Well, if you're wanting to go the "Windows user morphs into Linux user" route, the best solution IMO is PCLinuxOS. Here is the final results of an experiment which set out to determine just which of the available distros was up to such a task. It's a pity a few Ubuntu users got up in arms because it didn't put on that great of a showing (they kinda gave the community a bit of a black eye, and I still think they don't understand what the whole experiment was about.. sad), but fact is, Ubuntu is really just an arms length away from Debian. I really do not classify it as a noob distro. I classify it as a casual, somewhat techie user desktop.

For the complete experiment, go here.

What planet are you living on?

Mepislovers.org is one of the best linux forums on the net.

I had PCLINUXOS for a while but for some reason I could never figure out it was very unstable. Plus Firefox tended to get messed up and wouldn't connect. If it wasn't for the problems I kept having I would still be using it. Maybe once it reaches 1.0. The interface and control are great. To bad it doesn't have the marketing behind it that Ubuntu does.

It is not quite as easy to install as Xandros.
It is one of the simpler distros to use.

Even Distrowatch doesn't classify Ubuntu as a newbie distro.
MEPIS and Xandros are considered the best for new Linux users who want to get productive in Linux as soon as possible without having to master all its complexities. On the other end of the spectrum, Gentoo, Debian, Slackware and FreeBSD are more advanced distributions that require plenty of learning before they can be used effectively. Mandrake, Red Hat, Ubuntu and SUSE can be classified as good "middle-road" distributions.

I tend to disagree about Debian being hard, the package management is one of the easiest to use of any distro I have tried.

I agree ...I spent 30 mins looking for the passwords first time I downloaded mepis. It really out to say it on the download mirror page on mepis.org. Once you know you know but most people try hacking it for 5 mins then never try mepis again out of pure frustration. Luckily I had 30 mins of patience.

It's #1 most likely because it's debian based <that's a bonus> and it has different, updated repositories, such as gnome 2.10, kde 3.4, xorg 6.8, regular debian has gnome 2.8, kde 3.3, and xfree86.

I don't know if it deserves it, because I know 3 computers it won't install on, so it's bugged, On my amd64 it wont install, it crashes, on 386 version it crashes as well. On the computers I know of that run it, it's installed, but it crashes quite frequent in gnome.

I think in my opinion, mepis should be #1, they have really improved, There's just so much you can do with it.

Just curious what you mean about doing more with Mepis? As compared to what?

No flame intended, but Ubuntu and most other distros all seem to be able to "do" the same stuff.

Robert

I don't think I necessarily meant you could do more, I meant that it could basically do everything ubuntu can, and it's just as fast.

I had a similar experience. I experiment quite a bit with different Linux distributions (I have a PC dedicated to experimentation) and I decided to try SimplyMepis 2004.03. I downloaded the ISO and burned a CD then set it aside for next weekend. When I started it up and it asked for a password, I decided not to bother with it. It was only later that I ran across the information (by accident) and tried the distro out. Now, I have installed SimplyMepis 3.3 on 4 different PCs at work but I might not have even given it a try if I hadn't run across the password information by accident. People don't want to be bothered with looking up stuff like that. And, they shouldn't have to.

Yes you are right, the password is the same as the username, which is "demo", and the root password is "root"

luckily I figured it out, they really should say something though, maybe more people would use it, and not give up on it.

I've been using linux since Red Hat 7.1 and I use Ubuntu now. I'm playing around with the Beta for Debian Sarge on another computer and I'm excited for that one to be released as stable.

One of ubuntu's best features that hasn't been really discussed is that they release completely upgrades every 6 months. Debian's lifecycle is often way behind and not very regular about version releases. Plus it's totally free in the most true sense of the word, so there's no reason not to try it out.

Ubuntu is a solid distro. I'd recommend it to anyone, newb or pro.

Personally, I didn't find the password thing an issue. At first, I tried just hitting enter, thinking that perhaps the password was just blank. Then, my intuition told me to just use the username as the password. Really, Warren should think about just ditching the whole password thing for the live boot.

As for ease... I'll tell you, it was a lot easier to figure out the live CD passwords than it was to figure out:

1. What sudo was and that I had to use that instead of logging in temporarily as root to do stuff.
2. Why my screen resolution was all messed up and that I had to find something called xorg.conf.
3. How to burn CDs using Nautilus (the invisible CD burning program).
4. Why the first CD I burned from the Ubuntu ISO stalled in the middle of the install process.

Now, some people do find sudo more intuitive than the password thing. And many have found Ubuntu's hardware detection better than Mepis's (not me, of course--in fact, it was the reverse).

Oh, and the documentation for Ubuntu is very thorough!
As to the question of why #1... well, giving away CDs, even paying for the shipping, will definitely help your distro if you can afford it, and Ubuntu can afford it. Their promise of being completely free and always free, with new releases every six months lends a promise of stability that Warren just can't give. Even though many people love Mepis, even those within the Mepis community (the "Mepis lovers," as it were) worry about what might happen if Warren were to abandon the Mepis project.

I think that naturally he'd just hand the reins over to someone else, but that's just an assumption.

Ubuntu 5.04 is number one because...
1-free software,free shipment or buy a linux magazine and get a cd or dvd included
2-easy to install gui
3-super hardware compatibility
4-super stable OS
5-updates are easy and fast
6-online ubuntu forums for support
7-every 6 months Ubuntu has a new version
8-right now Suse 9.3 is number one distro for me and Ubuntu 5.04 is number two
9-Ubuntu 5.10 will keep ubuntu at number one
10-the more people use Suse 9.3 ,should move it close to number onehttp://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/newreply.php?s=&action=newreply&threadid=327207#

What easy to install gui do you mean. Ubuntu uses a text interface based on the new Debian installer.

Slackware is by far so much more configureable. No windows programs won't run on it, like SuSe and VMWare will do, and only a handful of prgrams with Wine. Ubuntu is nice, it has a lot of great features, but Slackware will install on an odd laptop and work, I know, I made one happen, an E-Machines M2105. Ubuntu could not make the sound work, and then trying to get the alsa drivers to install, oh, wait, now I have to download all those programming tools that are for some reason, left out of the installer. Now what, apt-get programming utiltites. No They are installed and there on just about every other Distribution out. Seems that as far as it goes, Kubuntu/Ubuntu is to WEAN Windows users away from Windows and into Linux gently.

yeah if your into screenshots and back-patting.