My parents are currently running Windows ME (on their Pentium III machine).

To make a long story short, they've had all kinds of computer troubles.

I recently heard that it might be better to switch them to Linux. That said:

1) My parents are computing novices who only know how to perform basic tasks. Will Linux be too advanced for them?
2) Will Linux even run on a Pentium III machine that was made about six or seven years ago?

My Mother is always getting into computer trouble, so I installed Ubuntu onto her system, and put the shortcut icon "Internet" on the desktop. She hasn't had troubles since. Linux is pretty hard to screw up if you're not installing or configuring it.

It's a little unfair of your parents to condemn Windows across the board, based solely on their experiences with Windows ME. That was by a country mile the worst version of Windows that MS ever produced, and considering it was supposed to be an "upgrade" from Windows 98SE was an insult to that excellent Windows version which many people still use today. Any PC which can run ME can run 98SE instead, so there's no need to go down the unfamiliar Linux road. Windows 98SE can be found in the private ads of computer magazines as well as online vendors (try 'Googling' it).

Just be aware that switching to Linux may mean your folks having to forego some of their favourite Windows applications that won't run on Linux, and they'll need Linux device drivers for things like printer or scanner.

This post has been edited by pip22: May 4 2008, 07:19 AM

I think Windows is easier than Linux for novices user .

Hmmmm..... is Linux a pain to install or something?

You parents would have no more difficulty learning Linux than they would XP or Vista. It's more a question of the right choice. I'm using PCLinuxOS myself now, one of the easiest versions to use and install for previous Windows users. Most newer versions of Linux need at least 256mb of memory and will do better with more. Another good version is Mepis. There are also lightweight versions of Mepis and PCLinux suitable for machines with less memory.

My suggestion would be to start getting acquainted with Linux as it will run very well on older machines that will not support Vista and let them have a usual life of several more years. It also runs very fast on newer machines BTW.

Thanks, I didn't even realize that there were different versions of Linux. What do you think is the best version for my parents to run? They currently have an Intel Pentium III processor with only 384MB of RAM.

Any ideas?

This post has been edited by Phriend: May 4 2008, 03:41 PM

On the right hand side of this page you will find a list of the most popular versions of Linux, ranked by page hits, which doesn't really mean much. You can go to the home pages of the different versions, and also any forums, by clicking on the links. You can also look at screen shots of the desktops to get an idea of what you may like. Almost all of the top ones are "live CDs" that let you try the system out by booting up the CD. You just burn the downloaded .iso file as an image to make the live CD.

http://distrowatch.com/

This post has been edited by Tyger: May 4 2008, 08:07 PM

No I'm just saying that your parents most likely won't screw up the computer as long as they're not installing or configuring it.



Sorry to say, but since your computer is so.... Uhm... 'aged', I'd reccomend installing Debian with a window manager like XFCE. If you find that too complicated, I reccomend using Xubuntu, which is Ubuntu with XFCE pre-installed.

This post has been edited by lem.rar: May 4 2008, 07:16 PM