An Idea for a linux distribution

Question

Basically, I had my grandma in mind when I came up with this idea.  I thought about entitling this thread "linux distro for grandmas" but decided against it, because it might be offensive to some  (I'm pretty sure that somewhere in this great big world there is a grandma who is a great linux admin).  Besides, I know a number of people that aren't my grandma that this would be perfect for. 
Basically, there is usually a trade off between power and ease of use amongst Linux distributions.  On one end of the spectrum you have umm... ubuntu and xandros(?)  and on the other you have Linux from Scratch.  Anyway, my grandma would have a tough time with even the simplest distributions unless it was set up by a very patient and thoughtful admin. 
So my idea is to make a distribution that offers virtually no options to confuse the user.  Once the computer is booted, the user is confronted with a graphical login where they simply click (user1).  From there, they are presented with a few icons with titles such as "surf the internet", "check email", etc.  (maybe this is too patronizing?)
I think that by default, their should be two users, one for the primary user, and one for guests, just to prevent guests from messing things up by screwing with configurations, or looking up pornography. I think that there are programs that convert linux boxes into dummy terminals which might help in such a distribution.  (maybe we can make certain config files read only)
This distribution should run on  just about anything by default, and be a dream come true for any admin who wants to quickly and easily setup a computer for a friend or loved one (or fellow employees).  The installation process should be as simple as clicking "yes you're sure and you understand that by installing you will erase everything on the harddrive".  (ok, maybe we could include a few more options than that)
This distribution would be unsuitable for anyone who would want to install or upgrade their own software, or play 3d games etc.  It should include support for playing music, surfing the internet, reading email, and all of the basics that many many people want to use their computer for.(without understanding ANYTHING about it)  I'd also like to make it unnecessary for end users to know any passwords, or commands period.
No one wants grandma to get hacked, but it would be nice to remotely admin these installations  (although ideally, the need for administer's intervention would be absolutely minimal). So I was thinking that in addition to the two end user login accounts, we would need a login account meant exclusively for logging in via ssh, and, of course root.  the ssh specific login name and password would have to be chosen during installation, and this would be the only account that is accessible by ssh.  This user would be the only member of the wheel group.  Root... well root is root.
Anyway, a quick google around didn't reveal any projects that had these goals in mind.  I just dreamed this up an hour ago, so it is not even well developed as a concept yet. 
Is this interesting to anyone else?
Last edited by Convergence (2009-03-13 14:13:38)

Answer 1

It's not just Grannies that could use this.  Just yesterday I had some windows using friends touting the benefits of Xandros Presto. Essentially what you are talking about is a similar concept.  I like the idea too, and even better would be if a very few applications could be customised as packages that are available for download as extensions. Rather than every GNU app packaged with scarce descriptions it would be great to select a main tool for each category and document it, make it installable into the chosen GUI, even have pretty little logo graphics for each app.  Really user friendly.  You'd have to look seriously into the Gui layout of the main selections screen as well as each individual app so that it was uniform across the board.  I've always thought it would be better for this type of thing to limit the way things can be done also.  Most interfaces give numerous ways of completing the same task.  It'd be much simpler if there were only one primary way (even if the others were there but hidden, like keyboard shortcuts), so there is still room for advanced users to speed things up a bit.
Being able to trim it all down to single option answers to basic operational questions would be fantastic.  There would also have to be no update manager, or if there was it should be designed to ship updates once a month tops.  No kernel updates, no nvidia updates.  Just a perfectly working balance of good apps that can't be broken easily.
"Fantastic" would also be a great distro name
The only thing I find wrong with this way of thinking though is that it seem like everyone can create a new distro but no-one seems to work on the interface of the applications, or the total system.  i.e. Making a distro you can only use what applications are available and if you choose openoffice for your office suite and there is an issue with it, you can't fix it, therefore you can't control the stability of the system.  It can only all come together properly when the applications can be simplified in conjunction with the OS UI and the authors have enough control to fix both the distro, and the applications.
Cheers,
Arkay.
Last edited by arkay (2009-03-20 08:15:33)