Soliciting recommendations for the best Linux Distro on an older machine for a child

J

Just Plain Bill

Guest
About a week ago I installed Ubuntu 14.04 (32 bit, as that was recommended for 2gb or RAM or less) on a Acer Veriton N281G D425 Intel Atom 1.8GHz 2GB RAM and a 500GB HDD. I’m “mostly” a noob to Linux, had played with Linux years and years ago (like 10 - 15 yrs - Mandrake, Lindows, Freespire, and Suse ~ but I was just playing. This small box computer seems perfect for my 5 year old son. I first put Qimo 2.0 and it ran like a high end machine but as you power users know Qimo is build on top of Ubuntu 10 and it's no longer supported. So I went to Ubuntu thinking I'd just download the kids progs that my son took a liking to and more room for him to grow with the OS with a current version of Ubuntu. Well, it ran horrible. Especially video responsiveness. It was painful. I went to an Internet Linux forum ( a different forum) and someone recommended trying; Ubuntu Studio, Lubuntu, and/or Xubuntu.

Well, here I am, a few days later and I tried the following distributions, none with good results:

- Ubuntu Studio 14. 4.3 32 bit- still so slow, painfully so
- Lubuntu 32 bit 15.04 - would install completely, but on first reboot it would hang at a white screen. I tried twice, two complete fresh reinstalls, both with the same tragic result
- Xubuntu - install crapped out (I think I am going to try Xubuntu one more time, but not feeling it ...)
-Elementary OS - loading locked up

I'm a noob and y'all are experts but it makes sense to me that these should work given the fact that Qimo 2.0 (built on top of Ubuntu 10) works VERY well.
Well, since I've got a 500 GB hard drive I put Qimo back on and I'll give it part of the drive to play in, my son likes the stuff that comes with it. But I want to put something else on the bulk of the drive. Assuming Xubuntu fails again, what's next? I read a bit about "puppy" for slower machines. Are there others for slower machines? I’ve tended to take a likely to the Ubuntu Debian-based flavors, but doesn’t have to be.

There is a vendor out there that sells these units pre-loaded with Linux Linpus, but I don't think that's Debian based and I don't know anything about it.

Thanks so much!
 


Just Plain Bill said:
About a week ago I installed Ubuntu 14.04 (32 bit, as that was recommended for 2gb or RAM or less) on a Acer Veriton N281G D425 Intel Atom 1.8GHz 2GB RAM and a 500GB HDD. I’m “mostly” a noob to Linux, had played with Linux years and years ago (like 10 - 15 yrs - Mandrake, Lindows, Freespire, and Suse ~ but I was just playing. This small box computer seems perfect for my 5 year old son. I first put Qimo 2.0 and it ran like a high end machine but as you power users know Qimo is build on top of Ubuntu 10 and it's no longer supported. So I went to Ubuntu thinking I'd just download the kids progs that my son took a liking to and more room for him to grow with the OS with a current version of Ubuntu. Well, it ran horrible. Especially video responsiveness. It was painful. I went to an Internet Linux forum ( a different forum) and someone recommended trying; Ubuntu Studio, Lubuntu, and/or Xubuntu.

Well, here I am, a few days later and I tried the following distributions, none with good results:

- Ubuntu Studio 14. 4.3 32 bit- still so slow, painfully so
- Lubuntu 32 bit 15.04 - would install completely, but on first reboot it would hang at a white screen. I tried twice, two complete fresh reinstalls, both with the same tragic result
- Xubuntu - install crapped out (I think I am going to try Xubuntu one more time, but not feeling it ...)
-Elementary OS - loading locked up

I'm a noob and y'all are experts but it makes sense to me that these should work given the fact that Qimo 2.0 (built on top of Ubuntu 10) works VERY well.
Well, since I've got a 500 GB hard drive I put Qimo back on and I'll give it part of the drive to play in, my son likes the stuff that comes with it. But I want to put something else on the bulk of the drive. Assuming Xubuntu fails again, what's next? I read a bit about "puppy" for slower machines. Are there others for slower machines? I’ve tended to take a likely to the Ubuntu Debian-based flavors, but doesn’t have to be.

There is a vendor out there that sells these units pre-loaded with Linux Linpus, but I don't think that's Debian based and I don't know anything about it.

Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

Wow Just Plain Bill, I feel your pain.

I not only do this for a living but I have a computer lab in Huntington Beach where I help those people struggling with their income and provide free computers to them as the begin to learn. So I am very familiar with these issues.

A couple of things: My experience with the Atom processor has been difficult with varients of Linux. Some of them will not work at all, depending on the chipset. I would research that. Lubuntu with LXCE should probably work OK, again, depending on the chipset.

Puppy Linux is absolutely great, in my opinion, and great for kids. That would be a great place to get started. You have already tried Qimo, and if that works good, and you like it...... It has a complete wuite of educational games.... Perhaps stick with it a little bit?

There is also Sugar from sugarlabs. There is also Ubermis, which is extensively used in schools and there is Edubuntu.

Since you like Debian, you might want to try Edubuntu as it was also developed in collaboration with educators and teachers.

I hope some of these suggestions are of help to you.

Feel free to look me up if you have extensive questions or just reply and I'll see if I can help further or not.

Cheers!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 798 (members: 11, guests: 787)

Latest posts

Top