...there are a couple of rather important issues for which I need advice. First of all, my wife and I have been Windows users forever and as we are both Linux-ignorant we need a distro that 'caters to' Windows users. My wife would be the primary user of the Linux PC, simply for internet browsing (social media) and email. Secondly, there's a Canon i950 printer connected to my wife's Win7 desktop that is shared (via LAN) with my Win10 laptop, so I definitely need a Linux distro that supports it. Finally, the Win7 PC doesn't possess sufficient resources to support Win10, so upgrading was never a consideration.
pvsurfer, Your computer is probably ok for Win10 and 11. We have two old computers with second generation Intel CPUs and 4 GB RAM. They run Win11 (and Win10) fine. Quite acceptable. But only if the OS is on a SSD. It's a dog if the OS is on a hard drive.
Last time I looked for a linux distribution most of them you could just burn on a dvd (or create an bootable usb[a bit more work])and "give them a testride" without the need to install them right away. Maybe think about that because the printer question is pretty specific (you will also see which once are running smooth for you or not).
No matter which distros are dressed up to look like Windows (LinuxFX being the best) there is still a learning curve and trying to find one that supports Canon instead of the much easier HP series will provide additional challenges. If you have the time to invest trying out a variety of ‘live sessions’ with a selection of distros you might get lucky. https://www.linuxfx.org/
Hmm, this does not look promising (or very time-consuming at best). I may just stick with Win7 on that PC and protect it (full-time) with Shadow Defender. Hey guys, thanks for your feedback.
Have You considered running Linux in a VM until you become more familiar with it? I'm not sure if you have enough space to do it but it would be free to try.
That would require gaining familiarity with VM software, besides which it's the printer issue that's paramount.
Your best bet is Linux Mint Xfce. Create an account in their forums and post the printer question there, along with the (complete) specs of your machine. https://forums.linuxmint.com/
VM software is way simpler than Linux itself. It would also solve the printer issue which was my motivation for suggesting it. That said if it's not for you I hope you find a solution that works.
Oh, I now see where you're coming from. I might just try doing that. Which VM would you suggest I use?
VirtualBox is free: https://www.virtualbox.org/ VMware is better but not free: https://www.vmware.com/ I'd probably go with VirtualBox and download your first choice of a preferred Linux .iso and go from there.
@pvsurfer, Why not dual-boot, running Win7 (using it as a 'printer server') and a Linux distro for safe internet activities?
It was a thought I considered suggesting if he doesn't have the resources for the VM. But with the VM, he shouldn't have to reboot to another OS to print and could do all browsing from the VM. If that is the intention. Edit: Also, if the chosen distro for the VM is not liked, it is as easy as deleting it and creating a new one until a liked one is found. Less mess to clean up if switching if desired.
I'm going to install Linux Lite on our Win7 desktop to try it out in a dual-boot configuration (as @Wendi suggested). How should I format the disk partition that will be allocated to LL?
Running it live you can confirm if everything works like sound, video, internet. One of the differences from Windows is that the drivers are pre-installed in the Kernel, so it's essential to check if the Distro is compatible with the machine before going through the hassle of installation.
If Linux (or the live Linux disk) doesn't work out you could transfer your Win7 OS to a SSD. SSDs make a huge performance difference to old hardware.
Here a blog, there a blog, everywhere a blog blog -- it's just one blog's *opinion*. I tried Mint & found Linux Lite to be user friendlier -- for me, at least. Works great on my oldest laptop. YMMV, of course.
1 Hi, if all the user needs is to browse the internet, then linux is as easy as Windows. Just choose a normal distro, not pure Arch or something else ultra-advanced. My wife is not tech-savvy and doesn't want to be, but she can log onto her user account on my linux box and browse the internet without even noticing the difference. 2 If email means Gmail or another similar web service, it's no different from Windows. If email means a desktop email client, that's another story. Thunderbird works on Windows and Linux, although getting the unread mail count on your taskbar is not so simple in Linux. Outlook does not run on Linux. So it depends a lot on what software you want to use. There are many choices. 3 About your printer: ask on the forum of the distro you are considering. Give them the exact model. I doesn't look like the people on this thread have your kind of printer, so it's hard for us to guess what will work out of the box and what won't. It also depends on the desktop environment you choose. For instance, I generally have more trouble getting my printing and scanning set up properly in Xfce desktop environment than I do in KDE Plasma. But even with KDE, it depends on the distro if it will work out of the box or require configuring/driver installation. And every printer is different.
