Looking for a user-friendly Linux version an old PC

[hoven]

Right, I'm aware there might be hundreds of similar question on the net already. I got NO experience with Linux at all, and I get all confused when people post lengthy description about it. My uncle's PC is kinda old, Intel E2200 ( I think) and 1GB RAM, the previous HDD, which ran on a custom Win XP, died. Replaced it with a spare with Win 7 and it feels really sluggish. That's when I thought of trying out Linux. 

 

Main usage will be watching Youtube vids, 720p max. AND running a program called Funshion, and it needs a chinese language pack to display text properly. Also hoping to get full-featured browser like Firefox if possible. I'm looking for is user-friendly, minimalistic and something that works out of the box and requires no coding or such. Hope to hear any advices or suggestions. Thanks!

[xzero]

If you are not familiar with linux then a good option would be Xubuntu. It is based on ubuntu which is very easy to set up and use. It uses XFCE which is a fairly simple lightweight desktop environment which will work just fine with browsers such as firefox. I ran Xubuntu on an old laptop with similar specs and it ran just fine.

:)

[ViperGTX88]

I find that the most user friendly/easy Linux Distro is Ubuntu in my opinion.

 

Check it out @ http://www.ubuntu.com/

[rashdanml]

Linux Mint is also another option. Nice clean, elegant looking interface. 

[NaftaLord]

Just look if there is a linux version of the Funshion software you whan't to run,

othervice you need Wine emulator to run windows programs in linux

as windows programs won't run natively in linux.

[EricX2]

Mint is very easy to use, and for older PCs there is Mint with XFCE

http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_nadia_xfce_whatsnew.php

 

However, that PC should be plenty fast for Windows 7, try to find some RAM, 1gb of RAM is low for 2013. It was low for 2008. It would probably be easier than learning Linux and figuring out how to run Windows programs on it.

[VxDoomxV]

Linux Mint, LMDE or XFCE. Disable a few run on startup you'll easily be sitting at ~200 meg idle.

[hoven]

However, that PC should be plenty fast for Windows 7, try to find some RAM, 1gb of RAM is low for 2013. It was low for 2008. It would probably be easier than learning Linux and figuring out how to run Windows programs on it.

 Yeah you're probably right, will find out what kind of RAM it uses on my next visit.  

 

I will still look into each of them to see if they fit my needs, thanks for all of the suggestions!