I'm a full time Ubuntu user at home and am happy enough to tinker under the hood to get things to work. My question is I have 2 people for whom I'd like to install Linux, but which distro will be best? I don't want to become a 24hour call out nor do I want to spend my time tinkering under their hood.

Neither are capable of installing a program in Windows themselves. They are beyond noob (one is 82), so any terminal action is completely out of the question. They can both surf the net and send email, and that's about it. Both are having problems with viruses and digital decay. Both are interested in trying Linux after me bestowing it's virtues. I think Linux is a good fit for them as it solves their major issues.

I like Ubuntu but there's a whole load of things to do post install, some of which are a hassle, flash, mp3 etc. I don't want to spend my time doing this for them. I've heard good things about Mint but how far does it go. Is there any advantage to using something like Linspire or Xandros, neither of which I've used.

The 82 year old lives about 6 hours away so I won't be nearby to help after the install.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

I think Ubuntu is good enough...just make sure that you have ALL that they will need (mplayer/mplayer-plugin flashplayer w32codecs openoffice set up to save as microsoft documetns....etc)

-C

And make sure you go with the latest stable version of something, not the testing. If you want to impress someone with Linux, testing OS's aren't always the thing to do it with.

Or better, use Linux Mint. all the codecs will be installed by default. So multimedia won't be any problem. Also it is ubuntu compatible.

Linspire, PCLinux OS and Mandriva are also good. PCLinuxOS also comes with codecs installed by default.

thanks for the replies.

I did mention that ubuntu wasn't the right choice because of all the post install stuff, but thanks for the reminder on open office.

I've not used test releases since my first experience with one killing the whole system. Never again! I'll leave that to the more techie users out there.

So Linux mint gets another vote. It's where I've been leaning and it's Ubuntu roots will at least be familiar.

Thanks

You might consider giving Freespire a test-drive (excellent out-of-the-box experience)...

Since you will be doing the installing, you could access their systems remotely via ssh and do any tuning that way. If they won't be doing any installing of programs, their systems will probably remain stable after the initial installation.
The 82 year old may just forget the root password anyway and not be able to harm his system.

I'll give free spire a test drive thanks for the suggestion.

I've been thinking about the 82 year old. She uses XP right now and gets along OK (bar the issues). I know we of te PC generation can adjust to open office really easily (haven't used word in forever myself) but she's kind of used to word. If she'd never used any system before then I'd definately put her on Linux. I would hate to interrupt her cyber flow, it's taken a while for her to get going! I'll have a think and see if the opportunity arises to go ahead.

Thanks again.

Pclinux OS sounds like the way to go. Ive never used it myself but my brother gave it a try and loved it. May not sound like much but note that he thought ubuntu was too difficult.

Apparently it set out rather like windows and comes with all the basic day to day apps as well as the most common codecs. Never using it myself i can't say much more but it sounds like the way to go.

IMHO

I tried PCLOS and I didn't like it...it was too much of a resource hog...

-C

I personally prefer Gnome to KDE but as this isn't for me then I'll certainly have a look at it. I doubt anyone in the situation I'm describing is maxing out their PC's capabilities so either should be fine.