Re: [libreoffice-users] question on Screen Resolution quote on web site.

Hi :)
I would probably go with Lubuntu for first time Gnu&Linux users on very low-spec 
machines.  

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=lubuntu

LxDE is very much lighter than Xfce and suddenly rose from obsurity about a year 
or 2 ago to became popular and widely used in a lot of distros.  Lubuntu and 
Xubuntu (based on the Xfce DE) use Gnome Office by default instead of 
LibreOffice / OpenOffice so it's only got AbiWord and Gnumeric (a bit like Calc) 
the advantage being that they are a lot lighter-weight than even LibreOffice.  


There are plenty of other excellent distros made for low-spec machines 
http://distrowatch.com/
but Lubuntu is almost in the Ubuntu family which even has articles in fairly 
mainstream magazines and a massive community so it's fairly easy to get help and 
find tips&tricks.  Puppy is kinda fun to try but it's a bit difficult to install 
programs or configure so there are a lot of "Puplets".  I prefer sliTaz because 
it's not compressed so it still works like proper Gnu&Linux.  There are plenty 
of others to choose from especially if you want non-English / American (sliTaz 
is mostly French).  


If there is a reasonably  powerful machine available on that then a better 
option might be something like this
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MultiseatX
or if both are on a  Lan then maybe something like this
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ltsp

LxDE probably looks a little like Win2k or Win98 but feels more like Xp or even 
Win7.  It would be more instantly familiar to Windows users than Xfce.  

Regards from
Tom :)




________________________________
From: David Nelson <lists@traduction.biz>
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Sent: Fri, 19 August, 2011 16:04:41
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] question on Screen Resolution quote on web 
site.

Hi,

On such old hardware, you might usefully consider using Linux with the
XFCE GUI, because you will undoubtedly get better performances than
with XP, and won't need the antivirus software.

If you really need some kind of antivirus, you could try receiving all
files through a webmail provider such as Gmail, because it will do the
antivirus checking for you, instead of having dedicated antivirus
software running permanently on the computer and hogging resources.

Keeping only a low number of fonts might help, too.

Having a low res like 800X600 is going to mean that you'll have a lot
less screen real estate. icons will be bigger, toolbars will take up
more space, etc. I'm assuming that LibO will indeed run at 800x600,
because I've never tried it myself...

If you really need Corel Draw rather than opting for GIMP, you will
probably get it to run quite well under Wine, especially if you use
the enhanced Crossover Office solution.

I think you'll want to allow for a large spill partition when setting
up Linux, as there will certainly be a lot of swapping out
happening... But likely it'll be less than with XP with the same
hardware configuration.

Again, I'm assuming that all your software will run. It's been a long
time since I worked on such a machine. But, undoubtedly, Linux plus
XFCE is your best bet...

If you have the possibility of adding memory, that will certainly feel
like a God-sent improvement in performances.

HTH.

-- 
David Nelson

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