.
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.
N85XX DELL 3.84TB SAS 12GB/S ENTERPRISE SOLID STATE DRIVE (W/ 14TH GEN CADDY)
$389.95
Western Digital 1TB WD Blue SA510 SATA SSD Internal 2.5”/7mm Cased - WDS100T3B0A
$89.99
Western Digital 250GB WD Blue SA510 SATA SSD, Internal M.2 2280 - WDS250G3B0B
$39.99
WD 500GB My Passport SSD, Portable External Solid State Drive WDBAGF5000ARD-WESN
$59.99
Patriot P210 128GB 256GB 512GB 1TB 2TB 2.5" SATA 3 6GB/s Internal SSD PC/MAC Lot
$14.99
Micron 5100 MAX 120GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD MTFDDAK120TCC Solid State
$9.89
Netac 1TB 2TB 512GB Internal SSD 2.5'' SATA III 6Gb/s Solid State Drive lot
$13.99
Fanxiang SSD 512GB 1TB 2TB 4TB 2.5'' SSD SATA III Internal Solid State Drive lot
$13.99
Fanxiang M.2 SATA SSD 2TB 1TB 512GB 256GB SSD Internal M2 Solid State Drive Lot
$109.99
Fanxiang SSD 512GB 1TB 2TB 4TB 2.5''SATA III Internal Solid State Hard Drive LOT
$188.99