[plug] Recommended Distro for lo spec computer? [UNCLASSIFIED]

[Clark Julian]

Thanks everyone for your responses.


Arie:

Thanks for the offer. If I can't persuade her to pursue a Linux
solution, I'll point her in your direction. 
Personally, I'm sick of doing windows based installs. Though she's not
incredibly financial, I'm sure that she'd offer you something for your
time. I wouldn't consider doing windows for free. ;) 

I'd like to try and make my first Linux convert. ;) I don't want to
start my own religion, so maybe I should change the world in other ways.
::grins::

I imagine that the main barrier in this instance is that she'd be a
brand new Linux newbie, and I really don't want to bamboozle her.
A 'friend' of hers has been 'helping' her with her current windows
installation. She finds that he's complicating stuff no end. I guess
that this is the main reason I'm considering a *nix solution. Installing
what she needs and no more; and leaving her with a minimal menu/icon
set.

Hopefully I can achieve a solution which is relatively responsive,
without the need for the endless cycle of hardware upgrades.

Craig:
>try dillo, its tiny and works reaal well. not sure if theres a winblows
>port tho.
Cool. I'll look into it. I'd imagine it may be best to stick with a
major browser; (ie firefox or opera)  incase the sites she want's to
visit are targeted at thos browsers. People seem to forget standards.
Most of the time we're lucky if crappy sites works in mozilla/firefox.


Russ:
>I found that ram was more the issue on my 233 laptop. When I only had
>64M, gui's were useless. I added another 256M stick and now it runs
>well with kde or gnome.
Memory upgrades are not out of the question. I guess that I'd like to
find out what she's got first.

>Point her to plug.
Ahh, yes but no. I probably wouldn't recommend to her that she
subscribes to the mailing list. I'd imagine that it'd probably be too
much information for her. Perhaps to let her know of the mailing list if
she has a problem might be an idea, but she's got minimal computing
expertise. I really don't want to confuse her.

Generally: 

*Window Managers*
I've not much experience with other window managers though, I personally
use KDE and love it, though I imagine it may be a bit heavy for such an
old machine.

I was thinking of a simple window manager (WM), something in the order
of fluxbox or icewm (or heaven forbid, TWM, actually, that's NOT a
consideration)

Does anyone know what WM the computer angels distro ships with?
Does anyone know of comparisons between various window managers;
limitations and advantages perhaps? 
(I'd Google but I'm behind a very restrictive firewall)
I'd imagine a limited menu structure and basic icons would be ideal. 

*Word processing / Spreadsheets*

Any suggestions as to alternatives to openoffice.
I'd say she's been using MS Word and Excel for many years. My first
thoughts were for OpenOffice. AbiWord could also be a consideration.

Any other suggestions?

*Internet*
She's using dialup.
Can dialup be handled by a shell script, or are there pretty gui's that
do the same?

*CD Burning*
K3B was going to be my suggestion.
It seems to me to be the most logical Linux cd burning app that I've
seen. Any other suggestions?

Anyway, this post is getting too long.


Thanks again everyone.


Julian Clark






**********************************************************************
The information contained in this message and in any attachments is privileged and confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee. You should not read, copy, use or disclose this information without authorisation. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, please e-mail the sender immediately and delete this message. Any unauthorised dissemination, disclosure, copying or use of the contents of this message is prohibited and may result in legal action.
**********************************************************************