Until 5/31/15 I had never seen a Linux desktop but I took a ThinkPad T60 and thought I'd try/learn. What an effort. I installed Debian and really struggled, some of the hardware wouldn't run and it really confused and wore me out. I was about to scrap the entire project.
I read and GOOGLED then read some more, GOOGLED some more and finally tried an install of Linux Mint. All of my hardware worked including the wireless. I had some difficulties but after a couple hours I was doing pretty well I thought.
Then I decided to tackle the METEOHUB - WOW!! I hadn't used G'parted for maybe 20 years and don't remember why I did then but it may have had to do with my Satellite Internet service hardware. I struggled for hours and what might seem relatively simple for most/some was certainly difficult for me.
I got the SSD to do the "SERVER" NAS or whatever it's called but no METEOHUB. This evening I believe I actually got the stuff figured out and the METEOHUB is running and if I get the Davis information added correctly I think I'm back in business. Boris mentioned I might have SSD issues because of the SERVER set up that I stumbled upon and did before figuring some of this out BUT if I have to redo it I can maybe accomplish it. The "terminal" aspect of Linux confuses me still - I may do some classes - MAYBE!
The T60 was pretty good with the OS so I thought I'd see what it would do on an 1.6 ATOM EeePC Netbook that was about to get tossed. The Linux Mint seems to do well on it but it's only got 1G of RAM so maybe I'll buy some memory.
I believe the Linux Mint will grow on me. I'll need something I guess to keep up the maintenance on this METEOHUB and the EeePC is certainly easier to handle.
I hope I've "entertained" some of you with the comments regarding my effort.
Not understanding some of the Linux "lingo" and the use of SSH/PuTTY, Gparted and some of the other Linux applications certainly handicapped me but I do believe it's maybe done.