OK, where to begin. So, my mom's not a computer person at all—not only in terms of understanding, but also in terms of interest—and doesn't really care about the OS. We got an Apple II/e in the 80's, but I don't remember her ever using it. Eventually went through a couple Macs and she would use those minimally. She eventually used Windows at work, mainly just spreadsheets and email, whatever. Then we got her the Chromebook and she used that, followed by GalliumOS when that ChromeOS EOL. So no, definitely not wedded to Windows, in fact pretty flexible because how she uses them is so limited. She just doesn't care. There's an icon for Firefox and that's all that matters to her (mostly).
Not sure what you mean by Xubuntu being quite a change from GalliumOS. They're practically identical. Both built on Ubuntu, both use XFCE. As far as I figured, GalliumOS was basically a customized Xubuntu. I set the interface up the same way, and as far as she's concerned there's no difference besides the update method. GalliumOS used some script that would open up in the terminal, whereas Xubuntu obviously uses the Software Updater, et al.
Lessee...as far as swap, well, I just didn't make a swap partition at all and just set up zram. Not sure if I've done it optimally (no one seems to really understand how it works! ha), but also I think it'll probably be rare she approaches using up the RAM. I mean, she uses Firefox with typically only one tab open, no other programs open. But I've told her to let me know if there's any funny business like stuttering or hangs.
I already covered free drive space in the previous comment.
I have since then taken a look at MX Linux. I might pop that on there at some point; supposedly it only uses about 6GB of space and since it uses XFCE that's familiar (to me! not her; she doesn't care, like I said). Wondering if it might be a little snappier, but probably not—Firefox or [insert program here] is still Firefox or [program], no matter how lightweight the distro. But it might allow for a 4GB swap partition, in which case I'd probably use zswap instead of zram.
Thing is, I've never used anything outside of the *buntu universe, so am a little hesitant on those grounds, but having messed around with a Live USB it seems pretty well set up OOTB for such basic use.
Pretty sure Mint would take up a good deal more space than Xubuntu, and isn't near as light. Don't see the point in LMDE.
As for that 240GB SSD, did you not see the link? Transcend brand, sold on Amazon, but by MemoryC. Unfortunately, it seems it's no longer being sold, just like that. Considering it wasn't on the MemoryC site, probably blowing out stock or something. Dang!
These appear to be the only two remaining:
https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-TLC-NAND-2242-SATA-mts420s/dp/B076P63R3N/ -- sold by MemoryC, not as good a deal
https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-128GB-MTS430S-Solid-TS128GMTS430S/dp/B07KG2G152/?th=1 -- some third party seller I never heard of, even worse deal
Just doesn't seem that 2242 form factor is being produced anymore. This is all probably NOS, if I were to guess. The one that came with the Chromebook is a Kingston; maybe could find them secondhand, but I'm reluctant to get drives secondhand, for all the reasons.
Thank you for the feedback, I meant m.2 sata iii. Dual transcend 128 gb ssd https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07KG2G152?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image
Inside of this, which supports raid 0,1, spanning and jbod. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06W9L34YC?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image
Another question if you don't mind (kind of new to this, had a synology i didnt touch for years...). What type of pools would they be for the plex cache and temp drive? And would my app pool be in my data pool with the big drives?
Again, I really appreciate the help? I'm going for it this weekend.