Calling all Linux Escapees

[Dragonearl]

So, my girlfriend got a Dell laptop a while back to use when she's bored at work. So far she's hated it, mainly due to it being way too low powered/Vista demanding too much. It's really atrocious and has been sluggish since the start. We've tried various ways of easing the load on the system, including win 7, but nothing's worked, and as far as we know there are no viruses/rogue processes. We figure it's just too slow to handle it.

Then we figured we could either downgrade to XP or try something new. So we decided on give Linux a shot.

So, which is the most user-friendly, foolproof way to try your hands at Linux? I know there are versions that can launch from CD/USB and was thinking maybe something like that could work, before going all out and reformatting/double booting.

The only real requirements are that it should run some kind of photo-editing software, GIMP or the like, and be user-friendly.

I should mention that both of us are Mac-users on our primary comps, so if there's any distro that's easy to transition to from Mac OS (in terms of interface and so on) would be welcome.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

I run Kubuntu and Linux Mint and they are both quite user friendly and come packed with GIMP. You really can't go wrong with Ubuntu to start out, considering it has the biggest community to help you with any problem you have.

You could download a live CD for either Ubuntu or Fedora (Ubuntu is highly recommended though, it's the bigger brother of Kubuntu) and it'll install itself with all the drivers using the most intuitive install process of any operating system. You'll probably use many of the same applications you already use, or very close approximations to it.

 

[AWC Viper]

I have a 3-boot system Windows XP - Windows 7 - Linux Ubuntu 9

and i find that Ubuntu boots the fastest and is great when the other OS's do not want to boot. very user friendly and comes with all the required drivers on the disk/installer.

Ubuntu boots from both CD/USB as does puppy linux and most others.

 

[Frankydee]

I recently got tired of running Vista over my laptop so I switched over to Ubuntu since I really only use this thing to access the internet anyway. You'll want to latest version so you can get all the codecs and whatnot to go with it for video streaming and DVDs. There are a number of ways of booting the OS onto your system including writing your own CD, writing it onto a 1gig USB drive or just ordering the DVD directly. It comes loaded with pretty much everything you'll need including a productivity suite, GIMP and some media programs.

My suggestion is running it off a disc without writing over your OS so you can see what it's like before installing it.

 

[ctrl-alt-postal]

I would go for mint xfce myself, it's like ubuntu without bugs. Comes with GIMP (most do...) and is pretty straightforward to setup and use. If you know howto use XP and Mac, You'll be fine with it.

 

[Caligulove]

Ubuntu definitely. Some wireless problems occurred to me when I finally got the dual-boot working. I thought it was a simple matter of drivers but it was much more complicated to get it working properly with the HP laptop I have. This might not be the case for you.

But I had to re-write part of the kernal go get it to work on wi-fi and other wireless networks and with my cloud. Still love ubuntu though

 

[Valiance]

Mac OS X is just Free BSD with an apple logo on it.

Ubuntu, Mandriva, and Fedora are all relatively easy to use I think.

 

[Low Key]

The only two distros I have used is Fedora (for school) and Mint. Most of the distros have the same stuff, but I think Mint has a very clean look.

 

[similar.squirrel]

I've recently switched to Ubuntu 9.10 on an old laptop that ran XP and crashed trying to open folders.
Very easy to install/use. The only problem is hardware drivers. I'm in no way proficient with the Terminal typed commands, so every foray into the Ubuntu help forums is a nightmare.
Can't get my wireless card to work.
May switch to Mint or Fedora.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

everyone suggests ubuntu but really there's a LOT of problems with it. first off it has all the hang ups of a debian based system, you can't run KDE on it without a LOT of work, they also have their same packages and all the hang ups with that, easily guessed random numbers anyone.

anyways i'm going to suggest one that i prefer and is really easy to use AND they update it frequently. it's called archlinux

http://www.archlinux.org

they have a great wiki that will help you through installing anything you need.