Easy LXDE is a DebianPureBlends project launched in 2009 for making a distribution of Linux which is easy, especially for the new user. Key design aims are:

Ease of installation and setup. The system should work on installation, rather than needing extensive configuration.

Ease of use, especially for first-time users.

Features which will be familiar and easy to use for users familiar with other operating systems (except where there is a compelling reason to do things differently).

Stability

A full range of software packages.

Good performance.

Secondary design aims include:

Easy to customize - enabling more advanced users to adapt the system to their needs.

Very clear documentation.

Long term aims - features to be added in future versions:

Choice of distro and desktop. (The project will need a new name at that point, being not just LXDE.)

Strategy

The strategy is to use:

DebianStable

Backports to provide access to the latest programs.

Additional ?repositories enabled by default, for popular non-free packages that many new users consider essential.

LXDE as a lightweight, easy-to-use, easy-to-configure, modular desktop.

Background

The motivation for this project include these observations:

Many users who are not coders are unwilling to invest the initial effort in changing to Linux.

These users sometimes say that the time spent on learning and configuring Linux takes away from their actual work and makes them less productive.

While it may or may not be true that Linux is as easy to use as (say) Windows, the Linux user is less likely to have support through acquaintances who know Linux. For the experience of installing Linux for the first time to be comparable to installing Windows or starting to use a Mac, the Linux installation has to be extremely smooth and intuitive.

These factors lead to the ironies such as representatives of open source foundations using non-free operating systems

If making non-free software (including drivers, and popular programs such as Skype) difficult to install for a newbie leads to frustration, it may contribute to these users giving up on free software.

In an ?ICT4D context (ICT for Development), support is often lacking, and the emphasis is often on introducing computers to children who have never seen them before.

In ?ICT4D and education contexts, sellers of proprietary systems can be quite aggressive in promoting their systems, and one of their selling points is their claim that their systems are easier to use.

Status

This project has been worked on by Debian/LXDE developer Andrew Lee and other developers at DebConf9 (Spain, July 23 to 30, 2009), mini-DebConf Taiwan (Taipei, Sep 26 to 27, 2009). And also the effort on lubuntu.

The project is moving slowly at present (late 2010, early 2011) due to lack of time by Andrew Lee.

Proposed takes and packages

LXDE Components

gpicview

leafpad

lxappearance

lxde-common

lxlauncher

lxpanel

lxrandr

lxsession

lxsession-edit

lxshortcut

lxinput

lxtask

lxterminal

menu-cache

openbox

pcmanfm

Not Included

LXMusic

LXNM

Xarchiver

Applications and System Tools

Bootup services manager, BUM

Login manager, GDM

System monitor, LXTask

Windows configuration, Obconf

Networking, Network manager + nm-applet (to be replaced by LXNM asap)

Mount network drive/path of wlan/lanPyneighborhood

Admin, Synaptic

Graphics

GPicView

Fotoxx or MTPaint

PDF, ePDFView

Multimedia

Music, Aqualung

Video, SMPlayer + mplayer

Webcam, Cheese

Internet

Firefox, Flash and bookmarks of web sites of LXDE and its forums

Email, Sylpheed

IM, Pidgin

Bittorrent, Transmission

Office and related

Presentation ??

Spreadsheet, Gnumeric

Wordprocessor, Abiword

OpenOffice.org 3 (add to CD for after-installation)

Accessories

Calculator, Galculator

Notepad, Leafpad

take screenshot, xfce4-screenshooter or screenshot tool for gpe ??

dictionary ??

CD burner, Xfburn

Multi language input ??

Terminal, Lxterminal

Archiver, Peazip

Screensaver, Xscreensaver

Help out, make suggestions

Please add your suggestions at EasyLXDE/Suggestions.

Participants

(this section is only temporary, until an Alioth team + mailinglist is setup)

JonasSmedegaard <dr@jones.dk>

Chris Watkins - if you don't have )or can't guess) my appropedia email, leave message at

(quick response) http://www.appropedia.org/User:Chriswaterguy or (slower response) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Chriswaterguy

Andrew Lee: (his first name) at linux dot org dot tw

A mailing list will be set up later.

License

Pages related to the EasyLXDE project are dual-licensed under CC-BY-SA-3.0 (unported) and the GPL. (The GPL is used to ensure that documentation can be used for commenting code if necessary, and also to ensure that all images come with the "source" code, e.g. the .xcf or .psd file.)

?CategoryPureBlends