
ftp, and web server and the interface is not (resource) overkill like
the other interfaces.

Laptops present a greater challenge since the hardware is less
supported.

All that said, I would suggest a minimum of 400 mhz and 256 RAM to have
a Linux box that is usuable.

JMHO as a newish Ubuntu/Linux user.

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee // www.mistergeek.com <><
Know Christ, Know Peace - No Christ, No Peace
Remove .yourhat to reply
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Mark said:
I had tried to convert him to Linux before (Slackware) - an attempt that
proved a dismal failure.
Click to expand...

You should have seen the consternation that root passwords caused last time!

Thanks for all your suggestions.

I tried the Linux distro chooser:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php
and SuSe keeps cropping up in my results. I might try it out on my test
machine.

Ubuntu is good, but it's a tad slow on my test machine, so I think it'll
be even slower on my dad's machine.

I tried Puppy Linux on my test machine. I seemed to recall thinking it
was crap from trying it in the past, but I just downloaded the recent
version - and I must say, it's looking like we might have a winner. Very
small, very fast, runs off RAM. It's got nice icons for internet, email,
and even editing. Everything runs as root - which some may regard as a
security nightmare - but it will make it easier to use.

Although I haven't yet tried it on my dad's machine - from what little
I've used of it, so far I'm very impressed. Puppy looks quite complete -
in fact, I hope they don't start piling more and more stuff on it
indiscriminately.

Puppy Linux:
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/


Came across this spoof site for "MS Linux":
http://www.mslinux.org/
 
Mark said:
I tried Puppy Linux on my test machine. I seemed to recall thinking it
was crap from trying it in the past, but I just downloaded the recent
version - and I must say, it's looking like we might have a winner. Very
small, very fast, runs off RAM. It's got nice icons for internet, email,
and even editing. Everything runs as root - which some may regard as a
security nightmare - but it will make it easier to use.

Although I haven't yet tried it on my dad's machine - from what little
I've used of it, so far I'm very impressed. Puppy looks quite complete -
in fact, I hope they don't start piling more and more stuff on it
indiscriminately.
Click to expand...

Seems somewhat unlikely. Barry Kauler is also the author of Eve.
http://www.goosee.com/goosee/ "The incredible shrinking vector graphics
editor, only 74K bytes." (Pricelessware 2004, 2003)
Puppy Linux:
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/
Click to expand...

Looks like something for the portable freeware fans. It can run from a
USB drive.

<q>
There is a most important point that needs to be made here: all of the
apps listed below are in that approx 50-60M Puppy distribution -- they
are not extras that have to be downloaded later. So, it all runs in a
ramdisk, and it all installs in a 128M usb flash card with over half
left over for your data. Some applications listed as packages may in
fact be on the CD -- there are many flavours of Puppy as the CD is very
easy to remaster with your choice of packages -- for example, we have
"Chubby Puppy" with Open Office and most of the applications shown
below, yet the CD is only 90M. Prepare to be amazed...
</q>

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)
 
sudo rm -rf /home/El Gee:
All that said, I would suggest a minimum of 400 mhz and 256 RAM to have
a Linux box that is usuable.

JMHO as a newish Ubuntu/Linux user.
Click to expand...

I have a friend with FluxBox (don't know which distro, but I think it is
Debian) on a 266MHz Pentium with 64MB RAM, and works OK (according to
he).
 
sudo rm -rf /home/El Gee:

I have a friend with FluxBox (don't know which distro, but I think it
is Debian) on a 266MHz Pentium with 64MB RAM, and works OK (according
to he).
Click to expand...

Yes, but FLuxbox is considered a "lite" desktop (like XFCE). KDE and
Gnome are not. I would however doubt 64 megs of RAM is enough for any
decent desktop, but that is just my opinion.

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee // www.mistergeek.com <><
Know Christ, Know Peace - No Christ, No Peace
Remove .yourhat to reply
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
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