My KDE no longer supported -

[alexham36]

Hi,
I have been running Linux KDE on a 160gb HD for several years and I have been told that my copy is no longer supported. To be frank, I found it rather "heavy" and with many applications that I never used. It main failing, if you can call it that, is that it would not go into "Suspend" mode, so I have to perform a full log on each time and that takes nearly 3 minutes. Discouraging, if you only want to see a few emails.

So, are there any better OS. I use mainly email; browser(Chrome), some scanning and a word processor.

Thanks,
Alex

[acp]

Hoe about installing Chrome OS?
some articles for you to look at:
www.howtogeek.com/217659/how-to-get-a-chrome-os-like-operating-system-on-any-pc/
techpp.com/2021/07/12/install-chrome-os-on-laptop-pc-guide/

[mikkh]

KDE is the desktop, not the version of Linux and there should be a newer version to download if the older one has run out of support.

It sounds like pretty old hardware if it's taking 3 minutes to reload, so you should really avoid KDE based 'distros' and try something lighter like XFCE or Mate, or much lighter like LXQt, TDE or Openbox

Q4OS might fit the bill, it's lightweight and is one of the few that comes with Chrome as standard.

Any of the lightweight PCLinuxOS variants here.... ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/live-cd/community/

Should also be OK, TDE mini looks a good place to start.

I've looked at the ChromeOS links acp posted and the Neverware one led me to install a browser extension that then declared no Linux support!

The second link talks about installing Linux Mint first, which seems a bit of a long winded way of doing it.

I'd be inclined to stick to Linux, but the neverware cloudready (free version) sounds right up your street if you have access to a Windows PC to start the process off.

[alexham36]

After I heard that my version of Mate was no longer supported, I tried to replace it with something else.I downloaded Mate Jammy Jellyfish twice and could not get the DVD to boot. I also tried something called Mabox and that did not work. Finally, I am now running Fedora 36. It works and, if I were desperate, I could live with it, but I would never choose it as my main OS. I would rather use Fossapup, running of a USB stick. I will persevere with Fedora for a few weeks, but I must say it looks as if it will be removed soon.
Best,
Alex

[mikkh]

I've tried Mabox on several machines and it's always worked for me, but it's at the geeky end of Linux distros and not as user friendly as others. It's main claim to fame is it's lightweight and suitable for older hardware, otherwise avoid it.

I tried fedora 37 beta last week, it looks OK if very minimalist. It's based off Red Hat (popular business class Linux) and can't quite shake that origin.

MX Linux remains my main choice, nothing else quite matches up.

[alexham36]

I picked up one of Mikkh's lightweights OS - Mini and I liked it very much. Unfortunately, it would only boot in Video Safe Mode and there is no install facility in that mode. In all other modes it went to localhost login and froze. Running StartX produced a full screen of errors and a list of several files to be reviewed and amended, which was pointless because a) I am not that good and b) even if I were, I could not save any amendments to Live CD. So, I am now running another of Mikkh's favourites, MX-19.3 Patito Feo, which has a large number of applications that I will never use, but it works. I had to go into Localhost:631 and add a printer manually. The scanner works too, but only in GNU. I installed Xsane, but it does not work either with Canon Lide20 or with much newer Epson ET2750. Using the scanner in GNu is a litle complicated, but that is not a problem.

Thank you again for the guidance and advice.

Best,
Alex

[mikkh]

Shouldn't have had to resort to CUPS (localhost:631) not directly anyway. Print settings in the settings menu should be all you need to configure printers if not automatically detected.

When I occasionally scan things, it only works if connected via USB - not wirelessly.