this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Which Linux distro for beginners (with requirements) (programming.dev)
submitted 1 month ago by chraebsli@programming.dev to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/19622913

A friend of someone related doesn't have a laptop nowadays, but needs one. Now we have 2 old laptops at home, and we want to give her one so she can do some things on it. Since she isn't used to laptops and the old laptops wouldn't run a Windows 11 (I don't want to install a Win10 because of end of support and lacking security features), I guess installing a simple Linux is fine. Now comes the big question: Which Linux distro should I install? (see requirements below)

Laptops:

  • Acer Aspire ES 15, AMD dual-core E1-7010 @1.5 GHz, 4GB RAM, 1000 GB HDD
  • HP Pavilion 17-e030ez, Intel Pentium @2.4 GHz, 4GB RAM, 10000 GB HDD (I'd choose this)

Tasks:

  • Office Stuff (I thought about OnlyOffice)
  • Internet surfing
  • Banking via Web

Requirements:

  • needs to have full German support
  • needs an easy software installation center
  • should be easy to learn
  • optionally, her friends (which probably use Windows/ Mac) should be able to help her (since she never had a laptop before)
  • eventually German forum/ German Guides

I'm using Linux/ Manjaro for myself but don't have any experience with beginner-friendly distros. I used a KDE neon for some time and also have used Ubuntu, and to be honest, they seem beginner-friendly too.

Please let me know your opinions, thanks!

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[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm a big fan of Mint. It's great for beginners but also for anyone who just wants to run their PC with minimal hassle. Considering those are pretty low power machines, I'd go for the Xfce editions too. Personally, I think Xfce is a bit sparse but it runs well on older hardware.

There are also a few distros specifically for older hardware, but I don't have experience with those. I'd suggest starting with Mint and seeing how that goes.

[–] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you want blazing fast on an old machine, I always keep a flash drive with some good old slitaz. Can't beat that all in ram configuration on the slitaz minimal windowed version. But that's not really the question here. If the cinnamon variant is slow, xfce.

Coming from someone who nuked their grandmas computer and installed ChromeOS Flex on it since she can't screw that up too badly and just needs a Facebook/search machine.

Tho, now I am wishing for a ChromeOS Flex version that is just Firefox since adblock will be dying on chrome with manifest v3.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Chances are she won't even notice if you put Linux on her machine. My wife certainly didn't. I tried to explain the concept of different OSs to her but she didn't care. The Firefox icon looks a bit different, but that was the only thing she noticed.