The Simplest Linux for my Grandmother

[ChronicD]

Hello world

Firstly i am sorry if this has been talked about before, but for the love of i cannot find it. My gran has decided that she wants to go online. It is a scary thought but i took on the challenge and started searching with much enthusiasm. Much googling later i am flummuxed.

I have previousely looked for the same version/customised linux before - but to no avail. So below i describe what it is i want out of the set up and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. oh and fyi we are looking at getting her one of those nice asus eeepc either the 1000 or the s101 depending.

I am looking for an extremely simplified user interface where there are only 4-5 buttons on the screen as bubbles - think along the lines of apples front row Apple - Support - Downloads - Front Row 1.3.1. and i would like this to be the defoult boot enviroment.

Example Buttons

Firefox
Evolution mail/thunderbird
Videos
Music
Writer

obviousely there would need to be backend support behind this and i am not sure whether such a distro exists with this as defoult or more then likely one has to install something as an application ontop of another distro such as ubuntu or bebian.

thanks in advance

CD

[jmadero]

Try out Ubuntu, my mom and my girlfriend use it and both aren't computer nerds or anything like that (like I am ) and they both find it MUCH easier than Windows. My mom uses it on an old machine, 667mhz, 512 RAM, 32 meg video card, etc....quite old and she's happy with how smooth it runs (I actually set it up so I can skype with her and I set up remote desktop so if she has a problem I can give her a lesson over skype, taking over her computer and showing her exactly what to do from 700 miles away

[rokytnji]

Dream Linux also has a Mac like look/icon setup. Under the hood though it is Linux.

[jayd512]

I believe Ubuntu also has a few apps available that you can install to give you a kicker panel almost identical to the dock at the bottom of most newer Macs. That way, you can just set the 5 or 6 programs that you need to be readily accessible.

[GNU-Fan]

I have observed that computer beginners seem to have a hard time to understand the concept of layered windows. They seem to prefer single tasking -- any program they don't see running fullscreen they forget about and rather start it anew.

For this reason, a window manager like http://matchbox-project.org/ might be a good idea.

[ChronicD]

Hello guys

Thanks for the snappy responces, i wish to elaborate my own research thus far and discuss your suggestions.

About me: i am an uber geek and though i am new to linux i am picking it up fast - have just finished setting up an ubuntu high end graphics machine and a mythbuntu old clapper for my tv (having issues with the svideo out - but thats another issue/thread) my next project is setting up linux on a couple of old xboxes and on an hp620lx (this looks really fun using xboxlinux and Jlime respectively. plus a cocktail full of other fun projects.

So as i have said i have been using ubuntu and love it - i am just lacking the knowledge to customize it to what i want. (to be talked of below) i have gone and looked at matchbox (thanks for the suggestion) and like the look of it, especially the olpc version - i could imagine that this would provide a base for what i wish to generate. i am currently downloading dream linux and will talk later about it.
I know one could do away with the desktop and just run a kicker panel along the bottom/side/top but i was hoping for a visibly bigger alternative - Grans eyesight is not great.

These suggestions are great but still (in my understanding) do not provide a fairly ready to go solution along the lines of what i want.

What i want: The idea is to have a very stremelined laptop running off of a ssd so that my gran feels like she can use it much like a recipe book or dictionary. Pick it up use it put it down - no loading or opening (well minimal opening). I dont want to give her a operating sytem where she has to learn anything! literally it will be as simple a HCI (HCI) as possible.

She has NEVER used a computer in any shape or form and only wishes to do the five things (perhaps one or two other at later stage - eg VOIP) i lrsted in the original post. For this reason i would ratehr bypass the desktop enviroment completely and work more along the line of:

1 a start page with several application buttons on it (arrangement is irrelevant)

2 an invissible dock along the bottom that windows will minimize to

3 nothing else - no taskbar, startmenu or multiple desktop enviroments (or one enviroment for each application type?)

I think there are many people who would wish for something so simple - i would like to have it on a touch screen on my fridge for example.

I hope this explains things a bit better - i will post a pock up later tonight - got to go for lunch

[GNU-Fan]

I've just had an idea:
How about having 5 different workspaces? Each of which has one dedicated application opened up fullscreen without borders all the time.

This way, switching between the different applications will be very fast and non confusing. At the expense of a longer boot up time and higher ram demand.

The workspace switcher surely can me modded easily to show illustrative icons instead of the workspace's content.

[ChronicD]

Hello all,

For those of you contributing to this thread - thank you, i will now say what my research has pulled up.

I have gone and downloaded quite a few netbook distros in the hope that these simplified os will solve my problem.

I have downloaded

Xandros - the original (4.0 i think) which is what the eeepc os is based on - this was not quite what i was looking for as it is still to complicated.

gOS - this was quite fun with its multiple feature and well worth playing with for geeks and probably better for just simple savvy pc/mac users.

Ubuntu mobile edition for netbooks - this looked like exactly what i was looking for - still a bit to many things you can do but looks really good - this distro has been used in several orther versions (good as ubuntu did not release a live cd capable iso) these are, ubuntu eee, Ubuntu Netbook Remix and forsight. to name some of them.

Answer Gnu Fan: Yes i like that idea - it is certainly what i am interested in - dedicated panes that cannot be closed/lost. i have found, while setting up my grandfathers pc (vista as he demanded it), that the biggest challange is finding the applications - i used stardock to make a huge dock at the top of the desktop and put an icon in for everything he uses - this with the vista side bar creates an enviroment that he can quickly and easily navigate.

So for my gran who is much less computer illiterate it has to be something even simpler then this. an os that booted a number of tabs across the top with one application dedicated to each - ie you cannot close them would be just the ticket.

anyone interested in alternative distros should also look at
mepis
linux mce
mythbuntu (this is fantastic)
xbox linux

And that all for now
CD

[elija]

Another alternative might be LINPUS, it's Fedora based and is very pretty with big friendly icons (by default - A full XFCE desktop is a single click away)

[jayd512]

Also, have you looked at OLPC? It was actually designed with children in mind, so it could fit the bill for a grandmother with little to no existing knowledge of computers. Fedora based with a GUI called Sugar.