Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

janvaletin · 2011-09-28 13:56:18

Howdy y'all.

I was wondering if anybody had some advice as to what distro would be best for a low-power, publicly used computer. My dorm is getting two computers for our common room ("Destitute" model here: http://media.photobucket.com/image/rece … /Guide.png ). I am however, not sure what to put on it.

Here are the requirements that I am looking at:

1. Must run on low-performance computer

2. Must be able to play Flash videos and run Shockwave applications

3. Must be able to run LibreOffice.

I was thinking about Linux Mint, because I need something that people can maintain after I leave (so Arch is not really an option, sadly), but I was also wondering if it would be possible to run a completely free distro that met these requirements.

Right now, my top choices would be Linux Mint, gNuSense (not sure if it meets the requirements though), and Xubuntu. Does anybody have suggestions?

Additionally, does anybody know where I could procure a 40 GB hard drive? I have been searching on NewEgg, but they only have refurbished models. This computer really only needs to have enough space to run the OS, since people will be saving stuff to their own flash drives.

Input/Advice/Ideas would be appreciated, thank you.

pseudonomous · 2011-09-28 15:49:14

That things not exactly "low end hardware" when it comes to running Linux, you could run any desktop-oriented distribution on it and have it work just fine, they'll all provide the software you're looking for. It might be nice to run an LTS distro so you don't have to upgrade it for awhile. CentOS/RHEL 5 feels kind of dated, but the 6 series feels modern enough that it might not be so bad to use on a desktop system, and the updates issued by Red Hat are *very* conservative. Ubuntu 10.04 is probably a good balance between usability and stability.

No matter what distro you use, you're going to want to have a method for periodically reverting the machine to a clean state, and you'll have to largely implement it yourself via scripting and cron or manually re-imaging/re-installing.

Additionally, does anybody know where I could procure a 40 GB hard drive? I have been searching on NewEgg, but they only have refurbished models. This computer really only needs
to have enough space to run the OS, since people will be saving stuff to their own flash drives.

It doesn't make sense to spend more money for less capable hardware for no good reason, just keep the 500GB hard-drive the machine comes with and if you really want to only provide 40 GB of storage space, only use a 40 GB partition on that drive and leave the rest unformatted.

lucke · 2011-09-28 16:33:32

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Shoc … rm_support

janvaletin · 2011-09-28 21:14:26

pseudonomous wrote:

No matter what distro you use, you're going to want to have a method for periodically reverting the machine to a clean state, and you'll have to largely implement it yourself via scripting and cron or manually re-imaging/re-installing.
...
It doesn't make sense to spend more money for less capable hardware for no good reason, just keep the 500GB hard-drive the machine comes with and if you really want to only provide 40 GB of storage space, only use a 40 GB partition on that drive and leave the rest unformatted.

I can see how I would be able to set up a regular file deletion with cron. How would I be able remove installed applications while protecting ones I installed?

As far as the hard drive goes, I only need enough to run the OS, and since I will be building the computers, I figured I should aim for the cheapest solution possible.

firecat53 · 2011-09-28 22:08:39

If people are saving their own stuff and you need no data retention, why not just do a 'frugal' install (I think that's what it used to be called) where you copy an ISO to the hard drive and it's basically like running a live CD, except faster because it's from the hard drive, or if there's enough memory, all from RAM. I think Puppy Linux might be capable of that...but I'd actually have to Google it to know for sure :-) Maybe I'm remembering this from my Knoppix days.

Scott

ngoonee · 2011-09-29 02:16:28

janvaletin wrote:

I was thinking about Linux Mint, because I need something that people can maintain after I leave...

This requirement alone suggests that you should run Windows XP with the latest service pack (SP3 I think?). I believe its fairly cheap nowadays, and user familiarity is good. If you include a complete image of the initial install (with some simple software for restoring that image when problems happen) you're pretty much set.

Asking 'other people' to maintain a linux distribution is difficult even if you never update the thing .

z0id · 2011-09-29 08:24:52

I'd suggest Xubuntu with XFCE in kiosk mode.

vacant · 2011-09-29 08:50:59

firecat53 wrote:

if there's enough memory, all from RAM. I think Puppy Linux might be capable of that.

A frugal install of Puppy would be my recommendation.

owain · 2011-09-29 09:27:48

Trouble-free Flash pretty much means instaling Flash, which eliminates the possibility of being completely free.

I've recently tested my mother (think stereotypical technophobe user) with the XFCE version of Mint on a laptop which needed nuking from orbit due to XP rootkits, and she's quite happy with it for basic usage, i.e. browsing/webmail - still waiting for her to want to get photos from her camera to Picasa, though!

Maybe it's possible to set up a guest account which gets reset on logout - I'm thinking along the lines of rsync --delete /home/guest.skel /home/guest

pseudonomous · 2011-10-01 16:17:02

janvaletin wrote:

I can see how I would be able to set up a regular file deletion with cron. How would I be able remove installed applications while protecting ones I installed?

There's a few ways you could do this, you could save the list of packages you installed and periodically spit out a new list, then diff that with the old list, remove packages that aren't on both. Unless you give out the root password, or put people in sudoers, people aren't going to install software. Your issue will be more that people will mess with the configuration settings to stuff, which will result in a periodically less and less usable desktop, or just some embarrassing bookmarks. If you use a dedicated guest account for people logging in, you could just periodically delete and recreate the account to revert it back to a "clean" state. Somebody claimed there's a "kiosk mode" for Xubuntu, I'd look into that, it sounds like something useful for you.

janvaletin wrote:

As far as the hard drive goes, I only need enough to run the OS, and since I will be building the computers, I figured I should aim for the cheapest solution possible.

The cheapest, new, spinning-platter drive you are going to find is going to be 80GB, I assumed that machine came with a 500GB drive because that's what the linked spec-sheet indicated. If it doesn't, and you want to consider other options you could do something like:

1) Don't put a harddrive in the things at all, build yourself a livecd image and run the machine off that (annoying to update, but no-worries about reverting to a clean state, just reboot the machine) Also, no need to worry about harddrive failure.

2) Get a usb flash drive and run the machine off that, you could probably get a working system on 4GB, 8GB for sure. You won't save much money doing this though, maybe $10/$20 and, unless you've got a motherboard with an external usb-port soldered right on the board, you'll have to worry about someone yanking the drive out and rendering your system in-operable.

thisoldman · 2011-10-01 17:59:55

Vanilla KDE, I've read, includes a kiosk mode. http://techbase.kde.org/KDE_System_Admi … troduction

jdn06 · 2011-10-03 21:00:58

A frugal install of Slitaz would do great job. I think it is better than Puppy Linux (lighter and smarter) in a very similar concept. If you want to use LibreOffice and not OpenOffice, you will have to choose a cooking version (a kind of rolling release) till the publication of 4.0 (the next stable version).

JBorneu · 2011-10-12 22:19:07

I'd go for Debian. Cron a weekly "aptitude update" and "aptitude safe-upgrade" and it will in all probability keep running fine until it's time to switch to the next release.
CentOS or Desktop-BSD may do the trick too, but I haven't used those myself.

IMO, for the use you described, the nr. 1 requirement for the OS is that its stability does not get compromised by installing security updates. The longivity of the releases is another major advantage to Debian.

bwat47 · 2011-11-09 20:21:35

I'd go with lubuntu or xubuntu.

GERGE · 2011-11-12 11:34:24

I think a setup like this should have three things: stability, longevity, usability. Usuability isn't a problem if you are going to set it up and leave people with one user account. But different things like Gnome 3 might present some problems so they are out. You should go for Xfce as Gnome 2 will also roll into 3 some day.. For me longevity means a rolling release, so it also shortens our list quite a bit.

I think you should go for Debian Testing Xfce.

Prepare for weekly updates and set user account to clean itself at boot and you are ready.

Last edited by GERGE (2011-11-12 11:38:57)

Janarto · 2011-11-13 11:00:00

Considering your need I would say scientific linux.

Since you don't need a lot of tweaks, cutting edge packages, rolling releases, that's my distro of choice for pure usability

hitest · 2011-11-29 16:11:30

Janarto wrote:

Considering your need I would say scientific linux.
Since you don't need a lot of tweaks, cutting edge packages, rolling releases, that's my distro of choice for pure usability

Agreed. Another good choice would be Slackware with XFce4.

sidRo · 2011-11-30 08:10:52

CentOS, Debian Stable, Ubuntu LTS, Scientific Linux.

taylorchu · 2011-11-30 22:36:47

you can actually use arch.
I build an arch desktop for my sister. she only reads comic, watches anime online, and does some homework. I just get a i3 cpu plus 8gb of ram. I created an iso boot image, so she can fully mess around with linux.
if it crashes, just reboot.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-28 13:56:18

Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#2 2011-09-28 15:49:14

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#3 2011-09-28 16:33:32

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#4 2011-09-28 21:14:26

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#5 2011-09-28 22:08:39

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#6 2011-09-29 02:16:28

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#7 2011-09-29 08:24:52

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#8 2011-09-29 08:50:59

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#9 2011-09-29 09:27:48

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#10 2011-10-01 16:17:02

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#11 2011-10-01 17:59:55

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#12 2011-10-03 21:00:58

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#13 2011-10-12 22:19:07

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#14 2011-11-09 20:21:35

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#15 2011-11-12 11:34:24

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#16 2011-11-13 11:00:00

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#17 2011-11-29 16:11:30

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#18 2011-11-30 08:10:52

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

#19 2011-11-30 22:36:47

Re: Best Distro for Publicly Used Computers?

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