Recommend a distro please

[OrbitzXT]

A family member is constantly bringing her computer every single week complaining its slow and full of spyware. Week after week I reinstall Windows on it only for it to be brought back a week later again running slowly and awful. To solve this issue I want to give this person an extremely user friendly Linux and set everything up. Keep in mind I have absolutely no experience with Linux myself, except for once I installed Yellow Dog on my PS3 just to try it out, so I need something simple enough that I can explain it well enough. Also the computer its going on is fairly old, a Compaq with a P2 500MHz, about 256mb of RAM.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

I would try to use DSL (damn small linux).

 

[OrbitzXT]

I just read DSL can actually run off RAM alone, this seems like a nice solution for such a crappy old computer. Is it a good idea though and is this distro simple enough for my family member to be able to use?

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

It is based of KDE, the most "windows" like distro. It is very nice, and has all programs already installed in it. If you want, you can also put it on the HD with a right click and a few options.

 

[Chewy]

What spyware wont run on linux? Oo that would be a nice safety feature. (but I have a feeling it just uses less ram elc). ?

 

[DIBL]

To solve this issue I want to give this person an extremely user friendly Linux and set everything up. Keep in mind I have absolutely no experience with Linux myself

That sounds like a great solution for her, but a bad deal for you -- installing and configuring whatever is the World's easiest Linux is still not for noobs. Once done, however, and assuming the user isn't inclined to mischief, it's a very safe way to keep them out of virus/malware hell. I set up my 75-year old mother in-law with Kubuntu 7.04 for her very first computer, so she can surf the 'net for recipes and e-mail my useless brother in-law and play Solitaire on the 'puter like her friends do. She's happy (as well as oblivious to the OS), and after 4 months I'm pretty sure I won't be called in to rescue it from viruses.

 

[ChaoticBlankness]

As nice as DSL is I'm gonna have to cast my vote for Ubuntu. Reason, my laptop runs it.. and my laptop is old.. P2-400 256Mb. However it is the easiest to setup, and it takes care of most of the advanced configuration automatically.

If KDE is preferred over Gnome then use Kubuntu.

 

[Dandel]

I recommend Ubuntu or one of it's other distributions that are tailored to a desktop enviroment... i use Ubuntu 7.10 for now, but plan on going to 8.04 when that comes out next year... as for configuration i had to only modify 2 or 3 files to fix a few bugs related to Audio issues where my onboard sound and the sound card i use kept switching places thus making it impossible to know which one would get the sound output. ( if you have this issue i'll walk you through fixing it. )

 

[Solaris17]

Ubuntu or my pwersonal fav suse