Linux Recommendations for the Less Tech Savvy

[LinusDropTips]

I'm looking at selling an old PC to a friend to replace their current ancient PC. The PC has a Windows XP licence with it (that I could use), but given that XP isn't supported now and the trouble these people have had with malware (as they are not very tech savvy) I was going to try out Linux with them.

 

I was considering Linux Mint, but I remembered Elementary OS exists. Does anyone have any experience with Elementary OS or Linux Mint? How user friendly are they? Would they be appropriate for non-techies to use for basic web browsing and text editing?

 

Any assistance or opinions would be appreciated.

Many thanks, LinusDropTips.

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Mint is decently friendly, Ubuntu Unity is the most user friendly in my opinion.

[ForsakenLive]

Yes, I have with both.

They are pretty user friendly. Mint is more towards the 'windows' users while Elementary towards 'OSx', however they are both equally easy and manageable.

They'd both rock on that areas. I find Elementary more streamline and simple, it has less stuff out of the box, but enough to do many tasks, including those you mention.

In my experience both are pretty lightweight, but Elementary was the lightest OS. If the computer is pretty old (something like a 32bit CPU with 1GB of ram), then go for Elementary. If you have more spare juice, you might find Mint's extra utilities handy.

[LinusDropTips]

Thanks for the responses. I've used Mint a little, but never Elementary OS. I think I will try out Elementary with them, I can always change it later if needed as they aren't heavy users. Just out of interest what is the difference between Mint Cinnamon and Min MATE (as far as I understand they are just different desktop enviroments)?

[Fulgrim]

If i recall, Zorin OS is the closest Linux distro you can get, to Windows.

 

Although Linux Mint/Ubuntu/OpenSUSE/Sparky are some others to look into.

 

 

With Ubuntu being the most "noob-friendly".

[Luckylock]

I remember when I was like 15 years old I managed to install Ubuntu in dual boot with windows xp, it was pretty easy following instructions and stuff. The OS was very user friendly.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

If i recall, Zorin OS is the closest Linux distro you can get, to Windows.

 

Indeed, if they want it as close to Windows as possible, you can't ignore Zorin OS

 

http://zorin-os.com/

[Albatross]

Linux Mint (LTS), Ubuntu or as already stated Zorin-Os are the best for the less tech savy people/anyone new to Linux.

[Tarzan]

After having used Ubuntu, Elementary, ZorinOS, and Mint, the best experience I had was with Linux Mint! Ubuntu was the worst.

[LinusDropTips]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/202063-linux-distribution-choosing-guide/

Thanks very much, I wasn't aware of this. I'm sort of leaning towards Linux Mint Cinnamon now and it was the first recommendation from a couple of my friends.

[Guest trucker2]

My family uses Mint and its awesome. My daughters pc is an ancient emachines 1300 with a athlon 2650e cpu and 2 gigs Ram. I thought a lightweight Linux would be best so I put on LXLE. Replacing windows with LXLE made it quite fast. Mint  flys on my x3 with only 4 gigs or slow ddr2 mem. 

[Satlen]

Mint for sure if coming from always using a windows desktop. If you have used OS X then Ubuntu or eOS should be fine.

[LinusDropTips]

Awesome, I think I'm going to try out Mint with them, the cinnamon desktop looks nice and user-friendly

[elkenrod]

Awesome, I think I'm going to try out Mint with them, the cinnamon desktop looks nice and user-friendly

 

If it's older hardware

 

MATE > Cinnamon

 

Trust me

[EpicAdom]

Awesome, I think I'm going to try out Mint with them, the cinnamon desktop looks nice and user-friendly

If you haven't tried it out, Ubuntu is worth taking a look at at least. Ubuntu is more like OS X in it's interface, so if you're into that it's great.

 

Mint is more like Windows in it's interface.

 

However, both are very user friendly and easy to use.

[LinusDropTips]

If you haven't tried it out, Ubuntu is worth taking a look at at least. Ubuntu is more like OS X in it's interface, so if you're into that it's great.

 

Mint is more like Windows in it's interface.

 

However, both are very user friendly and easy to use.

Having used Ubuntu quite a bit myself I can guarentee that my friends won't get on with Unity. I think Linux Mint is the way to go for them, but I don't really know if they would prefer Mate or Cinnamon, does anyone have any recommendations either way? Thanks.

[Guest trucker2]

Here is a link to a good article that i found might help:  https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/mint#TOC-Pick-your-flavour:-Cinnamon-Mate-Xfce-or-KDE 

I use cinnamon and I love it. My wife who is not tech savy hated it till she found the pretty pictures for changing the desktop. It's duel boot and no one uses the Windows Partition anymore.

I prefer Opera wife like chrome for browsing.  She also really loves the LXLE install I did on my daughters emachines 1300. I felt a light weight Linux would be best since it is so underpowered.

She likes that LXLE has better pictures for the desktop. Hope this helps

[AnnoyedShelf]

I'm looking at selling an old PC to a friend to replace their current ancient PC. The PC has a Windows XP licence with it (that I could use), but given that XP isn't supported now and the trouble these people have had with malware (as they are not very tech savvy) I was going to try out Linux with them.

 

I was considering Linux Mint, but I remembered Elementary OS exists. Does anyone have any experience with Elementary OS or Linux Mint? How user friendly are they? Would they be appropriate for non-techies to use for basic web browsing and text editing?

 

Any assistance or opinions would be appreciated.

Many thanks, LinusDropTips.

Zorin is a great OS for transitioning from Windows, although I'd go with the lite version if you're coming from XP.  Linux Lite is also very beginner friendly, as is Pinguy OS.

[Opcode]

Ubuntu is pretty slick stuff these days with how much Unity has matured. I would recommend trying out 15.04 as Mint and others (Elementary) have turned to a rolling release model based on 14.04 LTS. So if you go that route you won't be on the latest and greatest that the Linux community has to offer. You can always install Cinnamon on Ubuntu anyways if you're not a big fan of Unity. Although I think Ubuntu would be the best place to start. Especially with out of the box compatibility with most software and you can easily dive right into tweaking Compiz for the cool special effects and all that jazz simply by installing CCSM.

 

Here's 14.04 (old screenshot) with just a new GTK theme and icon set and a few Compiz settings turned on (opacity, wobbly windows, etc).

[Burusutazu]

Deepin is also a pretty slick distro, however i'm not sure it will run smoothly on your aging hardware.