Best Alternative to Windows (XP)

[Ian J]

My in-laws have to upgrade from XP as they are getting various warnings about their installed software no longer being supported by updates.

Which OS would people recommend to make the transition as easy as possible for them?

Ideally something that comes with an email client built in or has a basic client similar to Outlook Express available that I can import their current email folders into.

These are the main pieces of software they use:

Outlook Express
Skype
MS Office (Mainly Word & Excel)
PDF Reader
EAC (Exact Audio Copy)

The only fly in the ointment could be that they use some software for on-line banking provided buy their bank, I will have to find out the name of this software and check if a compatible version is available.

 

[Mr_Loon]

Are they looking to buy new hardware as well?

If not then what is the specification of the XP based system?

 

[benoitb]

My parents use Xubuntu. Good hardware support, low maintenance with the LTS versions, easy to install non-free codecs.
Outlook Express -> Thunderbird (not sure about import options from Outlook Express, we use IMAP)
Skype -> Skype
MS Office (Mainly Word & Excel) -> Libreoffice
PDF Reader -> Included
EAC (Exact Audio Copy) -> you'd have to search, I did install a ripping software before but could not find the name anymore

I also set up teamviewer on their PC, in case they need help. Was useful maybe twice in 10 years.

 

[LoopStar]

+1 for xubuntu! It's pretty lightweight and does everything I need for everyday use (mostly web-surfing, emails, editing photos). The only thing I've kept is MS Office (some older edition) since I sometimes have to work with Excel spreadsheets that don't import correctly in Libre Office. So I run it with Wine and haven't encountered any problems so far. Maybe your parent's online-banking-software would run with Wine, in case you can't find any Linux-solution.

 

[Fzero]

My in-laws have to upgrade from XP as they are getting various warnings about their installed software no longer being supported by updates.

Which OS would people recommend to make the transition as easy as possible for them?

Ideally something that comes with an email client built in or has a basic client similar to Outlook Express available that I can import their current email folders into.

These are the main pieces of software they use:

Outlook Express
Skype
MS Office (Mainly Word & Excel)
PDF Reader
EAC (Exact Audio Copy)

The only fly in the ointment could be that they use some software for on-line banking provided buy their bank, I will have to find out the name of this software and check if a compatible version is available.

Well, to really address the issue with this on-line banking software, we're really going to need the name of the software they use, and the name of the bank, along with their bank account details and sort code..

But seriously, I was reading this article which has an article heading The Best Distro To Switch To From XP, and recommends Mint.
Having a similar look and feel to XP, in terms of the taskbar and such I think

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-linux-distro-first-time-switchers-windows-mac/



I've never used Xubuntu though myself, so that may well be the better choice for them

 

[Ian J]

Are they looking to buy new hardware as well?

If not then what is the specification of the XP based system?

No they are sticking with what they have.

Don't know exact CPU but off the top of my head:

Dual Core CPU 1.67Ghz
2GB Ram
Ati HD4870 1GB video card

 

[moxie]

I find Mint to be quite painless when it comes to setting up fo non-expert users, it's available with a 5-year LTS edition and can be gotten in a variety of configurations from Holy-cow-look-at-those-desktop-effects to fairly frugal, in order to fit different kinds of hardware.

And it has Evolution, which is supposed to be an outlook drop-in replacement, ne? (I avoid outlook meself)

 

[levi]

No they are sticking with what they have.

Don't know exact CPU but off the top of my head:

Dual Core CPU 1.67Ghz
2GB Ram
Ati HD4870 1GB video card

That strikes me as pretty powerful for desktop linux. I've run debian with xfce (pretty much like xubuntu then) on a single core 1.6GHz machine with Intel graphics before now quite happily.

I can't comment on all the software you need, but I think that hardware should suffice if Linux does turn out to be suitable.

 

[Klumpen]

My in-laws have to upgrade from XP as they are getting various warnings about their installed software no longer being supported by updates.

Which OS would people recommend to make the transition as easy as possible for them?

Ideally something that comes with an email client built in or has a basic client similar to Outlook Express available that I can import their current email folders into.

These are the main pieces of software they use:

Outlook Express
Skype
MS Office (Mainly Word & Excel)
PDF Reader
EAC (Exact Audio Copy)

The only fly in the ointment could be that they use some software for on-line banking provided buy their bank, I will have to find out the name of this software and check if a compatible version is available.

I've switched from WinXP to Linux Mint (Mate edition) at the end of support back then, which was quite some time ago.
It was an easy transition:

Outlook Express -> Thunderbird (better choice in Windows too)
Skype -> Skype (owned by M$ but ironically more stable and reliable than the Windows port)
MS Office -> Libre Office (better choice in Windows too)
PDF Reader -> Document Viewer
Exact Audio Copy (that's what I used in Windows too) -> Asunder (way superior)

Thunderbird, Libre Office and the PDF Viewer were pre-installed, Skype and Asunder are already in the repo and can be automatically installed in Synaptic (pre-installed too) with a few clicks.

 

[rygD]

On the Linux side of things I agree with both of the above recommendations, Xubuntu from experience and helping others, Mint only based on reputation and second hand info.

I thought I would have some other, non-Linux, options to offer (Windows 10 is not an option, imo), however I can't think of any. Possibly PC-BSD if it isn't too far out of their comfort zone.

Somewhat off topic: is there anything interesting going on with DOS anymore? I suppose I could just search for myself, or check Wikipedia. I doubt DOS would be an option for non-techy types today, though, plus some of the required software is probably unavailable.

 

[Ian J]

Looks like Mint will be the way to go.

I'll download and install it on a separate hard drive for them to use for a few days (before fully replacing XP) and see how they go before putting it on their main.

Can anyone recommend virus software to use on Mint?

 

[rygD]

Clam AV comes to mind, but I would need to check on that. I don't use AV stuff, at least not with *nix (even if I was concerned, I usually hop between distros/OSs frequently, and...well, just lazy and don't care that much).

Edit: ClamAV. I will look around for a couple more minutes for something better.

Eddit: This has info and a list to consider.

Edddit: I didn't read it all, but there is some interesting info (and test results) here.

 

[Ian J]

Is AV software even needed on Linux?

 

[Swordfish II]

Windows 7 if they really like windows

For an xp like replacement you have gotten some good options but one more is Lindows (looks like it is now called linspire). It was designed for exactly the situation you are in

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=linspire

After digging a bit more, never mind. It costs $45 and was bought out in 2008. So the above is probably your best bet.

 

[rygD]

Is AV software even needed on Linux?

Read my second two links. Maybe not, but it is better to be safe, even if you are only avoiding passing on a virus to someone else.

 

[Swordfish II]

Shame you couldn't install Pandora OS, with the PNDmanager etc it is pretty user friendly

 

[Klumpen]

Is AV software even needed on Linux?

Not really but if you want to scan your system you could download the Kaspersky Rescue Disk.
It has its own OS (Linux) and also scans about everything you don't have access to while being inside some OS.

Shame you couldn't install Pandora OS, with the PNDmanager etc it is pretty user friendly

Synaptic (comes with Mint) does the same and the collection of packages available in the standard repo is great, it even has many of the games available via PND manager like Battle for Wesnoth, OpenTTD, some emulators etc...

 

[Swordfish II]

Never used mint, only knoppix, debian and it's various flavors and a few handheld specific distros. But it sounds nice (even for me. I sometimes get frustrated trying to get things working)

 

[FBnil]

I like the Mate edition better. But ++ for Mint.

1. It has a start button at the lower left. That is one hurdle less. And the menu is very easy, once you get used to it.
2. It behaves window-ish. Plus it allows for desktop icons, put all start thingies there, etc

 

[Klumpen]

I like the Mate edition better. But ++ for Mint.

1. It has a start button at the lower left. That is one hurdle less. And the menu is very easy, once you get used to it.
2. It behaves window-ish. Plus it allows for desktop icons, put all start thingies there, etc

Do the XFCE version and the others not have this? I've only used MATE