Lubuntu based os simplified for grandparents. Features:
- Browser
- VNC server
- Direct chat with a support person
- Chrome as Browser as it is both simple and for unexperienced users probably the safest choice
- Geary for email as it features a rather simple UI
- realvnc as vnc server as it was the easiest option to deal with dynamic IPs, but any other combination of DynIP service and standard vnc server would probably also work
- pidgin is the chat client I use for the support chat, there should be a plugin for any IM service you like, I use it with telegram
I used 16.04 LTS as stability is a primary concern.
Some stuff you can install from standard repos:
sudo apt-get install geary pidgin libpurple-bin
For the telegram-plugin and chrome, you can add sources:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install telegram-purple google-chrome-stable
Now realvnc is a bit hard if you use the free version, as you have to open a UI to login:
-
Download and unpack the latest archive on a 64-bit Debian-compatible system:
curl -L -o VNC.tar.gz https://www.realvnc.com/download/binary/latest/debian/64-bit/
tar xvf VNC.tar.gz -
Now install the vnc-server from the directory (names may vary)
-
To login with realvnc account, you have to start up the x11 service:
systemctl start vncserver-x11-serviced.service
Right-click on the item and select 'Licensing' to login -
automatically start the service after boot:
systemctl enable vncserver-x11-serviced.service