Any know of a very simple Disrto?

[Raremind]

I am trying to get something going for my elderly parents. I have been looking for a solution for about two weeks with no luck. All of the grand kids want to send them pictures and email, and I thought it would be cool to get them on Skype for video calls (What grandparent wouldn't like that?).

I was hoping to find something with an extremely large button based program execution. For e-mail it could be filtered for everything except the grand kids email accounts (myself and my siblings included). I would also need an easy method of supporting the PC.

Does anyone know of any distro that would come close? If not, would anyone like to help work on a Ubuntu Grandma edition. I can't program but I am a Graphic artist. I would offer up any help that I could including a website for it.

Thanks for your help in advance :)

[Yashiro]

Ubuntu with perhaps the Netbook Remix Interface.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UNR

Skype will always be a pain to setup whatever distro you use.

[Raremind]

Wow, That was quick I'll give it shot. It looks a little cluttered, I really think this could be a worthwhile project.

[Yashiro]

If you set the screen resolution lower than normal then everything will be noticeably larger. Quite useful for the elderly and visually impaired.

[der_joachim]

I liked NBR, but honestly it is a bit heavy. If it had not been built on top of Gnome, it would have been perfect.

My EEEPC was preinstalled with Xandros. Although Xandros itself was horrible, its easy desktop mode was great. The LXDE desktop environment has a desktop manager called LXLauncher, which is apparently based on the Xandros desktop:

http://wiki.lxde.org/en/Image:LXlauncher.png

LXDE itself is very lightweight and surprisingly complete. As for the distribution itself: if ease of use has a high priority, why not stick with a *buntu? Just install a command-line system, xorg and the LXDE environment.

[skintythe1andonly]

You could try Linpus linux. It is fedora based and is used on the acer aspire one. My mother uses it and finds it easy to use as it has uses all large icons. There is a desktop version which is similar.

[Raremind]

I'm not too sure about LXDE, It doesn't seem to be too user friendly. I am looking for ease of use above anything else. Something a immigrant grandparent could use without too much fuss.

I completely forgot about linpus. Great catch there! if memory serves don't they have a lite version too that is super super simple. I am going to have to look it up. Thanks for the shove in the right direction.

[LowSky]

I did this for my MediaPc running on my HDTV (which in normal mode is hard to read anything, so it like being old...LOL)

1. Installed Ubuntu
2. Added all the apps and codec I'll need
3. Removed one of the panels (the bootom one), moving all the suff on it to the top, I also made it so there is no desktop switching (2 is ubuntu's norm)
4. I made Icons on the desktop of all the programs I will alway be using, like Firefox, VLC, Trash Can and my Computer(need Gnome-Conf for the last two), Also increased the size of the top panel that I kept.
5. Set the resolution to something more readable and the icons larger(I think you can go up to 120 DPI with Gnome Config).
6. Enabled Remote Desktop (very handy and can be hilarious when others are trying to us the MediaPC)
7. Disabled all updates other than security, and they take place only monthly.
8. Sat back and enjoyed my work.

[timcredible]

when i setup a pc for non-tech people, i still install ubuntu, but make the top panel large and put all the icons for the apps they need there so they never have to look through the menus and remove anything they don't use. as for email, gmail or yahoo is probably the easiest because it's just another web page, and you can bookmark them in the bookmarks toolbar so they can get to them without even going through the bookmarks menu. as for seeing the screen, you could increase the font size or lower the resolution.

[Raremind]

Has anyone ever seen or heard of Eldy?

[bodhi.zazen]

I am going to move this to recurring discussions.

A simple search will yield tons of these threads you can read as will google or distrowatch.

You can always use the ubuntu minimal install and build up.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

See also : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=575456

[JECHO]

Has anyone ever seen or heard of Eldy?

haha yeah i have. I just recently did some research on it and found some screenshots (google: eldy linux screenshots). looks like it might be good for what you want.

As far as Skype - its going to be a pain to get working on any distro.

I would recommend Kubuntu 8.10 with the KDE4.1 desktop (comes by default). For the following reasons:

1. The menus are very organized and have large buttons
2. It looks nice and simple.
3. Its pretty stable.
4. Pretty well supported online.

...Once you get it set up for them, it should be simple for them to use.