.
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.
A-Tech 8GB DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 Laptop SODIMM 204-Pin Memory RAM PC3L DDR3L 1x 8G
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Samsung 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2400MHz PC4-19200 Desktop RAM Memory M378A1K43CB2-CRC
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Samsung 16GB 2Rx4 PC4-2133P DDR4-17000 1.2V RDIMM ECC Registered Server Memory
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HyperX FURY DDR3 8GB 16GB 32GB 1600 MHz PC3-12800 Desktop RAM Memory DIMM 240pin
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A-Tech 8GB PC3-12800 Desktop DDR3 1600 MHz Non ECC 240-Pin DIMM Memory RAM 1x 8G
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A-Tech 16GB 2 x 8GB PC3-12800 Laptop SODIMM DDR3 1600 Memory RAM PC3L 16G DDR3L
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Kingston HyperX FURY DDR3 8GB 16GB 32G 1600 1866 1333 Desktop Memory RAM DIMM
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Timetec 32GB Kit (2x16GB) Memory Upgrade DDR4 2666MHz PC4-21300
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A-Tech 256GB 4x 64GB 4Rx4 PC4-19200 ECC Load Reduced LRDIMM Server Memory RAM
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A-Tech 128GB 8x 16GB 2Rx4 PC4-19200R DDR4 2400 ECC REG RDIMM Server Memory RAM
$175.92