veerain, Bodhie rocks! My favorite so far. And it's the only one that the internet worked well on. Think I can get LibreOffice and Dropbox on it? (Thanks for suggesting it.)

Absolutely! If that doesn't work, you can try this command...

If you want just the writer, just check to see if the package manager will install that by itself. Perhaps it will also have a package for Dropbox. :)

Regards...

Gregg Bell,

According to this, Zorin will work on non-pae machines using the boot option forcepae:

http://zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8099

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu-fake-PAE

Awesome, Ardvark. Thanks. Hey, do you happen to know, does that Bodhi app center function like the Ubuntu Software Center on other distros? Does it have the same exact programs?

Thanks beachboy2. I looked at it. A little complicated for me. But when I get a chance I'll look at it closer.

Hi Gregg...

You're welcome, glad it helped. :)

I've not actually seen or used Bodhi so I really couldn't tell you. I would imagine the functionality is similar but I doubt it would have the same exact programs as other distributions. Give it a shot and see. :)

Regards...

Thanks :)

No problem :)

Actually went to install Bodhi and it wouldn't install. (fate?) So installed MX14.4 and it's absolutely money! Yeah, LO. Quick. I like everything about it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Congrats Gregg! How was the installer? I would imagine it would be more difficult than the xubuntu? I just looked at some info on this MX14 quickly and it looks really interesting. It kinda gives me the initial impression of having a lot of the debian benefits but they seemed to add some interesting "user friendly" ideas that would be great for the average user. Please follow up with your experience with this. It does sound like a winner for low spec machines, but I would be interested in your impressions of using it coming from xubuntu.

Thanks jross! Yeah, the installer was a little more complicated than all the others I tried. (Mint, Linux, Tiny Core) But just a little. It gave me the option of how much of the disk to use for the install and the rest for something else (maybe swap, I don't rememember). I stayed pretty steadily with the defaults and there were excellent explanations (for the most part anyway) as to what the choices in the install meant. I was thrown a little at the end when it said to reboot without the bootable USB attached. I pulled the USB right then and the screen went black. But then when I shut it down and brought it back up the MX14 was there.

I do think MX would be great for the average user. It seems very user friendly, esp. for very weak machines (like my laptop). With Xubuntu that laptop couldn't do some of the simplest things. (Half the time it couldn't even open the Ubuntu Software Center, let alone do anything there.) MX is much more functional. I can get online easily and actually move around without it bogging. (It did bog once moving around in a weather site, which is not surprising with all the radar animation and what-all happening on that site.)

The browser is Iceweasel. I'd never heard of it. Seemed to me to be a little brother to Firefox. If you use Firefox you'll be comfortable with Iceweasel. (But you have to wonder what Einstein came up with that name. :)) The search engine is ixquick. Which is great for privacy but if you're used to Google, well, it's not quite there, but certainly adequate.

I loved the UI. Clean. Simple. AND it has an actual clock face (Xubuntu with it's mandatory 24-hour time or just about unreadable analog can be so hard for me to read.) with even a secondhand.

I'm even thinking about switching my Xubuntus for MX14s. I have yet to use the laptop loaded with the MX14 much. Although, obviously I did test the browser and snoop around. And I tested the libreoffice and it was fine.

It just runs so easily. So far it's been and out and out pleasure.

Hi Gregg...

Does this distribution have a large repository of software with a good package manager? I'm looking for a good distribution (to replace one I was using before) that would be good for novice computer users and is lightweight as possible. What is your laptop's specs, if I could ask? :)

Regards...

ardvark71,

Basically MX14 is based on Debian Testing, plus some Community repositories, so need to worry about a shortage of software:

http://main.mepis-deb.org/

http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Good old Synaptic and apt-get take care of the packages.

Why not give it a try and report back?

That would be my pleasure as soon as I can get a hold of some blank CD-R's. :)

Thank you for the software information, too. (insert thumbs up smiley here)

Regards...

Yep, synaptic package manager is the thing. There is no software center as in Xubuntu. But as I said it has synaptic. However,synaptic does not have a search box (like Xubuntu does). You can, though, search from the edit feature dropdown on the toolbar.

And to my delight there are all kinds of useful programs already on MX. Things like VLC Media Player, Xfburn, Catfish file finder, Clipman, Bleach bit, Gdebi package installer, Gparted.

I installed the screenshot software Shutter via Synaptic and it took about three minutes. I took the screenshot with it.

My laptop stats:

model: Dell Latitude D505
Hard drive:30 GB
Processor 1.4Ghz CPU (celeron)
RAM: 256 MB

I'll attach another testimonial I found from a Xubuntu user.

"This is Debian Stable with up-to-date applications from the Mepis repository. And remember what I wrote before about choosing distros? One of the things to consider is the repositories. Choose a distro and you’re also choosing it’s repositories. Y’wanna talk about huge, vast, ginormous, mondo-mucho gargantuan repos? Debian has the biggest and richest repositories in the entire universe! And installing software in MX is easy with the Synaptic Package Manager. I always used Synaptic anyway rather than that slow, bloated Software Center, so again, this has been an easy transition from Xubuntu so far.
And when I need support, Mepis has forums where lots of wonderful people make themselves available to technophobes like me. On my first day they helped me solve two minor problems (one just by browsing the topics and reading, and the other in reply to my screenshooter issue).
I’m a happy li’l sidekick today. My technophobia has not stopped me from trying out yet another Linux distro, and this one looks like it could well take Xubuntu’s place in my heart, becoming the distro I would always “run home to.”"




And here's the deal. I'm doing all this from the MX. This would have been IMPOSSIBLE from the Xubuntu. So I'd say yes, the Xubuntu is more powerful, but MX14 is light enough to actually use. (And I checked and synaptic does have Dropbox, which I wanted.)