Linux: which variant is easiest for Win XP user to adapt to?

[Jonny_]

My old XP laptop is pretty much useless these days. It's bogged down with all manner of crap such as third party antivirus programs and the like, struggles to run bloated modern browsers, no longer updates and is generally a sluggish pain in the arse to use.

The hardware is fine, and was fairly quick in it's day (AMD Turion ML34 1.8Ghz, 1Gb RAM, Radeon X700) although gutless by 2014 standards. The battery even holds a charge despite being 8 years old. It's got a pretty nice screen too. Far too good to throw away, so I'd like to try installing Linux on it to see how I get along with it. If I find something I can get on with I'll also install it on my desktop XP machine which is mainly used for storing photos etc.

I tried Puppy linux several years ago, as it booted and ran from USB, but I hated it: it was awkward to use and looked dreadful.

Of the modern Linux distributions, then, which one behaves most like Windows XP in terms of the user interface? Basic things like right click for context menus, double click to navigate through folders, copy/paste commands, settings all in a central Control Panel, that kind of thing.

Mint looks like it could be worth a look, are there any others I should consider?

[skelters]

On older laptops and PC's I've had success with Lubuntu. Seems to work well.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=lubu...

[JimbobVFR]

Mint would be my suggestion too.

[Jonny_]

skelters said:

On older laptops and PC's I've had success with Lubuntu. Seems to work well.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=lubu...

Thanks, that definitely looks worth a try!

[rsv gone!]

Try Mint first, as it has lots of stuff already loaded.

[Dave^]

I use crunchbang on an old netbook and a really old PC.

Very lightweight, and runs great on both.

ETA - a very good support community too.

[Timsta]

Yep, Mint is the easiest if you're coming over from Windows.

[MethylatedSpirit]

Linux mint is the easiest to use out the box.



Best thing about Linux is that if you don't like something, you can change it easily.

[Jonny_]

Marvellous, thanks chaps. Seems that Mint and Lubuntu are the favourites, then. I'll try both, as it seems reasonably easy to make a bootable USB for either.

Will let you know how it goes!

[davepoth]

Jonny_ said:

Marvellous, thanks chaps. Seems that Mint and Lubuntu are the favourites, then. I'll try both, as it seems reasonably easy to make a bootable USB for either.

Will let you know how it goes!

More than reasonably easy. Download Unetbootin:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Which will do all of the legwork for you on a lot of the distributions - you don't even need to download the ISO in advance, just click the one you want and it'll do the rest. For any other distributions just download the ISO and it will make a boot USB from that. Very handy tool.

[AJB88]

tbh most of the modern versions have graphical installations now its not like it used to be back in the day. Can remember when I was at school trying Mandrake,Knoppix etc.

Ubuntu,Mint are good for starters

[TheRealFingers99]

You'll be fine.

You might even try a few "live" versions before you install.

[Perik Omo]

I put Pinguy Linux on my old Sony Vaio XP laptop. Have only used it for occasional surfing so far and haven't loaded any apps apart from Chrome for Linux (Pinguy comes with Firefox as standard). The laptop boots incredibly fast now unlike the age it took to load XP.

[otolith]

My sister had a badly infested XP netbook. She had tried to download AVG from a malicious site and it was horribly compromised. I wiped it and put Mint on it. She's found it perfectly easy to use.

[GlenMH]

Another +1 for Mint. I migrated my parents (both 65+ years old) from XP on a netbook to Mint and I haven't had any IT queries from them since.

[Jonny_]

davepoth said:

More than reasonably easy. Download Unetbootin:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Which will do all of the legwork for you on a lot of the distributions - you don't even need to download the ISO in advance, just click the one you want and it'll do the rest. For any other distributions just download the ISO and it will make a boot USB from that. Very handy tool.

That's precisely my plan!

I say reasonably easy because there's always a good chance I'll balls it up

[otolith]

I liked the way that you could boot from the USB, give it a try, and then install from the same media if you wanted. Neat.

[TheRealFingers99]

Jonny_ said:

That's precisely my plan!

I say reasonably easy because there's always a good chance I'll balls it up

Many folk make a mess of their first Linux install -- but you'll get there.

For what it's worth, my Desktop run Debian Squeeze, my little EEE Netbook runs Knoppix installed from a micro drive made from the Knoppix DVD on my desktop PC.

[ZesPak]

Another shout for Mint blowing new life in an older laptop.
Should be very easy for windows users to move to it.

[dtmpower]

I've been using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS since it came out (slowly moving to the new LTS) however not everyone gets on with Unity.

Therefore it might be worth trying http://ubuntugnome.org/

I did try Lubuntu for a while, but all guides / hints / faqs are written for Ubuntu default packages, so why trouble yourself with Lubuntu for a slight performance upgrade.