Hi. My friend has an older netbook (it's a Dell Inspiron Mini 1012). The HDD on said netbook had crashed and he just bought a new HDD for it. Anyway, he needs to (obviously) install an OS on it and I volunteered to do it for him. He's a Windows user and is actually rather happy with it, but the problem is he no longer has his Windows product key. The problem is that he's pretty broke and doesn't have the money to buy another copy of Windows so I pointed out that Linux, being open source, is free. He's going to contact Dell and try to get a recovery disk out of them. Personally, I think a snowball has a better chance in h***. So I'm planning on installing Linux for him. I should probably mention that I use Ubuntu because that was the first distro that I tried and had no problem with Unity. Also, I'm kind of lazy and I can't be bothered to install a different distro. I figure that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But back to what I was saying, this switch to Linux is only because of financial reasons so I want a distro that is very newbie-friendly. Like I said, I use Ubuntu so I know I could help him with that, but I've heard that Mint is more Windows-like and, since it's based on Ubuntu, I could probably figure it out pretty fast to help him. I'm just not sure which one to install for him. I'm also open to suggestions of other distros.

I would recommend you create a Live USB for a few different distros and let your friend choose which he likes best. (Or maybe he prefers Windows and can get a recovery disk from Dell; my Dell Inspiron Mini actually came with a Windows disk even though I bought it with Linux!)

Be aware that certain models of Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 have known graphics problems with Ubuntu/Mint so please test drive a LiveUSB before you commit to an install!

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/linu...e-edition.html

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_Mini_10v

http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11635

Since new user enters into this. I would go for a Mint 13 LTS install with Mate as a Desktop. Especially since you are a Ubuntu user and Mint is just Ubuntu with codecs and different desktops. Xubuntu/Lubuntu 12.04 or LXLE are other Options also.

SolydX should install and run OK also.

SolydX stands for XFCE iso (Desktop)
SolydK stands for KDE iso (Desktop)

If the Mint disk boots to a flashing screen, reboot and run it in failsafe mode and all will be well. Ubuntu doesn't have a failsafe mode and probably wouldn't work with the integrated graphics.

Dell will provide a recovery disk, but usually the OEMs take a fee for that (around 25$ US).

As others stated already, best let your friend try which distribution he likes better. I wouldn't go for Ubuntu, since Unity might just be to heavy for that machine. Mint Mate might be a good option.
In general, from my experiences with Windows users that actually like Windows, don't put to much thought and effort into it, usually those people change back to Windows anyways as soon as possible.