Replies

For your requirements and hardware Eric, I’d have to agree with Ed.

DreamLinux DE3.5 http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/

I’ve been using it for over 6 months now and have found it a perfect choice for all office, multimedia and graphics need.
I’ve hardly needed to install anything above the standard installation, but, if need be, installing .deb packages is very easy.

Try out the Live CD first and see what you think.

Bruce

Coming from a Unix perspective, why have full rights if they’re not needed?

I log into & use my unix system without Administrator (root) privileges. The applications are written with the idea that those privileges are not needed. Mostly.

I totally agree. I set up my XP account in the standard Unix/Linux way with one Administrator/root user and one ordinary limited-account user.
O.K., so the former is needed for installation and disk management purposes (basically any task that requires access to areas outside the user’s home directory), but,I’ve found, on average, I only need to access it one or two times a week. 99% of the time I log in to the limited user account and that’s all I need. Even if some malfeasant gets hold of my identity while I’m online they’ll only be able to mess with my user account – not my whole system.
I suppose, you could say, it’s slightly inconvenient that XP doesn’t have the one user/sudo type account that Ubuntu and Mint have, but I’ll place security over convenience any time.

I installed Ubuntu 8.04 (I forget what animal that is) on a used Dell desktop for my granddaughter,and it works great. Couldn’t get a wireless card to work, so there is an ethernet cable strung from the router upstairs, but other than that it’s a champ. She surfs the internet, does IM chat with her friends and uses Open Office Writer and Calc to do her homework. She has figured out how to download and play MP3s. No worries about viruses (that’s the main reason I gave her Linux instead of WinXP). Recognizes USB drives no problem. Sorry you had a hard time with it, but my experience has been quite good. Oh yeah, there was a glitch. We found out the hard way that it would not wake up from Hibernate mode. I had to reinstall the whole thing. Fortunately that was early on before she had saved any files. So now we know not to hibernate it and it works fine.

Strange how people’s experiences differ!
This was the first Ubuntu release (it’s called ‘Hardy Heron’, by the way) that I had trouble with – primarily with the network connection. I’d been using Ubuntu since 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) and everything had been peachy. I’d previously used Mandrake (before it merged with Connectiva) and SimplyMepis – both KDE desktops. With 6.06 I suddenly developed a preference for GNOME, but my faith was cruelly shaken by my experience with 8.04.
I now double-boot with OpenSUSE 11.2 (KDE) and Mint 8 -Helena (GNOME). I’ve been using both distros for a couple of years now (Mint since 3.1 Celena) and am very satisfied. Perhaps I just prefer Green to Brown!

I’ve used Irfan View for about ten years now and will probably continue using it for at least another ten.
It contains all I need (and more) for photo editing and the thumbnail viewer is great for archiving.
Also, you can set it up to open files in an external editor if you need to do ‘painting’ stuff.
If you find the GIMP too much like overkill, some earlier, and less bloated, versions of PaintShopPro are available as free downloads.