Basic software to install on computers to be donated [closed]

Solution 1:

I agree that Edubuntu can be a good alternative.

It also depends on the computers - older computers need a linux distro with a light desktop environment (ultra light Lubuntu, medium light Ubuntu MATE or Xubuntu). I think Ubuntu Budgie is a light weight newcomer in the Ubuntu family.

See this link, Old hardware brought back to life

Newer computers work well and are easy to use with standard Ubuntu.

Try Ubuntu (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, ...) before installing it

-o-

If you have several similar computers, you can create a master system with the OEM method and install suitable program packages. After that you can clone it to each of the computers. Linux is very portable also as installed, if you avoid proprietary drivers (for graphics and wifi).

See this link, Ubuntu OEM Installation

Solution 2:

For older, low-resource systems, Abiword is a good substitute word processor over Libre Office Writer. There's also a spreadsheet, Gnumeric, which is much lighter on system requirements than Libre Office Calc. The two together will do the vast majority of the work you'd normally want an office suite for, will read and write Word and Excel files, and save a lot of space and performance on a machine for which Lubuntu is the better choice. I've run these (in another low-requirement distro) on a 300 MHz Pentium class processor with as little as 256 MB RAM, and got satisfying results.

Solution 3:

Flavors can be a powerful tool that can be used to set up a Linux environment for a particular need.

From that list, I would recommend Edbuntu as the best choice for this particular scenario. Directly from the Edbuntu page,

Edubuntu is a grassroots movement, we aim to get Ubuntu into schools, homes and communities and make it easy for users to install and maintain their systems.

But, I suggest that you go through there and do some reading for yourself to try and see what you think would be the best fit for the kids and communities using the computers.