Which Linux For Non-Techie Windows Users?

obarthelemy writes "Having at last gotten Linux to run satisfactorily on my own PCs, I'd now like to start transitioning friends and family from XP to Linux instead of Windows 7. The catch is that these guys don't understand or care much about computers, so the transition has to be as seamless and painless as possible. Actually, they won't care for new things; even the upcoming upgrade to Windows 7 would be a pain and a bother, which is a great opportunity for Linux. I'm not too concerned about software (most of them only need browser, IM, VLC, mail and a Powerpoint viewer for all those fascinating attachments). What I'm concerned about is OS look-and-feel and interface — system bar on the bottom with clock, trash, info on the right, menu on the left, menu items similar to those of Windows. Is it better to shoot for a very targeted distro? Which would you recommend? Are there themes/skins for mainstream distributions instead? I've been looking around the web, and it's hard to gauge which distros are well-done and reasonably active."

Comments

Re:Saving Yourself A World Of Pain

[schnikies79]

Wow, good job at being full of shit.

I installed Windows 7 on my HTPC, on Thursday and it has 5 hard drives. it didn't complain.

Raid 0,1 and 0+1 are normally set up in the bios, not the os. As long as 7 has the drivers, any version will install on a raid.

Linux terrorist

[JeffSh]

Leave your poor friends and family alone. Unless they specifically ask for it or there is some tangible benefit to you changing their OS from Microsoft to Linux, you are just being pushy.

There's no money savings because they've already paid for the license and that's about 99% of Linux's value proposition. I can't think of many compelling reasons to go out there and harass people you know with a new OS.

I know it would not work for me because my friends and family rely on the Windows platform for video games and easy access to any software they want. Also, I do not want the trouble that comes with helping to continue to support my friends and family after I ruin their whole PC experience with an operating system that will cause them all kinds of headaches.

Just leave your family alone, let them use their PC's in peace. You don't need to terrorize them with changing OS's and ruining their whole daily routine.

Re:Saving Yourself A World Of Pain

[XanC]

Did you try installing the latest storage driver? You need to slipstream it into the install disc, ideally even removing the entries for the originally-included version from the inf file that loads drivers during windows install. This is the most likely culprit. Which host adapter chip/version is in the system in question?

Wow, that so won't work for Grandma. How much longer until Windows is ready for the desktop???

Re:Prepare for all

[Kamokazi]

Agreed. Ask first, and ESPECIALLY keep in mind the 'LOT of questions' part. I've figured out the hard way that this is a bad idea. Unless you enjoy being unpaid tech support. I find it easier to go with Vista/7 and switch it to classic appearance mode. Far fewer headaches from end users.

I know, it's great to promote OSS...but desktop Linux is still a ways off from being ready to replace Windows or OSX (psst..this is where you start flaming me). It works great out of the box, but as soon as you want to do much tweaking aside from desktop backgrounds and install some additional software, you will run into headaches. "I can't install X without Y and Z dependencies?" And then it's off to google to find out how to get them...in a way that works with the current version of said dependency on your distro...