I've got a Dell Optiplex 170L (see screenshot) with Linux Mint on it now. Mint runs okay but I'm just looking for a change, for something really fun. I remember (I was experimenting a year or so ago.) liking Bodhi but I figured I'd ask here before I did anything. And what's the distro that only puts on the software that you want? Thanks.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Here's what I would install on it: http://www.microlinux.eu

Cheers,

Niki

1 members found this post helpful.

If you stay away from the large 4 desktop environments (KDE, Gnome, Unity, Cinnamon) you can run pretty much any distro on that machine. Regarding haveing only the software you want, go for a Debian minimal install and build up from there, or try Arch or Gentoo (though with a machine like that you better are not impatient when installing Gentoo).

1 members found this post helpful.

That's a bit like this computer, so I wouldn't try anything too demanding.

Bodhi is still going strong.

Salix is a user-friendy adaptation of Slackware which has Xfce as the flagship GUI, but also offers installation disks for Fluxbox, Openbox, and Rat Poison (now that's really weird!) The installer will let you do a basic install: OS, GUI, configuration tools, and web browser (no wifi, though). The full installation is pretty slim, since the installer fits on a CD.

If you want to try Arch, you can avoid the long and complicated installation by using the Bridge or ArchBang installation disks.

PCLinuxOS is a favourite of mine. I wouldn't recommend the KDE version on your computer, but they do a good Mate one with minimum software (no word processor, but you do get Great Little Radio Player).

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks Niki. It looks good.

Thanks Tobi. (And thanks for the warning--patience is not one of my skills.)

Thanks David. I had Bodhi for a while and it was really fun, but as I recall it wasn't as functional as MX14 or Mint. I may give it another try.

You know, one of the things I'd be interested is a distro that would let me run the latest version of Libreoffice (on my computer). Any suggestions for that?

This is the place to discover that sort of thing
http://distrowatch.com/search.php
and it reveals several distros, including the very latest Mint.

Actually, you can uninstall the version that comes with the distro and get a .deb or .rpm of the latest one from the Document Foundation
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/.../Install/Linux
The rpm would do for PCLinuxOS and the deb for Bodhi.
For Salix you'd need to convert the rpm to a tgz, like this
http://docs.salixos.org/wiki/How_to_..._SQL_Developer
Arch looks a bit more complex to me
http://nemrod.se/guides/install-rpm-...on-arch-linux/

1 members found this post helpful.

It also works good (I'm the maintainer of that thing). It's in use at local schools and companies here in South France, rock-solid, reliable and fast. And good looking, I guess.

1 members found this post helpful.

You don't have to use the RPM on Arch to get the latest version of LibreOffice. In fact, Arch offers both versions, Still and Fresh in the "extra" repositories.

Wow. Is that distrowatch a cool site. Thanks. As to the uninstall and install the latest, I've heard that's tricky. That the distro may not have the juice to run the latest LO. (That's why they come with the versions of LO they do.)

If you like cutting edge packages Manjaro-xfce is a good candidate. It is a ready to use Acrh based system with some graphical configuration tool and slightly more stable than Arch.

However, if you have had good time with MX I recommend staying with it as I know it as the best lightweight debian based OS for desktops. You can install latest version of Libreoffice using backports on MX.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks travis. Manjaro-xfce looks cool (I like the rolling release idea) but a little complicated for somebody like me. (eg. You have to know your UEFI partitions.) Maybe some day though. And I like MX14. I've got that on a laptop and I'm keeping it. This would be for a desktop I'm not using for anything else.