[GLLUG] Lightweight

[Chick Tower]

On 08/02/2015 09:36 AM, Eduardo Cesconetto wrote:
> My 8 year old wants a computer, so I am reactivating an older
> Dimension 4600, Pentium-D, 2GB RAM, 128GB SSD, PNY Verto GForce 4600
> (I think)…
>
> I want a machine for her to use youtube, some silly flash based
> websites and most importantly homework….
>
> So what would you recommend as a media-friendly lightweight distort?

I think Debian or Arch could do what you want, Eduardo, although I don't 
know how easy it would be to get Flash and media codecs installed on 
Debian.  They both have package managers that make it easy to install 
software.  They both let you start out bare-bones and then add just the 
software you want, unlike other "big name" distros.

PCLinuxOS is an RPM-based distro that is relatively lightweight, too, if 
you want to stick to RPMs.  I think it started out as a fork of 
Mandrake.  I started out with Mandrake, so I can see the similarities, 
but I've never used a Red Hat distro so I don't know how well it 
compares to that.

If you are concerned about your PC being overtaxed, stay away from any 
version of Ubuntu.  As far as I know, only Bodhi has managed to strip 
Ubuntu down into something I enjoy using on ten-year-old laptops.

If you want a lighter-weight window manager than XFCE, try Openbox or 
Fluxbox.  They don't usually have a "start button", but you just have to 
right-click on the desktop to get the menu.

If you want an easy way to install Arch, check out Manjaro or ArchBang. 
  You can get Openbox versions of both (in fact, ArchBang is only 
Openbox), and you can get an XFCE version of Manjaro.  I think 
ArchBang's default color scheme sucks (lots of gray text on black 
backgrounds, so it's hard to read), but you don't have to stick with 
their theme.
-- 

                                Chick