Simple Linux OS with a browser, email and Youtube for an old person?

warren_1979 · 4 Apr 2014 at 18:31

Hi.

With XP being discontinued soon my uncle needs a new laptop for the basics. That got me thinking, is there an Linus OS that could meet his needs on his current laptop? I was thinking something along the lines of the Linpus Linux Lite?

Cheers.

warren_1979 · 4 Apr 2014 at 18:51

Hey thanks for that.

Looks good. How easy are these to install? I have never dabbled with Linux except when I had my Aspire One netbook?

What about compatibility with the hardware in my uncles laptop, such as wifi cards, display divers etc? Is it like windows were you need specific drivers?

My dad is in the same boat with his netbook and windows XP. He is looking to buy a Chromebook this weekend. If I could get this working maybe I could save him some money too?

warren_1979 · 4 Apr 2014 at 21:42

Cool thanks guys.

It looks like its between Zorin OS and Mint MATE. I think I will look for some videos on youtube before I decide or just give both a go. No harm in trying both!

Cheers all.

warren_1979 · 5 Apr 2014 at 23:50

Is that elementary OS? Looks nice!

warren_1979 · 6 Apr 2014 at 21:36

Can you get dropbox on elementary?

warren_1979 · 9 Apr 2014 at 11:25

Hi everyone.

OK so I tried elementary on my uncles ancient Toshiba laptop and the CD boot option just produced a blank screen with a blinking cursor. Reburned the iso image to another CD using imgburn instead of the inbuilt win7 burning features and I got the same thing.

Someone has recommended Lubuntu for older laptops so I am going to try that tonight.

warren_1979 · 10 Apr 2014 at 11:38

Quick update.

I tried Lubuntu and it worked! At first it was doing the same as elementary - not booting from the boot cd and just giving me a blinking cursor. Luckily I read a post on the internet from some geezer with the exact same laptop and same problem and he used the boot cd within XP and installed a custom boot loader then rebooted and used the bootloader to choose Lubuntu, so I did that it it booted from the CD and I installed Lubuntu!

Loving it so far. The only problem I have is that I tried to install Dropbox and it just keeps syncing and when I close the terminal the icon in the system tray disappears. I really don't know what I am doing when it comes to Linux.

Can anyone recommend a Ubuntu beginners guide for stuff like installing programs and using the terminal.

Cheers.

warren_1979 · 18 Apr 2014 at 23:28

Cheers Rainmaker.

Those guides will come in super handy while I prepare to move over to Ubuntu. Many thanks!

Just a quick update on my dads netbook. It was running XP remember and its a really old thing running with a single core Atom processor. He was going on at me 'I'm going to get a Chromebook, I'm going to get a Chromebook' and I was like 'just wait a few days will you while I put elementary on your netbook, just wait and see what you think'.

Well I put elementary on at the weekend and my dad was pretty skeptical when I gave him the netbook back, but he has since changed his tune and loves the thing! It does everything he needs and runs a lot better than XP. Score! He saved £200 to boot.