Try Ubuntu.

BTW: Integration between IE and MS Office doesn't matter. You are not supposed to be using MS Office anymore ;)

Despite a few rough edges, I think Ubuntu is probably the closest of any Desktop-oriented distro to achieving the long sought after level of usability that will bring Linux to the mainstream. Things work well with little hassle, if they don't you can find a lot of help within the community, and the Ubuntu desktop is attractive and fast.

From Ubuntu - A New Approach to Desktop Linux

Thanks for the tip, Charlie. Actually, I was really trying to get more at the flavor of the article than offer my own view. I do have a computer here running Simply MEPIS, though I don't use it as much as I should. I've decided one thing for sure, though: I'm not upgrading to any DRM-encrusted Longhorn or whatever they call it (policeware? pan-opticonaware, perhaps?). After XP, I'm done with Microsoft foe-ever!

I began with a Timex-Sinclair, of the sort you had to solder pieces together. I've used pretty much everything since the late 1970s and consider myself a pretty decent developer. And yet, I am stuck keeping two PCs around with Windows because of the reality around me.

First, there are Web sites unwilling to work with anything other than IE for Windows. As a Mac and Linux user, I was fairly peeved by the fact the university PeopleSoft system and my bank both required IE 6. Safari? No luck. Camino? I could start forms, but they wouldn't save. FireFox? Mozilla? Same as Camino, for obvious reasons. Finally, I had to fire up the dusty PC to verify my teaching schedule and classes.

Next, I have the reality of paying clients. I remain both an active programmer and a freelance editor. Though I might like certain programs, my clients have what they have. I can usually open files on the Mac or in Linux, but not always. Still, the PC gets the rare use to open a WordPerfect file or to migrate an Access database to MySQL.

My writing clients use Word, InDesign, Quark, and even have FrameMaker, PageMaker, and various long-dead programs. I am always stunned at some of the programs used by successful authors. I know one very successful novelist who will not move from WordPerfect because she has two decades' work on various media.

I'd be more than happy to move students to OpenOffice and seed the idea, but OpenOffice would never win any Mac users. It's an X11 port that just feels all wrong on the Mac and requires the user install X11 and the support files. I'm not going to teach my English class how to configure X11 on their Macs.

If X11 confuses users, imagine guiding them through the complexities of Linux on whatever hodge-podge of hardware students might own? I still fuss with "dot" files on my systems, especially when something installs new dynamic links to a shared library. And I'm supposed to help "average" (non-technical) users do the same?

Computers and software, open source or commercial, are just too complex. I have been able to convert a few fed-up PC users to the Mac, but I doubt I could convert people to Linux or BSD. For now, Linux remains something for people willing to learn how the computer and software work.

When my mother can install and use Linux with ease, then it will be ready for the masses.

- CSW

Check out NeoOffice/J for the Mac. It's a java implementation of OO that doesn't require X11.

As for WordPerfect, OO 2.0 beta opens wpd files.

As for Mom's, well, most Mom's don't install Windows . . . ;)

Ha, this discussion took an unexpected turn. I hate to think of "mom" as a generic category of folks who don't know computing. Indeed, the person who first introduced me to many of the technologies I still use (including LANs and routers) was a mom of three. She was also heavily into GNU/Linux, though it took me longer. My own mother played a lot of games back when we had a Commodore Vic-20 and C-64 because she just plugged a cartridge into the back to play. Once things started getting more complicated, she backed off and hasn't computed since. My grandmother bought a C-64 and ran her tax filing company with it for a couple years, though to my knowledge she never tried anything else on it. I can still remember the cards lying around that explained how to boot the 'ware: load"*",8,1.

Now my mother-in-law uses XP, though I was able to switch her from IE to Firefox pretty easily: "Use this, it's much hipper." Nobody wants to be caught with an unstylish web browser!

Honestly, though, someone who had no experience with Windows would probably find these simplified GNU/Linux distros just as easy to learn. The problem that folks like me have is that I've developed all these habits with Windows and would have to retrain. A few years ago I made a serious effort to switch from QWERTY to DVORAK, and that didn't work either. ;-) But I'm convinced that as time goes on, it's going to get more painless to switch. If you look deep enough into Microsoft Word, for instance, you'll see options there to assist Word Perfect users (Help for WP Users). The same has been and is being done for free word processors.

right. not even most mom's, but most people don't install windows. they buy a machine with it already there. so it's not fair to pick on mom's in general (especially since my mom has installed windows ;)

meanwhile, i think you are right. i see two main factors contributing to lack of linux adoption:

1) as you mention, it's familiarity. people have evolved basic computer literacies based on the window's experience. switching means relearning for many. it's not really that much more difficult than windows. just different.

2) using basic installs and hardware configuration: the fact that you can't easily buy a machine with linux on it already installed and configured is also an issue. i find that suse's yast update service works very well and so does apt-get for ubuntu (tried it out this weekend). and if you let redhat do subscription updates, it does the job as well. and unlike windows, these services update not just your OS, but all of the software installed on the system that the disribution provides. a big +10 over windows. however, adding in stuff not provided by the distribution can be a problem. and hardware configuration can also be difficult. hopefully we'll see an improvement in this in the long run.