Still Using Windows Xp?

[threegee]

Support officially ends on 14th April 2014, but M$ will still be supporting it - if you pay!

http://www.computerw...tors_picks=true

Advice: XP users should give Ubuntu Linux a try. It's not a flavour of Linux I use personally but it's the one where you will get most help. And, if you recoil at C> (in Windows), it's surely the best way to go. If you don't want to fully commit just yet you can boot it from a USB stick, or even from inside your existing Windows installation whilst using the existing Windows file system.

If you are buying a new machine then make sure you at least look at Chromebooks. They are incredibly good value and far easier to maintain than any Windows machine. They also have a very low cost of ownership. You are unlikely to see them feature in computer shops so don't be sold by a slick salesman on commission! It seems the latest commission driven up-sell is Symantec/Norton Anti-virus, which you shouldn't even take for free!

[Andy Brown]

Tried Ubuntu from it's early incantations and found it very easy to use, however when they slipped in the amazon search feature and the (for me) very uncustomizable default desktop I binned it and went for Linux Mint, very easy for the novice user. I've tried a few flavours over the years, ranging from RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, Mint and a few others I can't remember the name of.