hi would like to introduce my 13 year old daughter to linux, she has an oldish toshiba laptop, sorry no spec details - ideally i want to run from a live cd, or usb stick...not wanting to dual boot, so what are the options for a fast light distro which would give her a chance to appreciate the speed and ease of use for her, a complete novice...thank you for your time ...

You need to tell us the specs.

Assuming the specs are good enough and she is the only person who uses the computer, I think Puppy Linux is a good choice for a young person.

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It would help to know how old the system is, but in general you could try. fedora XFCE spin, PClinuxOS with LXDE/XFCE, Vector linux, and Slax (all of which can be run from live Disks). If it's older than I think, Puppy is very fast for older machines. if it's very very old, then you want to look at Tinycore I would think.

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Slax will run on almost anything. The Ubuntu series is okay but I am not sure of the newest ones for specs wise. If you want her to go hardcore linux then Ubuntu is not a good option. I would go Slax and see how she does.

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Some distros are made for children: (from distrowatch.com):

Qimo 4 Kids is a distribution of Linux, derived from the popular Ubuntu, customised for use by children ages 3 and up. It comes pre-installed with free and open source games that are both educational and entertaining, with many more educational titles available for download from Ubuntu. The interface of Qimo 4 Kids has been specifically designed to be easy to navigate by the youngest of users.

DoudouLinux is a Debian-based distribution targeting young children. Its goals are to make computer use as simple and pleasant as possible ...

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is an initiative to build a low-cost laptop computer with a pre-installed operating system and applications designed for children

Foresight linux Kid's edition is now available for your kid’s enjoyment. The Kid's edition features a number of education and entertainment applications...

Skolelinux: The out-of-the-box environment comes with 75 applications aimed at schools..

SuliX is a Hungarian, Fedora-based distribution for schools.

Most of these have live cd also.

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...hi thank you all for your time and answers to my query, I have to admit I am intrigued by the Slackware distros but they are pretty daunting to be honest as I know next to nothing about the bones of linux, will pass on puppy or slax to Eva and hope she gets on ok with these...a stupid question I know but is there any simplified guide to the basics oh how to run slackware as this is the one distro where I would have no choice but to learn linux - no easy ride here me thinks...but I am very curious if nothing else...haha...thanks

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