If you're dealing with non-tech family members who are afraid of "not windows" because "it doesn't look like windows", and their application use is something you can shift (ie, if libreoffice is OK for them, and if they predominately use web stuff like google docs/drive/etc), then something like Mint with a standard gnome desktop and an XP skin might work out fine.
If you're dealing with someone who is a semi-tech who is going to be upset by all the ways gnome with an XP skin isn't REALLY xp, you've got a problem. They'll have to learn something new. I wouldn't throw someone who isn't a techie into unity - I think it's actively new-user-hostile. If they want XP because they need to run XP programs, you've got a REAL problem come this spring. Shift them to a modern windows (not win2k as someone suggested) which gets updates, like win7 or win8, and deal with the fallout. A bad second solution is shift them to something modern and then set them up XP in a VM, but this wont' work the instant they go online with the VM and browse somewhere. I guarantee you that the day XP goes EOL there will be a dozen system-killer vulnerabilities launched. People are just sitting on them, waiting for it to EOL to sell them. It happened with the office series that went EOL, it's going to be far, far worse with XP. -m On Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 09:05:41PM -0500, Ed Nisley wrote: > On 01/13/2014 10:32 AM, WestHurley ComputerReCycling wrote: > >any positive or negative comments. > > All I know is what I just read on DistroWatch, so my opinion is > worth, at most, two centibucks. > > A distro that depends on a nonstandard package manager is a Bad Idea > for a general-use PC. If the app you want doesn't appear in YPK, > then you're sunk without a trace; ordinary users should not be > forced into Yet Another Layer of Misdirection. > > Looks like most of the StartOS support info is in Chinese, but maybe > I'm not looking in the right places. > > A bit of rummaging produced this out-of-date overview: > http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2009/12/26/chinese-copy-cat-pirates-launch-ubuntu-that-looks-just-like-windows-xp/ > > I'd say StartOS doesn't have any compelling advantages (other than a > skin-deep resemblance to XP) over, say, Lubuntu: > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu > > The trouble with "it looks just like XP" distros is that, at heart, > they're *not* XP: very little that users learned from XP carries > over to the actual programs behind those shiny icons. Rather than > explaining why this-and-that doesn't work "right", explain how to > use the new-and-different programs and be done with it. > > -- > Ed > softsolder.com > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College > Feb 5 - Nginx > Mar 5 - March Meeting: 11th Anniversary > Apr 2 - Google App Engine --
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_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) Vassar College Feb 5 - Nginx Mar 5 - March Meeting: 11th Anniversary Apr 2 - Google App Engine
