Newbe here with first post. I've became increasing annoyed about Window notebooks the last 20 years. Before that no computers, travelling for 10 years before.
Whenever I tried linuxes on a USB, I always came to the point where I realized, I had to invest too steep in a learning curve, I'm not willing to. Like learning a new language - worth learning a whole culture and interesting people - but for a machine? I still prefer to meditate and communicate with real people for hours every day. Beside work, too few hours left..
What beside the monopoly, etc. annoyed me about windows machines the most, was that each notebook in those years had minor breakdowns, like usually the battery weakening or dying, the touchdisplay not working or broke, or the keys one by one not functioning anymore. Considered by the manufacturer irrepareable, or with the passing of time this technology always cheaper to buy a new one, instead of repair.
3 years ago with the last irreparable one I quit. Only used a android tablet since, and was surprised by its low-energy footprint: 7 Watts recharging, half that when charged. I considered Shiftbook bundle next, because modularly build and repairable. Sadly too powerful for my humble 95% use of browser, office and multimedia. And right now turned out with horrible battery runtime. And much too expensive for me.
So I had to decide now - tablet starts to pass out too - and bought a mini PC (8GB DDR, 128GB M.2 SSD, J4129, Windows10; for 120,- only), a touch display (11.6 inch), a simple keyport, mouse, and a 20AH powerback I already had. Therefore everything cheaply replaceable, without having to dispose a whole notebook each time, due to these 3 parts always broken after somr time - but separate now. Duh, took me a long time to realize something so simple
My plan, don't know if it works: Taking a simple light-weight distro for the 95% of time I use the computer, and run windows in a WM whenever at my wits-end. So a light as possible most of the use time. For that task: which tiny linux is easy on beginners with intuitive use for browser, office, media and has OS virtualization already included?
From an article, these seem from the lightest upward: TinyCore (not for beginners), Slax, Puppy, Elive, wattOZ, Slitaz, Debian.. Does anybody know if any of those could fulfill my requirements?
Or in a similiar region of system-requirements - almost nought nowadays - any distro close which would instead?
Reading up on these I found Slitax interesting, because as a server too, could be worked with over the internet. Would it work for me?