Momma needs a brand new PC

[thalaw2]

Here's the scenario:  My mother's computer is getting old.  It was cutting edge more than 5 years ago when i built it, but now it's starting to show it's age.   Thankfully, it has never had a significant hardware failure.  That's likely because my soon to be 70 year old mother is a very light PC user.   Anyway, I'm considering moving her to a AMD Phenom II running a Linux distro.  Any advice from the community on Linux distros?  I am thinking Mint or Kubuntu.  But I can't decide between the two.  I still have about 7 months before I return home and mke the upgrade. 

[Tawodi Osdi]

Ubuntu would have the easiest learning curve.  It is the one that is most Windows like.  There is a bit of a learning curve, but someone does not need to be a computer expert to get passed it.

[Epimethee]

Instead of Linux, I'd suggest a Mac Mini.

[thalaw2]

Yeah she was talking about getting a Mac, because she watched some report on TV about Macs not having viruses....she because really paranoid about viruses.  But I was thinking Linux would be more cost effective.  I've never been a Mac person, but i suppose it won't hurt to compare.

[Tawodi Osdi]

The reason Linux and Mac do not have viruses is because virus programmers want to write viruses for the biggest affect and Linux and Mac represent too small of a target for the programmers.  Both OS's do have exploitable weaknesses.  Most Linux programmers know that wholes do exist and work on plugging them.  I do not know how serious Mac programmers are about security wholes.

[JeyNyce]

Are you building her a new PC or just changing the OS?  With Ubuntu, you will probably breath new life into the old PC.  I've installed Ubuntu on a 4-5yr old PC and it ran faster then it did when I had Windows on it.

[thalaw2]

I want to build a new PC kinda because I haven't done it in years and I want to play around with all the new goodies.  I'm bing ambitious (for me) in hoping that I can install Ubuntu and then run an image of my mom's Vista system in Virtual Box so that she doesn't have to deal with so many changes.  I'm really itching to get started but 6500 miles of ocean prevent it for now.