.
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.
ASRock B550M Pro SE AM4 DDR4 SATA 6Gb/s 1 PCIe 4.0 x16 Micro ATX Motherboard
$84.99
Gigabyte GA-Q170M-D3H-GSM LGA1151 DDR4 Desktop Motherboard (No I/O Plate)
$39.99
MSI H81M-P33 Desktop Motherboard Intel MicroATX Socket LGA1150 USB 3.0 W/IO
$26.99
Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4S/AC Wifi 8th/9th Gen Intel 1151 Motherboard Bulk
$33.43
ASUS H87I-PLUS, LGA 1150, Intel Motherboard w/ IO Shield
$39.00
Asus Prime H310M-A R2.0 Intel LGA 1151 DDR4 Desktop Motherboard
$54.99
Micro ATX Desktop Motherboard ASUS H110M-C LGA 1151
$31.95
MSI B550 Gaming Plus AMD Socket AM4 PCle 4.0 SSD Ready Desktop Motherboard
$76.49
MSI PRO B650-P WiFi AMD AM5 DDR5 WiFi 6E ProSeries Motherboard
$107.30
ASUS ROG STRIX H270I GAMING Motherboard Intel H270 LGA 1151 DDR4 M.2 Mini ITX
$159.99