Linux for laptop

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IC3

IC3

IC3

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I need a simple stable linux with good battery life for multimedia, it will be mainly used by my grandmother (she never used linux before). It would help if the distro had most of the things installed from the start.

Laptop: Leonovo G500
Spec:
i3 4th gen
8gb ram
1tb hdd
Intergrated graphics

The laptop is curently running on Window 8.1 Pro, but she hates this system... :D
 
Linux Mint with the Mate or Cinnamon desktops will give the closest "Windows" experience. And will come with just about all the codecs and plugins she should need for things.
 
I'd highly recommend Crunchbang (aka #!).

It's literally provided as a boot CD so you have an entire distro setup and functioning like a dream, then you can decide if you like it to install onto the HDD. I've never had an issue with it failing to install the correct driver either!

Very lightweight and I've tried Mint but it was a little too demanding for my older laptops.

www.crunchbang.org
 
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trentlad said:
I'd highly recommend Crunchbang (aka #!).

It's literally provided as a boot CD so you have an entire distro setup and functioning like a dream, then you can decide if you like it to install onto the HDD. I've never had an issue with it failing to install the correct driver either!

Very lightweight and I've tried Mint but it was a little too demanding for my older laptops.

www.crunchbang.org
Click to expand...

Crunchbang? For a pensioner?
 
OhEsEcks said:
Crunchbang? For a pensioner?
Click to expand...
Personally I like crunchbag's simple plain design and the fact its very lightweight. But like you said, Crunchbag for an older person isn't a good idea.

So far...
I've installed Xubuntu 14.04 LTS, the boot time including BIOS etc. Takes 40sec, now the only reason I decided to go with Linux was the stability and the difficulty of getting a virus.

P.s Will Mint on Mate be significally faster, than Xubuntu?
 
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IC3 said:
P.s Will Mint on Mate be significally faster, than Xubuntu?
Click to expand...
I doubt it, but I should think the hardware is sufficiently powerful to make it pretty much a non-issue either way; I'd just go for whichever distro has the looks, features and useability you and your grandmother prefer.

I'd go for Mint Cinnamon out of the ones mentioned so far, but you might also want to check out Elementary OS (my own personal favourite). The current Luna release is based on Ubuntu 12.04, but the next version (Isis, based on 14.04) should be out fairly soon.
 
CaptainCrash said:
I doubt it, but I should think the hardware is sufficiently powerful to make it pretty much a non-issue either way; I'd just go for whichever distro has the looks, features and useability you and your grandmother prefer.

I'd go for Mint Cinnamon out of the ones mentioned so far, but you might also want to check out Elementary OS (my own personal favourite). The current Luna release is based on Ubuntu 12.04, but the next version (Isis, based on 14.04) should be out fairly soon.
Click to expand...

For now, I'll go with mint 17 cinnamon and than I'm gonna try out Elementry OS on usb live.
 
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Really? You right click and everything is there, folder navigation might be odd... but it's all packaged in a free boot CD so the OP can boot directly into it and decide themselves.
 
Mint 17 is IMO worse than 16, tomorrow I'm taking the laptop again. But before installing another system, I'll test it out first...

Is 50sec (43sec on Xubuntu) normal for boot time? :eek:

Edit

Elemntry OS looking good and its very simple, now I can see why so many people like it and choose it for the laptop/notebook as main OS. :)

rITMOGSl.jpg.png
 
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