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Mummy Linux

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Anyone recommend a Linux Distro for non-techie mothers?

NOT Ubuntu - tried it - didn't like it. And worse of all it asks you to enter a password to use your WiFi card.

My Mum goes on the internet, checks email on Yahoo Mail, and maybe uses MSN messenger

That's about it - PC is about 1Ghz with 512MB of RAM and 120GB Hard drive and is connected to the internet via an Apple WiFi to Ethernet Bridge - which plugs into the computer's Ethernet port.

I want something that looks cute, is easy to use and stable. And most of all I want something that boot as fast as possible.

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Arch-linux. I've only used Arch and Ubuntu for long periods of time.

    http://www.archlinux.org

    To ask though, why use Linux if she isn't techie? Linux has come a long way, but it's still easy to break something and hard to fix if you don't know how to fix it.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I found this and tried it as a Live CD seems quite good if all you want is a fast loading Distro with web access

    http://symphonyos.com/cms/?p=7
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    hey DG if you are using linux security is built in at the deepest level so you will need to use an administrator password to install pretty much anything. It's like Vista's UAC. Everyone bemoans it but it's actually good practice (although the implementation is much better in linux).

    If she is not fond of Ubuntu (wireless is definitely a headache for linux since the drivers are normally not open source and normally only written for windows) then I would suggest just downloading a cracked copy of XP and throwing it on. If you want it to boot as fast as possible, change the motherboard to suspend to ram (change suspend mode to S3 in bios) then set up XP / whatever that instead of shutting down it suspends. It will use next-to-no power (just needs to keep a current running through the memory so it doesn't lose the information) and you can leave it with browsers opened and mail logged in.

    That's what I do with my PC anyway, press enter to turn it on and it takes about ~2 seconds if that to boot up exactly where I left off :).

    If you are insistent on it looking cuter than XP, just install one of those skin programs.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Not exactly super fast booting but I came across Mandriva

    http://www.mandriva.com/en/product/mandriva-linux-one

    Looks really lush and you can set it to auto login which was good, didn't install it on my mother's PC but tried it on my laptop and was pleasantly surprised.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've used it before, had driver issues. But if you like it, go for it. Still not sure why you're using it over XP :p
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I am using windows Xp on all the computers - but sooner or later windows Xp is gonna have some kind of issue with viruses, spyware, etc and I'm going travelling for almost 2 months soon so wondering if Linux will be more reliable for my mother's PC so she can keep in touch.

    As far as I can tell viruses for windows out number those for linux like 1000 to 1.

    http://lovehateubuntu.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-windows-has-viruses-and-ubuntu-or.html

    I don't think my mum would know what to do with pop screens in wondows for antivirus programes, and spyware programmes so best course is perhaps to switch to linux and then that's not an issue anymore.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Viruses shouldn't be the reason why you change your OS.
    If you install an antivirus, and make a sub-account with limited privaleges then she can't install anything from anywhere. Make her use Opera too and she'd be fine as gold.

    You can also use Google or McAfee browser secure thing, to stop unsafe sites from loading. Even with Opera this is good practice, since I find it's more up2date than Firefox's.

    You only get viruses when you download unsafe files or use unsafe browsers, it's the persons fault.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    stick os x on :)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    noog wrote: »
    stick os x on :)

    mum's pc don't have SSE2
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    This looks interesting - hope its out soon

    http://www.thinkgos.com/cloud/index.html
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ah, that'll be a long wait.
    What abot ReactOS? It's still in Alpha though.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    JavaKrypt wrote: »
    Ah, that'll be a long wait.
    What abot ReactOS? It's still in Alpha though.

    I'd seen that ages ago and forgottenabout it but downloaded the LiveCD Image - didn't work properly on a Virtual Machine and on two real PC's which was a shame cos it booted really fast.

    Mouse and keyboard wouldn't work on my mum's PC - shame cos if it did work then it would have been a good solution.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I am not sure weather it would be a good idea to install linux on your mum computer, i am a computer science student and still fell very annoying when i have to use linux.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    DG wrote: »
    I'd seen that ages ago and forgottenabout it but downloaded the LiveCD Image - didn't work properly on a Virtual Machine and on two real PC's which was a shame cos it booted really fast.

    Mouse and keyboard wouldn't work on my mum's PC - shame cos if it did work then it would have been a good solution.
    If you have a USB keyboard and mouse, use that until you can get the PS/2 Drivers.

    I've installed MacOSX on this laptop since I got bored of seeing Windows everywhere, and Linux. I thought I'd give the Hackintosh's a go - works okay, wouldn't ever buy a real Mac hardware based PC, nor would I pay for the OS. Only reason I'm using it is for it's style and effects.

    Have you decided on what OS you're placing on it?
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I tried it on a laptop and desktop - the desktop had USB mouse and PS/2 keyboard .. neither worked

    For the time being still using WindowsXP on my mum's Pc but it's starting to have issues like not always shutting down windows properly and hanging when shutting down.

    I'd like to have her PC dual boot since it has a 120GB Hard drive which is like almost empty - I have a Mandriva DVD which I downloaded and dual boot installed on my laptop - I quite like that but not sure how I make Windows Xp the default OS and Mandriva the backup. Although it's quite a big and powerful OS - much more powerful then what she'd ever need. I'd prefer something which is more instant on, instant off.
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