Michael composed on 2019-05-07 11:48 (UTC-0500):
Felix Miata wrote:
Maybe the better question would be does anyone here have any users using POTS and WINE, and if so, on which distro? I haven't haven't suffered POTS or known more than one who has in close to 20 years. The one who has is the owner of the target. He has zero competence in computer setup or maintenance, historically struggling to do much more with internet than collect Windows malware. His email is Juno.
Absent a suggestion backed by recent experience with POTS and WINE, I'll be choosing between Mageia, openSUSE and Debian.
Target is a Vaio laptop (not mine) with 2.2GHz dual core with 2GB RAM and GM965 14" 1280x800 video. I have an openSUSE maintenance installation (only IceWM for X) on it now, which will stay.
Q’s first:
- POTS as he connects to the Internet by telephone dial up?
Plain Old Telephone Service (land line). For a long time he had wifi, but it recently disappeared.
- Juno as in Juno WebMail or through a mail client?
I doubt he knows what a mail client is, though possibly in the past he might have used a proprietary Juno or Netzero or other cheap proprietary ISP client.
Otherwise:
- User has No computer skills.
He has a tablet to use when he can get a free wifi connection, which is rare where he lives. Let's say minimal any kind of skills. He's physically and mentally challenged to a degree I don't have a handle on, living on disability his whole life. He accidentally had his head bashed (before he reached his teens is as much as he remembers).
- Needs Wine. (for what?)
Dunno. Maybe he doesn't. Sometimes he throws out Windows app names I've never heard of. His poor memory keeps me challenged.
- Computer’s technology is 10+ years old.
12 or so, first generation of Intel GPUs (GMA X3100) supported by Xorg's modesetting DDX.
# # #
Based upon just the ‘zero competence in computer’ try him on a MX Linux Live USB in persistent mode [1]? That should be about the easiest way for you to test if the hardware can handle it and once that’s figured out, then you can add TDE.
I don't do USB except for occasional rescues. My interest isn't so much in what the hardware can support as a desktop he and I and POTS can work with, with an emphasis on minimal effort from me when he needs help. Without broadband, his phone is tied up with internet connection at the times he needs to call for help. Or so I thought. I just found out he has a cell phone too. Must be an Obama phone.
I already have minimal openSUSE 15.1 and TDE on Debian Buster installations on two of five / partitions I allocated for root filesystems. That leaves two possible distros/desktops to try besides IceWM and TDE (there will be two openSUSE 15.1: the existing, which will be for me only for fixing breakage on the other four, and one for him).
[1] Update the release references to 18.x on https://mxlinux.org/wiki/system/create-a-live-usb-w-persist-from-a-windows-d... and https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/MX_Linux_Trinity_Repository_Installation_Ins...
This might also help, http://inet-design.com/blogs/michael/how-create-bootable-usb-stick-iso-image...
Or just search, https://mxlinux.org/?s=make+live+usb+persistence
AFAICT, MX is XFCE-focused. I don't like XFCE (or Gnome, the reason why I jumped on KDE1 when I discovered it), or that it's built on a gtk3 foundation, which may be why.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=757142 (wontfix) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1269274 (wontfix) https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1420743 (wontfix) http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1022830 (FIXED) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1269145 (fixed) https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=781807 (wontfix)