[taxcontrol]

For the VAST majority of home users, this is exactly the case. I converted my Mother-In-Law (67 years old) to Linux Mint and she loves it. She uses it for email and web to manage her bills.

Since she had a Vista machine that barely worked due to MS bloatware, she was thinking she would have to buy a new computer. I loaded the DVD, let her play with it and she loved it. Much better performance. So I did a local install and she has been running it for several months now.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I did the same for my wife. I "threatened" her with a Linux switch over from WinXP to Mint when support for XP ended. She was concerned because she didn't know Linux. She was right. She didn't know Linux. I bought a used Dell PC, souped it up and loaded Mint 17.2 and used PlayOnLinux to get all her faves running. Now she loves it.

I think since I use it every day at work for the product I work on, she thought it was a Geek tool with all kinds of CLI stuff. She wouldn't believe me when I told her, "It works just like Windows. A desktop, icons, Firefox...but better."

I still have a WinXP PC for a few things but I haven't booted it up in weeks.