[lug] Recommendations For Older Hardware?

[durist at frii.com]

For simplicity and useability on the desktop I've had good luck with Linux
Mint, which is an ubuntu derivative. It's well integrated and roughly
tracks Ubuntu releases. One thing that's nice is there are a couple of
lightweight community editions that use LXDE (nice on old/slow hardware)
and fluxbox (for the geeky, like me). I've gotten too lazy to set up linux
from scratch anymore, and there's really no need.

>> May I ask why?
>
> The answer might be a little bit outdated, since I haven't tried the
> latest releases, but I assume not too much has changed.
>
> Install: Ubuntu includes non-free drivers and its installed is a
> no-brainer, whereas with Debian you usually have to ticker more during
> the install process.
>
> Ease of administration: ubuntu provides less choices, in that it has
> its own defaults (which you can change, but you have to dig). Debian
> has the opposite design: more choices upfront, which is great for the
> experienced user, but less so for the newbie.
>
> Ease of use: ubuntu spends a great part of its developers effort in
> usability, where to put button and menus, etc. In my opinion is wasted
> time (for the geek), but non-geek users seem impressed and appreciate
> those efforts.
>
> I guess both Debian stable and Ubuntu LTS have long term updates,
> which is absolutely great (compared, for example, to the much shorter
> Fedora support). Ubuntu has usually newer versions of the packages,
> even though with the LTS they eventually become stale anyway.
>
> Bottom line: even my father in law (windows user, but absolutely not
> geek)  was able to install Ubuntu and he is a very happy user of it,
> after I lended him my laptop for a week and nudged him to try Ubuntu
> on his machine. I don't think I would have succeeded if my
> recommendation was: "why don't you try Debian?" Maybe I'm wrong, I'll
> try Debian with my mother in law :-))
>
> I guess for an experienced user on a server, Debian should be just
> fine (but I'm more into sidux, these days, especially if the server is
> constantly updated and having new stuff is a plus - so check it out).
>
> HTH,
> Dav
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