For someone who has never used Linux, how difficult is the switch over from a windows platform? My wife is having all kinds of problems with Windows 7. She has the original Windows 7 installation disk and her computer keeps telling her that she is not licensed to use Windows 7. She has an HP Desktop computer. She has called Windows support and they said they would charge her $100 to fix her system. They waved the fee after she complained that she can’t use their licensed product. They did a remote fix which took a couple of hours. Her computer worked for awhile (Days) and now it is doing the same thing over again - says she is not licensed to use 7!
Linux is Far Superior to Windows in every aspect, if your wife wishes to have an easy useful experience with linux, I would suggest installing Ubuntu 10.04 first, or just run from the Live CD f1rst to try it out. and use it til you get used to it then maybe upgrade to 12.04 or 12.10 because they have different interfaces(desktop) and are a little more difficult to operate and get used to, however 10.04 will be as close to Windows as you could get as far as ease of operating and intuitiveness with regards to how it works, unlike WIN8. Switched to Linux YEARS ago and have never regretted it, you won’t either.
Mostly just learning the names for programs and some basic commands, you can set up a dual boot machine and run Windows and Linux very simple to do most Linux distro’s will do this automatically for you or you can boot up a live disc just to try it out! Go here and read up on some of them...
You wife CAN NOT use Linux.
Sorry. It's just not a consumer OS, and I don't care how many geeks posting on this thread claim that it is. It isn't. Not even the lexicon of Linux is suitable for casual users. As someone else said: it's by geeks, it's for geeks, and even the most friendly distros available are way beyond the capability of most people who don't work with computers for a living. In contrast those who simply use computers as tools to get work done -- in my experience with many, many customers -- simply cannot use Linux.
I know I will be flamed by the Linux partisans for saying this. I use Linux myself, and understand their loyalty. However, they arent' doing you any favors by recommending this, so let me give you just one simple example to convince you this is a bad move.
You just bought your wife a new laptop and want to play a movie in the Blu Ray disc player on the laptop. Here's what you do in Windows: insert the Blu Ray disc, and it plays. Here's what you do in Linux: First, install VLC. Here are some instructions from the software developer. Tell me if they make any sense to you: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ubuntu.html.
Now insert the Blu Ray disc. Doh! it doesn't play. That's because you also need to install decoding keys and libraries. You won't know this until you Google "Videolan / VLC Blu Ray" Good luck with that.
Eventually, you will figure out that you need to head over here: http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/ Does anything on either of those two webpages make the least bit of sense to you? If it does, go right ahead and install linux.
Otherwise, stick with a consumer OS: Windows or OSX. Those are the choices.