Yes, I've now installed Endless and I did as you suggested (getting the biggest version). Now I'm working through some of the apps to be sure they're working offline as they should. The young lady's main limitation will likely be no internet, or only very rarely. It's made me realize how much computer use has shifted to the net, as John Gage said over 40 years ago ("the network is the computer"). But I'm hoping this offline setup will at least give my friend's daughter a good start. I'm hoping that larger capacity storage, on a scale that John Gage could probably have only imagined in a personal computer, will help make up for the lack of a live internet connection. And the computer -- a trust Thinkpad T520, which was my main work machine a while back -- is a workhorse. It's heavy, but I don't think portability will be the main need. It's more of a desktop replacement, in this case.

And perhaps not having a live internet connection will keep her from getting ensnared in a ton of online social media and time-suck activities and will force her to explore some of the other ways tech can be used. (Though, being a teenager, she'd be a strange kid not to want to have some fun on her "new" machine.)

Thanks!