Recommendations when installing Linux on someone else's computer. Will not be able to help out rapidly if a problem. May be a week or month between contact/visit. As current user is not technically inclined, but familiar w/ MS, think KDE mandatory, if too hard to figure out=Not used
IMHO = Kinda hard to use LDC in this case. Older users probably just surf web, play games {cards] already on system, not on-line or gaming.
Want to load on a DT that runs 98SE or M$ ME, hope to have faster response than current O\S. Easy to maintain, (May not even have contact again!) Load it and leave possible?
What would you put on Gramp's, the old curmudgeon, computer???

14 Nov 2311 TY for the all suggestions, I have installed Slackw 11 on my systems, but just not used it yet. Heard of Debian (Friend has it I think, will look @ it), thought FC & oSUSE kicker panel/start menu just to full of options, I not sure how to tailor it yet

As long as you (knowledgeable person) are setting it up, I'd give him a basic Gnome desktop installation of Debian. (Of course I'm prejudiced.)

The critical deal here is to leave him with a Destop system that will be stable for a very long time, even with no updates. I'd use the Etch netinstaller. It'll be Stable in a month and is pretty rock solid right now. It's also very up-to-date, so you shouldn't run into any hardware issues. Only thing I don't know about is setting up modems, and if he doesn't have a broadband connection, the Netinstall is problematic.

If you're the one installing the OS you should pick one that you are comfortable setting up.

Once they´re set up, most distros are pretty equal.

PCLinuxOS
SabayonLinux [My Pick]
Dreamlinux

All these are out-of-the-box distros i.e., all multimedia capable distros.

It really depends on the computer and how old it is.

A nice choice if its older and low on ram would be Debian with Icewm as a desktop. The look and feel of Icewm is very similar to windows.

speaking from experience ... i would suggest puppy linux or maybe slax , this one i recently go to their sites ... probably i will try it , looks rather "basic" enough to me ...

few things i find usefull(probably ot) is that double clicking is better than single clicking on the desktops and also ... those title bars are better if they are "normal" , it doesnt matter much if we do it with one or two steps more ...

as for basic capabilities in web , emailing , videos , music and "words" documents , puppy and slax(i'm guessing) can are great ...


but ofcourse , oue older pc needs to click well with these two distros in the first place , preferably without any bootup message on the screen when we power on our pc ... which means without the needs to look at the message at all ...


//2 cents ...


.

i would say slackware will be fit

not to much dithering grafics and a good contrast of the installation screen

nowadays we just drop them into it ... probably rerun it again ... nothing much anyway if our expectations are not too high and be realistic a bit ...


//btw , i like the screenshots and the add-in section from slax sites ...


[EDIT::] hmm ...


.

Mandriva
http://frontal2.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors

This is what PCLinuxOS is based on it is a BIG distrobution with all you will ever need


PCLinuxOS .92
http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/dist...glish/preview/
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/distr...glish/preview/

This is the distro I use and recommend, Why because it works right out of the box. No need to configure Everything, everything just works. It also comes as a 1 CD install that is a live CD that you can install later if you wish.

BeatrIX
http://www.watsky.net/download.html

Mephis
http://www.mepis.org/

Everything you will ever need on 1 CD. Hardware detection is exelent, as is the feel and look of the distro

Linux distro choosers:

http://eedok.voidofmind.com/linux/chooser.html
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Linspire is more like Windows than most Linux distributions and it is the only OS my son has not been able to screw up, which is a comment on how stable it is. Linspire does require relatively new hardware, though. Nothing manufactured before 2000 and no laptops. Anyway, you can always try out their live CD and if it runs you are probably safe installing Linspire 5.0.