Trying out linux

[Proinsias]

My father in law has been given a vista running pc and was moaning about vista in general the other day, it's more a computer for him to play about with in his office as he's retired, sorry full time carer, and the Windows 7 laptop they have is what they use for most stuff. I suggested linux, he seems quite keen to try it out. I've been through a few distro's and currently have mint running on my spare laptop, will probably head back to ubuntu once 10.10 heads out of beta.

He's not computer illiterate, he was an IT guy/programmer once upon a time and earned a small fortune but he's perhaps a bit out of touch these days, I had to explain to him what Youtube was.

I've heard wubi is the way to go to try things out but that was a while ago. Is that still the best option? I've got puppy running on a usb stick but I get the feeling that's a bit bare bones to convert him, will hand it over anyway.

Just thought I'd ask before handing him a puppy usb and a bit of paper with 'wubi' scrawled on it.

 

[n1vlo]

wubi is so easy and gives u the option to dual boot into ubuntu as you know..

i run it here on my main pc albeit ubuntu studio..and linuxmint on me spare machine...just for when i get bored

 

[NotTheStig]

My father in law has been given a vista running pc and was moaning about vista in general the other day, it's more a computer for him to play about with in his office as he's retired, sorry full time carer, and the Windows 7 laptop they have is what they use for most stuff. I suggested linux, he seems quite keen to try it out. I've been through a few distro's and currently have mint running on my spare laptop, will probably head back to ubuntu once 10.10 heads out of beta.

He's not computer illiterate, he was an IT guy/programmer once upon a time and earned a small fortune but he's perhaps a bit out of touch these days, I had to explain to him what Youtube was.

I've heard wubi is the way to go to try things out but that was a while ago. Is that still the best option? I've got puppy running on a usb stick but I get the feeling that's a bit bare bones to convert him, will hand it over anyway.

Just thought I'd ask before handing him a puppy usb and a bit of paper with 'wubi' scrawled on it.

I know you posted ages ago but I've only just joined.
Best bet might be letting him use the live CD first in case of any hardware issues - as you probably know it won't change his PC at all and only takes a few minutes to load off the disc. I'm assuming he has an optical drive.

Anyway, I love Linux (have Ubuntu 10.10 on desktop, where I'm writing this) and 9.04 on my old laptop. Would be interested to "talk linux" with fellow Penguinheads.