linux mint

i got my hands on an old laptop computer the other day and decided to try installing linux on it. i've used linux and freeBSD before, so i figured it would take at least half a day to get everything up the way i want it.
i went over to distro watch to try to pick out which type of linux i should run. in the past i've run slackware, ubuntu, debian, and freeBSD. i liked freeBSD the most out of those, but i would say none of them were easy enough to setup and use for a novic. i doubted my father would ever successfully install and set up linux on his own.
distro watch made it sound like linuxmint was pretty easy to use and set up, so i figured i would give that a try. not so much because i was worried i wouldnt be able to get another distribution up and running, but that i wanted to spend as little time as possible doing so.
well, let me tell you, linux mint is amazing! everything was up and running straight away. i didnt have to use the command line once. my wifi card and everything. it's the most user friendly linux i have ever experienced. maybe most distributions are like that these days, i dont know. but i think it is fair to say that switching from windows to linux is now about as hard as switching from windows to an apple computer. there are some differences, but they are all equally easy to use. i fully believe my father would be able to install and use linuxmint without any more trouble than he would apple's OS X.

if you have some free time and an old computer, you should try playing with linux on it.