Leosghost - 12:07 am on Mar 24, 2011 (gmt 0)

Problem is: one of the Windows machines is used by my wife, and it could take a while to get her used to anything non-Windows-2000. :(

That's why I'd recommend mint easier than windows for anyone who has never used a computor ..and the interface is similar to something between Xp and 7 ..and if you get ( download ) the bigger "all included" "dvd" iso..everything works .."out of the box" even on some really unusual hardware configs.

I always put mint into machines for newbies and or old folks ..frequently they are newbie old folks in the seventies that have memory problems ..mint is ideal ..

I keep it on this box so that if they get stuck ( I don't do this for a living ..just to help out ) I can walk them through "where the buttons" are and the "how to's" over the phone ..when they forget how to open the email or the movie of the grandchildren saying "hi".

That said it also works for pro use ..and the community is friendly and helpfull .

Only caveat is if you use thunderbird.. the version 3 is way less "friendly" to get accounts set up for beginners than the version 2 ..but you can still find thunderbird 2 for linux all over ..and the thunderbird usability /bloat problem is the same no matter what the flavour of linux it is in.