At least it would help the OP when he would know why you recommend those distros.

As user said. User wants to use PC mostly for word processing, personal finance, emails, net surfing, playing movies.
Based on my own experience these distro's are easy to use and easy to learn.
And user said he used mandrake os on their office do he have experience using linux.
That's why i mentioned these distro's.

A general suggestion... Would it be useful to have an uber 'Which distro for...' sticky thread in Linux - Newbie starting with the most common advice which would generally be to take a look at Distrowatch and then draw up a short list of promising looking distros to try out?

I'm ignoring the fact that the advise to try Ubuntu/Mint/Slackware etc. is also very common because to a certain extent that tends to change over time. That change is generally reflected by the top ten at DW so directing the newbie there would pretty much give them a decent short list to be starting with...

Linux mint in my opinion is the best "Transition" from windows distros as the installation sequence is easy and the set up on pretty much everything is handled by the program. Once you learn LInux I believe Arch to be the best. I have 4 rock solid set up's in my home network.

Would at least help some new users to find a distro, but I think it is the same like with every sticky in every forum: Most people simply won't read them.

Debian Stable:

Pros:
Stable as a tank
APT is a great package manager
Uses Gnome 2, so you maybe familiar with it
Has a TON of packages

Cons:
Older packages

Ubuntu:

Pros:
Easy to use
Also has a ton of packages
Also has APT, so has a great package manager.
Up-to-date packages

Cons:
Sometimes buggy, but not often
I personally don't like Unity all that much, you maybe different.

Fedora:

Pros:
Up-to-date packages
Has Gnome 3
Quite easy to use
YUM is an ok package manager

Cons:
Can be buggy at times, but not often
Has only open source software by default, this isn't really a con, but if you need to use proprietary software, you will have to setup third party repos

Slackware (My personal favorite):

Pros:
Also as stable as a tank
Quite up-to-date packages
Nice and simple in terms of config files
Vanilla, so everything is how the upstream docs say it is
I see this as a pro, but the package management, you are really the package manager, so no dependency hell.
Lots of packages at Slackbuilds.org

Cons:
Could be the package manager, as there really is no automated system, personally I see this as a pro, but you may see it differently.

Basicly Linux is Linux, and all distros are pretty well variations on the same theme. The best thing you can do is try various live CD verson to see what runs best on your computer, as hardware recognition is a weakness. I have a hard time deciding between openSUSE, Linux Mint, and Fedora, so I am keeping all three for the time being, and leaning to openSUSE mostly because of the friendly help available on their forum, and pretty good hardware recognition. All the distros use Open Office which is compatible with MS Office, with slight differences in Calc / Excel.
Once you get used to the interface, you'll find Linux more than a match for the Windows product. As you can tell, I'm a convert.

There are 2 pertinent posts in this thread apart from the OP. One asks about hardware and another gives pros and cons. As for the pros and cons I must disagree with the Ubuntu sometimes being buggy comment, having been an Ubuntu user and development tester I can say without fear nor favour it is way more than sometimes buggy.

@ OrdinarySoul. If you choose to use DistroWatch be very aware that there are other sites, LQ being one of them, that don't agree with the statistics presented on DW. There is a general top 10 but DW uses hits per page not actual download figures to come up with its numbers.

Just because something is downloaded does not mean it is actively being used by everyone who downloaded it, they may have left it on the cd/dvd and not installed it. When AnonymousOS was available many people downloaded it but how many now actively use it would be minimal.

"Basic home computing" is a vague term to say the least. If you want a distro that can play movies without you having to do any work apart from installing the OS then choose Mint. If you want something that is up to date then choose Ubuntu or Fedora. If you want something that you control totally then choose Slackware or Arch or LFS (Linux From Scratch). If you want stability then choose Debian or Centos or Slackware. They will all do what you want to varying degrees but some will make it easier to start with while others will last longer without causing you undue hardship but you have to put in a little more effort initially.

For what it is worth I would suggest Debian (it has a HUGE helpful community), everything that is useful in Ubuntu and Mint and about 300 other distros starts in Debian, and Slackware one of the oldest, if not the oldest, distros around with a HUGE helpful (if not sometimes eccentric and somewhat overreactionary) community.

Good luck with your choice and let us know what you choose to use.

I'm surprised that so few of the Slackware users here recommended Slackware (or its more automated fork, Salix).

Start with a stock Slackware install. Then install Flash, libreoffice and VLC from Alien Bob's homepage (one download and one command each). You now how a rock-solid system that can do everything you describe in your opening post, and which requires a minimum of maintenance (just run slackpkg update; slackpkg upgrade-all to get security patches every once in a while).

BTW, I would certainly say that a person with your background should be ready for Slackware.

+1 for Linux Mint! My parents and siblings all love it and they know absolutely nothing (and don't care anything) about Linux!

If you have the resources Mint is very good. Sign up for the forum and use the download page you can find there. It makes software installation easy.

If it is an older computer I like Zorin OS 5.2. I tried it because I have and older XP computer. It is an Ubuntu derivative. It is super fast and easy to learn. It comes in 32 or 64 bit. It comes with most of what you need installed. I mostly just uninstalled what I did not need. The package installer was flawless. It comes with WINE and Play on Linux installed, which can both be a problem for a newbie. It also has Ubuntu Tweak to keep you OS tuned. It has a forum for problems. I was using Mint 12 and switched to Zorin and like it better.

Still the best is to download a Live CD or DVD and try the OS. See how it finds your hardware and wireless. It will be slower, but you will see what you like best for the cost of a disc. Just burn your disc at a slow speed and verify it. Burn problems can carry over to install problems. I am also a newbie.

My choice is my favourite Ubuntu
http://www.bestlinuxdistros.com/2012...rs-ubuntu.html

Here is my best advice. There is no right Linux distro for home use. Tell us the kind of computer you have, and it's memory, hard drive and processor. Include what you use your computer for at home. Are you a gamer, do you work from home so productivity is important, or is e-mail and web browsing your main use? How computer savvy are you? I need lots of help, I am fine on my own, I fix friends and families Windows computers when they screw them up? That can really help people steer you in the right direction. Linux has a definite learning curve, you have to be willing to learn.

As for ease of installation and use right out of the box, if you mainly use your computer for web browsing, chat and e-mail I recommend the Ubuntu derivative Zorin. It has a look and feel of Windows, that can be changed, and a very helpful friendly forum. You will need help. Simple things like putting a shortcut on the desktop is different than windows.

If you decide on Zorin, the hardest part is the download and iso burn. It is a slow download, check the MD5 check sum, and burn at your burners slowest setting. A bad image will frustrate you right off. If you don't know about ISO, MD5, downloading and burning, do some Googling and reading.

http://distrowatch.com/ is a good place to start. It lists most popular distros, gives you a description, screen shots and links to the distro's site. It has a great search function where you plugin your hardware and requirements.

Good luck, do a little research, and have some determinations, as you will face at least a few problems, but will find it worth it in the long run.

Does anyone think that after 5 months he has either chosen a distro or moved on?

The OP not even returned to LQ in time to see the first answer. Unless he looked at his thread without logging in, of course.