Because Windows XP will soon become obsolete, I would like to replace XP on my clients' computers with Linux. Their computers are too old and slow for Windows 7. But my clients have never heard of Linux, and don't want to try it. Android, on the other hand, has name recognition, and many people already use it.
Android is the answer, so I want to find a Linux distribution that resembles Android (4.0 or above). The advantage of Linux is that it is stable and adapted to the Intel architecture. I tried Android-x86, but it is hardware specific and unstable on most computers. I tried an embedded form of Android (Windroid) but it cannot stand alone, without a Windows OS. I tried an Android-like shell for Ubuntu, but the links in the websites I visited were broken.

client is not willing to upgrade their PC's?

What they want, use their PC for 20 years? I don't think the Motherboard will last that long.

It would be a good move, to ask them to upgrade rather than patronize them.

But for profit purposes, it will be a good idea to run old computers. Anytime it breaks down, tech will have a job

A computer sold with XP on it will be far from 20 years old -- it would well be as young as 4 years or even younger if it's a replacement. That's still pretty new as far as corporate machines and life-cycles go and a real waste. Ideally, in a small organisation, one could do a rolling refresh with old machines being phased out as and when they die rather than having to do a large organisation style refresh of the whole estate every 5 years or so at an enormous expense.

hi 273, i was just exaggerating with 20 years. But actually, IMO hard disk spin will definitely slow down as time passes by. Even though it will still looks good and working. Definitely performance will degrade, 5 years for a desktop PC to change isn't a bad idea. but that is just my opinion.

anything that gets older will definitely degrades its performance just as human.

I think you've been using Microsoft products too long. There's no reason a 5 year old PC has to be slow at all -- I've used my PCs for more than 5 years each with no performance changes at all (in fact I'm using 8 year old drives in my 18 month old PC with no noticeable slowness, admittedly only for data and not the OS).
As I said, for a large organisation with a big bank balance it may make sense to roll out new desktops every 5 years wit ah new OS but that is extremely expensive and in a smaller organisation you would want to replace machines as they break not as MS dictates.

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hi 273, yup you're absolutely right using MS products for so long. hmm...that would be a good idea to resurrect old pc's and use linux distro. thanks.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I disagree with you completely just that using Windows for a long time gets you used to slowdown due to things like registry bloat and DLL-hell and get you used to just throwing out a PC when a new version of the OS comes out. I'm not one for using old machines for the sake of it and would replace with something more modern in a lot of situations but I think for standard desktops doing light work you can often use them until they die if you look after them properly.
It's not Android, but Ubuntu is coming to phone -- might that be worth a try?
I don't think this is ready for the mainstream yet, but I'm grateful to be reminded of it:
http://www.android-x86.org/download

But Android is not designed as operating system for desktops. It was designed for smartphones and tablets. If you want to switch to Linux choose a desktop distribution. I think Ubuntu is the most popular, but any other would be good. Differencies for usual users are minimal (no C: like drives, no MS programs, other wallpapers and etc.). People need to learn new system anyway, even when you install new Windows, it changed from XP greatly. I self had a problems when trying to accomplish some network configuration on Win7 which was simple on XP. If their PC are old, you do not need to use super advanced desktop environments, like KDE or GNOME, there are few other good and quite configurable for lower end computers.

IMHO, It's time to upgrade. Your clients should get a new computer if possible. In fact, there are some sites like qvc.com and hsn.com that offer monthly payments.

android is a distribution of linux without many of the gnu programs and a java gui overlay.

I am happy to find such a lively discussion in response to my question. But when I said "Android is the answer" I meant only that the appearance of Android will make a Linux distribution marketable. If it looks like Android, it will seem familiar to many people, and it will be easy to sell. I thought that someone might know which of the 300 or so Linux distributions resembles Android, whether accidentally or by intention. It's not a silly question---people should wake up and realize that a major event is scheduled to occur in April, 2014. Either the hackers and malware makers will have a feeding frenzy, or literally tons of equipment will be discarded in every city in this country, if someone does not find an alternative to XP.

tails liveCD

it looks like XP when in camouflage mode

Familiarity is important but I think compatability is more important.

No matter how the gui is skinned you will need to find a way to run your licenced corporate software that you purchased over the years which rely on windows. So it is probably better to upgrade to win-8 in this case (maybe wine will work but using native linux programs would work better).

Maybe since the trend is going back to thin-clients running software on servers (read: cloud) it probably won't matter that your running things from tablets.

I thank Firerat for the information about "tails". Having a Linux distribution that looks like XP is another way to overcome the reluctance of most people to try something new. But as I review the various comments that were made in this thread, what stands out in my mind is something eSelix wrote: "People need to learn a new system anyway..." Even if their equipment allowed them to switch from Windows XP to 7 or 8, people would have to adjust to a new system. So why not forthrightly tell my customers that they should get Linux Mint or Lubuntu or whatever is best on their machines? Perhaps I have been too much a wimp--I believe in Linux, so I should have the courage of my convictions.

Obviously tails is not a solution for you, its camouflage mode is just that.. to avoid 'second looks' when in public spaces.

It was in many ways a "flippant" comment on what you were trying to achieve, i.e. the look of Android.

Having a desktop look and feel like a phone OS would be fun, but far from practical.

What you need to do is sit down and draft out a 'map' of all the current software in use by your client, and then "re-map" to Linux software.

probable 'hurdles'

• Office suite
• Email
• CRM ( Customer Relationship Management )
• ERP ( Enterprise Resource and Planning )

I don't know what your client 'does' for all I know it could be that all their CRM/ERP requirements are currently met by Excel!

End of the day, this is a job for a Systems Analyst , the 'look' is secondary perhaps not even that high a priority.