Linux distro for windows user?

So I wanna install linux on the old's mom computer, which distro would be the better if she has like little experience with windows, and a fuck ass old computer?
pls halp

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install gentoo

Windows 10 with a non-admin account.

Windows 10, tbqh.

You don’t want to help your mom every time she doesn’t find the internet explorer button.

xfce or lxde with custom windows theme

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

she hates internet explorer
her computer cant run win 10
thanks, I didnt know that, my life has changed for the better

debian
I installed it on my aunts computer, it's lightweight and user friendly. she never wants to go back

actually I experienced the exact opposite. with windows 10 I got a call every two days 'why is my browser changed to another one?' 'how do I get this ad to disappear?' 'microsoft says I should use edge to be safe pls help me switch to it'. debian just does what she wants it to do and stays exactly the same.

Then use a windows-ish distro like Linux Mint.

Linux Mint with Cinnamon or Debian nonfree with Cinnamon. The first one is better for people who know absolutely nothing, but the second one is a little better under the hood and can be kept forever even if skills improve. Anyway I'm convinced that Cinnamon is the best DE for home users. Default keybinds for window and UI management are similar to Windows and everything can be changed easily from a nice graphical window called system settings.

OP said her mom had little experience with windows. Also windows 10 is non-intuitive as fuck, I only had to use it a couple of times on other people's computers and even I couldn't find a few very basic things. Microsoft loves to change everything every once in a while just because they can.

ZorinOS Lite:
zorinos.com/download/12/lite/64/
Then do this:
youtube.com/watch?v=FNuotRFDH7c
Or look into adding tear-free option depending on the GPU used.

Android

>too dumb to use Windows
>Better give her a Linux distro!
Looks like it runs in the family

Things have changed. Windows 10 is a mess and a very bad OS in a lot of aspects like frequent updates. It's also less intuitive and has issues Windows 7 didn't have.
Meanwhile user friendly linux distros are only getting better over time. The only difficult part about using any linux distro is getting everything to work at first. So assuming OP sets everything up correctly for her mom then she's probably going to have even less issues than on windows.

Nobody has said it yet but try Q4OS. It's made to look like an old version of windows. I've never used it myself but seems like its directed towards old people.

Updates are a negative? Enjoy your 0day I guess. Almost nothing in the kernel has changed between 7 and 10, all the winapi calls work the exact same way.

Updates are totally fine and are a benefit. What's wrong is windows 10's update system. They are obligatory and it's easy for a non-tech person to run into issues because of them. Not to mention a lot of those updates are not really critical and unnecessarily use a lot of bandwidth which can be an issue depending on where you live and how many people use the same internet connection.
Updates are only one issue of the OS.
The kernel and technical stuff are what matter the least in this context, no idea why you brought that up.

Windows updates generally once a month, patch Tuesday, unless there is a critical security bug.
These updates are to fix other security bugs and general bugs in the os, there's absolutely no reason not to update, and if they weren't forced, people would forget about them.
Do you remember wanna cry? The exploit had been patched for 3 months before it was released, and surprise, people in windows 7 who refused to download updates got shit on, whereas anyone who was force updated wasn't.
The ux for w10 and w7 is almost exactly the same, if you really want the w7 start menu just download classic shell

You're forgetting the fact that most very critical bugs get fixed elsewhere outside of the OS anyway, specially if you're patching once a month. Even then the chances of vulnerabilities affecting your average end user who just browses through facebook and watches videos on youtube are almost zero.
Ironically wannacry affected windows only, just like most malware out there. Security is a thousand times better on linux just because most malware targetting the end user targets windows and also it would be almost impossible to install adware/malware.
Do you have any idea of how absurdly easy it is for dumb people to find and install all sort of crapware on windows? Have you ever "fixed" a computer for someone else?

>The ux for w10 and w7 is almost exactly the same, if you really want the w7 start menu just download classic shell
That's so wrong. It's not only about the taskbar, it's about the whole thing. A lot of settings got moved or changed their functionality and overall the OS is less user friendly even for people who just want to use a computer for basic stuff. Do your research on this part, I'm not going to bother.

>Ironically the vulnerability affected windows only
Uhh so do you understand how computers work? Obviously it only affected windows, it was a bug in the SMB implementation, that's like saying wow only Linux was effected by dirtyc0w, these aren't hardware bugs
You realize how little of this windows malware uses 0day? Give her a non admin account and she literally can't do anything that would permanently break the computer
But you're right, installing Linux, which has 0 ux researchers in its entirety, is going to be perfect for your mom that can barely use a computer

Maybe try ReactOS. I haven't used it, but it's for this intended purpose. Be like Windows 2000/XP.

Kubuntu, KDE is similar looking to Windows, just replace Konqueror with Firefox or Chromium

Please don't
Reactos exists to help with research into the windows kernel, it shouldn't be used as a real os

Ubuntu
NEXT!

Ok there's seriously no point in arguing with you, probably a troll but I'll still answer one more time.
My point is you mentioned security when security is much better for end users on linux. Technically speaking you would not get affected by wannacry even if you were using an outdated linux distro. Yes, stuff like this can also happen on linux but they're much more rare and will pretty much never happen to just a regular user. Wannacry was popular. Wannacry is just a very bad example and no, updating very often is not a requirement to be safe. Not installing crapware itself is a whole lot much more important than this anyway.
>Give her a non admin account and she literally can't do anything that would permanently break the computer
I think you're the one who doesn't even know how a computer works. Not allowing her mom to install anything and not have admin rights is not a good fix. First of all it's her computer and it's not a good idea to only let other specific people install things. Like let's say her mom's friend comes over and wants to install something on her PC. There should be no need to contact whoever has access to admin credentials. Secondly a lot of pretty basic actions besides installing stuff require admin privileges which over time she will need. Thirdly you don't even need admin rights to do harmful things. And fourth I'm pretty fucking sure you can still install crapware without admin rights as long as it only affects the current user but I haven't touched windows in a good while.

>But you're right, installing Linux, which has 0 ux researchers in its entirety, is going to be perfect for your mom that can barely use a computer
Many fallacies on this one. I will ignore the strawman because it's not really important. Anyway, just because something was made by a big corporation doesn't mean it's good. OP's mom would be better off using something like mint because she barely touched windows according to OP.

Yeah I want something easy to use, not a bundleware OS.

I'm not going to waste time explaining why you're wrong again, go install Linux on your mom's computer and see how much she uses it
I'm sure she's going to love googling the arbitrary CLI call she has to make to restart DHCP instead of right clicking and disabling/reenabling the adapter when her internet goes down

I installed Linux Mint with KDE on my mom and sister's computers, and they like it just fine short of the cats walking all over the keyboard and adding random widgets to the desktop.

I tried mint, ran like shit, any other option but for more a oldish computer?

Mint MATE
or Mint Xfce
they're both light on older hardware

very easy to use and easy to maintain

if she gets confused, go to customize appearance, and pick winMe for windows border (at least on MATE)

update whenever it shows the blue shield in the system tray

the only things to really do are use intel firmware, and turn on the firewall. other than that it's a decent facebook/youtube workstation


what DE were you using? Cinnamon and KDE are going to be a drain for older PC's

Get slackware or Ubuntu net and build it with xfce themed like windows

xubuntu

yeah I used the cinnamon one

Zorin. It has a similar de layout to windows and also can run .exes natively.

i put antergos on a 60 year old guy's computer.
he was initially extremely tech illiterate.
after showing him some basics, he loved it. he said he liked how fast it was, and was easy to download things from "that community thing you showed me".

install antergos

Debian or Devuan

installed Q4OS and everything, but has some problem with the drivers or some shit, goes retard when changing resolution fron 640x480 to something more usable

Debian doesnt want to install either, some problem with the harddrive

debian wants to install just fine, you just don't want to try and install it
anyway install openbsd

Linux mint xfce.
Easy to use.
Also it has timeshift.

It's probably best to get debian/ubuntu/mint with XFCE.
If XFCE doesn't work out for some reason, Fedora has a quite sensible LXQt spin.

It reconnects automatically on my machine, maybe you're just retarded.

>fuck ass old computer
Devuan, customized from the bottom to be low power machine, as in "rice" for low specs, like choosing the wm, and if the computer is old I recommend installing IceWM

Go download Ubuntu 17.10 desktop ed
Copy a file to your desktop
Open up a folder in the file browser
Try to click and drag the file from your desktop into this folder

This is why Linux is dog shit

Probably because you're using KDE.

what should I use then, they have like only one iso

Deepin wtf

I don't even know what problem are you referring to because I don't use GNOME and haven't for years. Stop pretending GNOME=GNU/Linux

>Endless OS
easier than windows

He said distros.

xubuntu, manjaro xfce with chicago95 theme