.
Things I liked:
Reasonably fast server brings in 937 Mb iso in 10-15 min.
Universal LiveUSB installer easily makes LiveUSB.
ALL my laptop hardware recognized and drivers provided
....except for internal closed-source wifi.
Easily sets up open-source external wifi.
Xfce desktop neat, intuitive & responsive.
Uses Ubuntu whisker menu and includes a LibreMenu menu editor.
Network mgr working well, given wifi drivers.
FF is 25; LO is 4.2; amd64 kernel is 3.13.
Boots to browser on-line in ~60 sec; shut-down < 5 sec.
GUI makes it easy to disable my touchpad which disrupts typing.
Things I didn't like:
Inefficient choices in initial 937 Mb base configuration.
937 Mb iso doesn't include closed-source ttf-mscorefonts, Broadcom drivers & flash;
....also doesn't include open-source LibreOffice, Geany & tzdata.
Configuring 2 Gb of persistence took a really long time.
LibreOffice took a long time to bring in as well.
*Apt-get needed to install tzdata; ntp updates desktop to local time on reboot.
Mousepad editor poorer than leafpad, much poorer than gedit IMO.
Bug 1: whisker menu editor doesn't save (or properly display) liveUSB favorites;
....Mint 16 doesn't have this problem with favorites panel display
Bug 2: does not recognize closed-source drivers brought in
....nor indicate correct status of devices using closed-source drivers.
LibreMenu requires a wholesale upgrade of gtk+ and python3 infrastructure.
Things I don't understand:
Why screensaver set only to blank screen.
Why Ubuntu Software Center rather than Synaptic.
*Maybe because I didn't understand Ubuntu Software Center usage as root.
Seagate ST8000NM0055 8TB 7200RPM 256MB SATA 6.0 Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive
$34.47
HITACHI HUS724040ALA640 4TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" HARD DRIVE ZERO HOURS
$52.00
Western Digital WD4000FYYZ RE 4TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
$24.20
Seagate ST1000VM002 1TB 64MB SATA6Gb/s 3.5" (Low Power) Hard Drive -PC, CCTV DVR
$24.99
HGST Ultrastar DC HC520 12TB SATA 6Gb 256MB 3.5" Enterprise HDD- HUH721212ALE601
$74.99
CISCO A03-D1TBSATA 1TB 7.2K 6G 2.5INCH SATA HDD
$9.00
Seagate ST12000NM0127 12TB SATA 6Gb/s 256MB 7200RPM 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive
$99.99
WD Ultrastar DC HC530 14TB SATA 6G 3.5" 7200RPM Enterprise HDD - WUH721414ALE604
$110.00
Western Digital Gold Enterprise 4TB,7200 RPM Internal Hard Disk Drive WD4002FYYZ
$39.95
Western Digital 4TB Internal 7.2KRPM 3.5" (WD4000FYYZ) SATA Hard Drive ZERO HOUR
$69.99