No maintenance Linux

Llama · 2009-03-07 14:57:48

Hi,

It's a 'Linux for a newbie' question, but with a flavor .

A newbie of this kind can be found in a well computerized household, where a grease monkey is always handy. A person who wants her Internet, her digiKam and her movies, but knows absolutely nothing about system administration. By 'nothing' I mean exactly nothing. She never installed any application on any system, and it's too late in the day to teach the old dog any new tricks.

Now the deck is going to be all hers. Of course, there's no such thing as a 'no maintenance' system, but there's a desperate need for the next best thing.

What could it be?

The system can be serviced on schedule by an experienced user, say, no more than twice a year. It's essential, however, that there be no pestering him in between.

Application base can be old; she can be told 'no new apps for you in six months or more', but even automatic upgrades with Debian Stable may require user intervention now and then. This just can't be accepted.

Any ideas? After all, there are distros for any conceivable task; I do hope the right solution just escaped my notice ...

bender02 · 2009-03-07 15:15:33

I don't get it - if you install *any* distro, configure it and don't update - what can go wrong?

Llama · 2009-03-07 15:23:28

(1) No security updates. This can be merely theoretical hazard, I agree.
(2) With your average distro no maintenance for six months means reinstalling it twice a year. It's probably easier to reinstall than upgrade Arch after six months . If this is the only option, what can I do but comply? I just hope for a cleaner solution, that's all.

Bonzodog · 2009-03-07 15:32:51

Get her onto Slackware. Its uber stable and can live happily maintenance free for 6 months. Does not require updates at all. Yes. the apps may be a couple of versions behind, but once you install it, and make sure all hardware works, and know for sure that she has all the software she will require, you can just leave it to run.

Llama · 2009-03-07 15:36:16

I don't know much about Slackware. Can it be substituted with Zenwalk for this specific need?

pogeymanz · 2009-03-07 15:41:55

Why not just use Debain/Ubuntu or Arch and don't update ever? How many people have used Windows XP and turned off automatic updates for the last six years? So, just leave the current snapshot of Arch on there for the next six years or until you do feel like reinstalling it for her.

Dusty · 2009-03-07 15:53:49

pogeymanz wrote:

Why not just use Debain/Ubuntu or Arch and don't update ever? How many people have used Windows XP and turned off automatic updates for the last six years? So, just leave the current snapshot of Arch on there for the next six years or until you do feel like reinstalling it for her.

I've done this for my parents -- I updated the system every time I was home, which was about every six months. Now they're on Ubuntu, but the old Arch computer went to my aunt. It hasn't been updated in a couple years but she's perfectly happy with it.

Dusty

bender02 · 2009-03-07 16:49:29

Llama wrote:

(1) No security updates. This can be merely theoretical hazard, I agree.

The biggest security update is to get her to use linux instead of windows

R00KIE · 2009-03-07 20:50:57

bender02 wrote:

Llama wrote:
(1) No security updates. This can be merely theoretical hazard, I agree.
The biggest security update is to get her to use linux instead of windows

True indeed.

As for the distro to use ... you may want to try a few and see if you can get everything to work there, then when you do find such a thing disable updates and forget about it Even when connected to the internet it will last longer without problems than any windoze counterpart. But don't get smart and try to do an update after a long time without updates .... I guess no distro is ready for that so either teach the "old dog" the new trick about updates or just turn them off completely and forget about it.
Just my 2 cents.

Blue Peppers · 2009-03-07 22:08:15

I suggest an old debian version. The only way I managed to crash that was by moving to the experimental repository. As far as I remember, the old versions only get security updates, and that's it. To be honest, you could use any distro though, but if you want security updates, you could either use debian, or change the repos of some random distro to only notice security updates (but this may break, so not recommended)

cdwillis · 2009-03-07 23:02:08

Personally I'd just install the newest Long Term Support version of Ubuntu and set her off on her own. That's what I did with my roommate.

Ronin-Sage · 2009-03-08 01:35:55

I'm a bit conservative on this issue--your computer is only as effective and such as you're willing to make it(in other words, you get out of it what you put in), but if you really need a user-friendly Linux distro, perhaps Linux Mint is a good choice(based off of Ubuntu, but even more user-friendly and somehow better-coded, to my knowledge).

Mint is what I used before coming to Arch(I switched because I wanted a more hands-on Linux experience), and I still heavily favor it.

bangkok_manouel · 2009-03-08 02:30:46

arch+openssh

lilsirecho · 2009-03-08 03:07:01

FaunOS because it never changes and can be loaded with USB Flash and it runs in ram...the fastest possible medium. Does not require a HDD.

olovram · 2009-03-08 20:33:41

bangkok_manouel wrote:

arch+openssh

+1

Themaister · 2009-03-08 21:25:37

Brilliant Then you can do system maintenance without her even knowing

Tmi · 2009-03-08 21:35:07

R00KIE wrote:

But don't get smart and try to do an update after a long time without updates .... I guess no distro is ready for that so either teach the "old dog" the new trick about updates or just turn them off completely and forget about it.
Just my 2 cents.

Why should it actually be a problem to do an update after a long time? Shouldn't it be pretty much the same as if you do continous updates? I mean, it's all the same packages. Or does it have something to do with config files problems?

bernarcher · 2009-03-08 21:48:43

Tmi wrote:

Why should it actually be a problem to do an update after a long time? Shouldn't it be pretty much the same as if you do continous updates? I mean, it's all the same packages. Or does it have something to do with config files problems?

There is a lot that could go wrong. Dependencies change over time so that they will not be resolvable after long periods of non-updating. Configurations may change, as well as API conflicts, subtle directory changes etc. The old system to be upgraded might be in a status of unresolvable conflict with those latest packages to be installed.

JawsThemeSwimming428 · 2009-03-08 21:52:22

I would say Mepis. It is what I started with. The newest 8.0 release just came out and it has stable software with a Debian Lenny base. The system is very solid and is based on the KDE desktop so her digiKam would be perfect. Mepis is definitely the way to go for this....

http://www.mepis.org/

Llama · 2009-03-09 09:20:57

bangkok_manouel wrote:

arch+openssh

Remote dental surgery, eh? Suppose the desktop environment glitches, like this. There's a sneaking suspicion that nobody is going to be happy on either end of the wire.

Last edited by Llama (2009-03-09 09:30:14)

bangkok_manouel · 2009-03-09 09:49:51

Llama wrote:

bangkok_manouel wrote:
arch+openssh
Remote dental surgery, eh? Suppose the desktop environment glitches, like this. There's a sneaking suspicion that nobody is going to be happy on either end of the wire.

agreed. OTOH, you can wait as long as you want before doing such 'facing death upgrades' (which, actually, are quite rare). you can then be sure you analyzed each and every issue you may encounter before doing anything on the remote machine. it'll take more time (for you) but since you're already using arch, you'll know about that stuff long way before the lethal Syu.

ps. plus you can read what she writes about you in her mails to her best friend

szymon_g · 2009-03-09 11:58:03

i'd suggest debian stable (lenny) or centos 5.2 /soon 5.3 will be released/. both distros are stable and get only security fixes. I'd suggest also running aptitude update /yum update/ via cron- once or twice per week. it should keep her system safe.

fumbles · 2009-03-09 12:12:36

.

Last edited by fumbles (2020-09-26 11:56:53)

lilsirecho · 2009-03-09 16:23:54

Llama;

FaunOS is flash-based Live USB and contains 600 packages of archlinux. It loads the same packages each and every time. It is very isolated from damage in internet operations..just reboot.

The data desired by the user to be retained can be off-loaded to USB flash devices rather than HDD devices.

New packages can be downloaded and run (in ram) without permanently retaining them, just reboot without saving and they are gone.

Use of USB flash drives in this OS provides advantageous techniques without requiring upgrades to the FaunOS flash drive.

Soon, Cfast flash drives will permit much faster performance in this live system.

Puppy linux is similar but much smaller..my wife uses it daily. She is 82.

iggyst00ge · 2009-03-09 17:09:18

Debian or Mepis focus on stability over all else (both are based on Debian), are on a rolling release schedule (no reinstallations every half-year), and can use Synaptic for package management /updates (so you could, theoretically teach her how to do a point-and-click system update periodically). Debian is definitely lighter and more customizable out of the box (Mepis is KDE-based), but will require more work by you initially.

Either would be great, especially if you can set up Synaptic to do security updates on its own.

Chris

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-07 14:57:48

No maintenance Linux

#2 2009-03-07 15:15:33

Re: No maintenance Linux

#3 2009-03-07 15:23:28

Re: No maintenance Linux

#4 2009-03-07 15:32:51

Re: No maintenance Linux

#5 2009-03-07 15:36:16

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#6 2009-03-07 15:41:55

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#7 2009-03-07 15:53:49

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#8 2009-03-07 16:49:29

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#9 2009-03-07 20:50:57

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