Introduction and questions

[JanetBiggar]

Hello,
I am very new to Linux, just started using Linux Lite 3.4, Mint 17.1 (xfce) and Cinnamon 18.2 in the last month.  I introduced myself in the Mint forum, but realize this is a separate forum so here goes:

I am a retired veterinarian in Canada spending part of the year in South Africa where my husband and I do volunteer work with disadvantaged male youth between 14-22.  I erase and reformat older donated laptops to bring with us to place with deserving youth to assist them with their studies.  I also hold study groups with the youth after school as well as help one-on-one with primarily math and science. 
Until I investigated Linux I was loading Windows XP on the computers and battling at times to find the correct drivers!  I am loving the "works out of the box" feature to Linux.

I have tried various searches for the following questions I have, but did not find posts with the same questions (answered) - perhaps I am not searching correctly thus please excuse me.  Feel free to give me tips on searches:
NOTE: The majority of the computers I get fall into two categories: ones with RAM of 512mb to 0.99 GB OR 2 GB RAM (Perhaps most of you would say these are all in the same category!).
1) So far I have deduced that Linux Lite would be best on the lesser computers (under 1 GB) and on the 2GB RAM computers I felt Linux Mint xfce 17.1 was best.  Does this make sense..?  or should I be using Lite on all of them...
2) Should I be enabling zRAM on some or all of these?
3) One of the donated computers is an HP Chromebook (RAM 2GB but HD only 16 GB) - which version would be best for it?
4) I did see from other posts that there is no screen saver on Linux Lite 3.4 (haven't checked yet to see if the other two versions have screensavers).  Should I not do something so as to protect the screens, if so what?  I didn't really understand the "light locker"...
5) Lastly, the youth periodically may be inserting USB sticks to copy material to then have printed.  What can I do to avoid virus transfer as I have already had youth have issues on a couple of computers running XP?

Would I be best to simply post my questions elsewhere (e.g.software?)?

[firenice03]

Welcome!!!


The short answers... I think most would agree...


1) Linux Lite will work the same.. and somewhat snappier on more a system with more ram.. Using LL on all these systems may lessen your administration (though install Linux is pretty simple). I use LL on several and have tried Mint but came back to LL..


2) I'm using on 2 systems 1 with 1gb and another with 8gb.. On lesser I think it helps (I'll let others chime in on the technical aspects)


3) Chromebook you may have to confirm but I think there a few small hoops to jump through to install... But LL would be fine on 16gb I would keep it to the basics.. You home directory wouldn't have much room so I would keep to the cloud (whether it be dropbox or google or  ????)


4) Screensaver could most likely be added but as these are laptops of sorts me personally I favor hibernation for battery savings or a screen timeout or a sleep of sorts should also suffice


5) For the most part... and this will be a debate.. Linux won't suffer from Windows virus (unless virus is designed to) some say no need to have AV software... Others say otherwise.. Clamshell seems to popular by most on LL.. You can search the forums and see how its set up/used and favored along with may other topics. (Search from the main forum page  for clamshell or antivirus)


Don't forget the help manual as your setting up your machines... https://www.freecinema2022.gq/manual/

[bitsnpcs]

Hello JanetBiggar,

Welcome to the forum and Linux Lite

re;#2 -
[member=2]Jerry[/member] recently began Super Lite Mode you can read about it in this thread
https://www.freecinema2022.gq/forums/linux...n#msg34281

re;#1- IMO if it can run Linux Lite, it should run Linux Lite

re;#3 I don't know about using laptops with Linux.

re;#4 I don't use screensavers, I never used it, to save the screen you can press the button to turn it off.

re;#5 Linux will not run/execute Windows virus. If you dual boot a computer with Linux and Windows, the windows install can run the windows virus etc. I don't know about dual booting as I don't dual boot.

[trinidad]

1) Should run fine on 1gig with 1.88g cpu or faster. 512mb will depend on the graphics card and cpu.
2) Yes to zRAM on 1g. Haven't tried it on 512mb, some older RAM won't allow it.
3) zRAM should work well on the Chromebook but installation might be a little different. The smallest HDD I have personally setup LL 3.4 on is 30g with 1g RAM and a Celeron 2.40g cpu but 16g should be more than enough to allow swap and still have room.
4) xscreensaver still worked in 3.0 but I'm not sure about 3.4. Check the help manual for locker explanations.
5) XP viruses are everywhere. Good news they are highly unlikely to affect LL 3.4. As long as you are not opening the USB with wine don't worry about it.

I test a lot of Linux distros and I absolutely recommend Linux Lite first to new users. Also this is one very rare forum on the Internet: one where the developers participate regularly, and are generally good natured.

TC

[skippy95]

[member=7067]JanetBiggar[/member],
1)  I recommend Linux Lite on all of the computers. It would make your workload much easier and quicker. Learn one operating system and concentrate on that.

4)  Screensavers are not as important/necessary now, due to newer LCD screens not having the "burn" problem that the old CRT monitors had. So it's up to you if you want to use one or not.

I wish you the very best in your endeavors. It's great what you are doing.

[smhardesty]

I'll not repeat any of the comments I have read. They are ALL good, solid, recommendations and suggestions. Having spent a long period of time in the computing industry I would recommend Linux Lite be your one and only distro of choice. I say this for a couple of reasons. One, it will make your job as administrator much easier. No need to learn 2 or 3 distros if you don't need to. Lite will run well on older, slower computers and will run extremely well on any newer, more powerful computers you happen to obtain. Secondly, the students will be able to share in their knowledge of the system which will only lessen problems for them AND for you. Kids learn quickly and are apt to share their new found knowledge with their peers. As their knowledge of Linux Lite climbs, your problems as administrator should start to reduce.

[JanetBiggar]

Thanks for the welcomes and also the advice, much appreciated. 

I will stick to the one (Linux Lite) and will now go off and try making the zRAM change.  Not yet sure what I'll do regarding a screen saver as all these older laptops are most commonly 2008 era 'give or take'.

I waiting on a charge cord for the HP Chromebook so may have some questions then about loading Linux Lite on it 

[smhardesty]

Not yet sure what I'll do regarding a screen saver as all these older laptops are most commonly 2008 era 'give or take'.

I'm not sure you'd really have any problems with screen burn on 2008 laptops, but if you're concerned you can always use the power manager to blank the screens during inactivity just like a screensaver. Here is a shot of my setup. I never leave my laptop up and running if I'm not actively on it. That's the reason for all the "Never" settings while plugged in. I only have the "On Battery" settings set to blank the screen, put to sleep, etc, etc to keep from totally draining my battery. About the only real difference between using a screensaver and using Power Management is there isn't a pretty picture on the desktop with Power Manager.

Just a thought.

[JanetBiggar]

Thanks Steve, I will try out the power management (I also appreciate your comment about not likely having to worry about screen burn).

[pieboy314]

hmm, I am here because I have Power Manger configured similarly to smhardesty, but my laptop display goes nuts flickering endlessly on the Display Brightness setting after 10 minutes instead of just going blank...must be a driver thing.

I am thinking about installing a screensaver and getting away from Display Power Management, after reading this thread maybe I should make a fundamental change in my behavior and quit walking away from my laptop while it is full awake. hmmmm. I like to tinker and I am almost certainly going to try to install Xscreensaver