I am the maintainer of a few public computers in a school library. I didn’t really check, but if I remember correctly, the computers are pretty old 900 MHz Pentiums with 90-128 mb RAM.
Now these computers had XP on them before, but I removed this horrible operating system in order to install Linux. Of course, there is a huge number of distros to choose from, even in the low-end computer niche.
All I needed was a word processor like Abiword, multiple user support with login manager, a basic file manager like PCman, Flash support, a home directory for the user ’student’, a WM, a desktop with a background, and a panel with FOUR icons - Abiword, Net browser, Home and shutdown. Also, I wanted to restrict the user ’student’ not to change the system’s theme, background and configuration files.
The KDE Kiosk Tool is great, though I think you know how fast KDE on 92 mb of RAM runs (if it runs, that is).
The default install of TinyME, a PCFLuxboxOS- based mini distribution using Openbox
You cannot imagine how difficult it was for me to find something even close to this.
Sadly, some of these mini distros have huge flaws which need to be fixed. Others, on the other hand, aren’t really mini distributions.
So, if you have an old computer and you’re looking for a low-requirement Linux distro, don’t choose:
- Xubuntu - too damn slow, changing the desktop environment or the WM actually won’t make Opera or Abiword load much faster. I think it’s the lower levels that cause the lag.
- Fluxbuntu - see Xubuntu
- Vector Linux - not easy to configure, slow installation
If you have an old computer in a public place, don’t choose
- Puppy Linux (no multiuser, isn’t too pretty)
- DSL (constant X server problems)
In reality, the only distro from the aforementioned that I dislike is Fluxbuntu. Puppy and DSL are doing a great job for users with old computers, the only problem is they lack key features for public computers. And they don’t look nice, which I can understand isn’t a priority, but it would certainly be nice.
I’m checking out TinyMe at the moment, a small PCLinuxOS derivative , and it looks promising… by changing the Openbox configuration and a few other things, I think I’ll be able to generate a stripped-down LiveCD for those school computers. It looks alright, too.
SOem of you would probably suggest Debian. Non-base Debian is slow. I love Debian, but it’s way too slow and I’m too lazy to install it from scratch. If I’ll be forced to do this, I’ll rather play with Arch.
What do you think? Do you have any recommendations for a web kiosk computer with low specs? What do you think of TinyME? What is your favourite low-end window manager? I NEED INFORMATION GUYS!
If you view this image by Dave Boyle with FireFox 3, Internet Explorer or Opera 9.26, you will se a static PNG file. But if you use the Opera beta, or a beta of the new FireFox 3, you will be able to see an actual PNG animation.
The animated APNG format is supported in many mainstream browsers (except IE of course), though it seems that it will not see wider usage, because of the MNG format, which is supposed to be more popular (based on PNG). The Mozilla Foundation decided to support APNG because of its simple structure.
MNG is also supported in the mainstream browsers, like Konqueror and Netscape. It has been removed from FireFox some time ago, but according to Wikipedia, developers will slowly start to replace GIFs with this format.
The PNG Group decided in April last year not to use APNG generally. They also talk about other alternatives, like ANG, aNIM/mPNG, PNG in GIF and RGBA in GIF.
Format war? Hope not. That would mean more work for the developers. As a hobbyist programmer, I don’t like that idea. But just like PNGs are slowly replacing other still image formats, we could use an alternative to the 256-color bucket of fail which is GIF.
It’s been said that FireFox Mobile is due in late 2008. A great surprise, because the Minimo browser really got whooped by Opera Mini and its innovations, even on smaller mobile devices, such as older mobile phones. Besides, I hate Minimo.
The UI design mock-up already exists, for touch-screens. Now this looks like old news, but you have probably noticed that since October 2007 not much has happened: there is a chance for FireFox to win Opera Mini users over to its side. The community will enable you to customize the browser, and we’ll be seeing some speed tweaks, hopefully.
I’m just saying: if Deepfish goes cellular, we’re in for a war. Did you know that Nokia’s S60 browser, which is described by users as whoop-ass, is also open source?
Last but not least, I would like to thank God for not having a war between a crappy browser with 90% percent of market share, but rather between very good browsers, all with their own pros and cons.
I’m writing this post on my Macbook in a hotel, using a 30 min WLAN coupon. Luckily, I stored all of my crucial sites I must have access to immediately as I log on, at Nevibes. It’s very simple stuff, everyone can do it. Of course, those using Firefox are always ahead, although Opera enables you to synchronize your browser.
Here are some tools which help you manage and store your online bookmarks:
Do you still keep your bookmarks the old way?
I just found about about a new start-up on the social media scene (in beta) , called Hurox.
Normally, what should follow is a description of this web 2.0 ’service’ website, but I’m still deciding what to say. Roughly said, Hurox wants to be everything.
The sheer wealth of information and apps, which Hurox provides, is a bit overwhelming for the newbie user, and that’s why I think it won’t be as appealing to such Internet users. Instant messaging, listening to music, selling art, they even managed to integrate a friggin’ online desktop environment!
Upon signing up, Hurox asks you a few questions to learn about your interests. This enables you to customize Hurox to some degree (I still see a lot of ‘coming soon’ labels on the site).
I’m still getting used to the interface (waaay to much information), I’ll probably post an update later and we’ll see if Hurox will avoid the dreaded Dead-pool.
And no matter what others are saying about it, I think the guys at Hurox made a brave step towards creating the ultimate entrance to the Internet. Props for that.
P.S. I don’t know why, but I find the site to be extremely amusing, reminds me of the “999,999 games in 1!” cartridges for the Sega Mega Drive 
