Convincing my mother.

[Bucky Ball]

Hitting her with Unity is not a good start as that is totally alien to an XP user.

As suggested much earlier, lxde or xfce desktop would be much better (and faster than what you have now).

But I totally agree with much of what's been said. Dual-boot and let it be; if it's her computer, end of story, etc etc. Because you love the OS doesn't mean she is ever going to.

Best option? Try to get your hands on an old computer, install Ubuntu (or a faster flavour like Xubuntu or Lubuntu) and wipe Ubuntu from her machine.

[mastablasta]

actually i found KDE (Kubuntu) with classic menu setup to be the closest to WInXP (in it's default setup).

A good argument towards the move would be that XP support expires next year. so no more security updates. which would make the system vulnerable.

on th eother hand if thew computer has enough RAM (let's say 2GB) you can install linux inside virtual box: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/virtualbox

it might not be as fast as real install but it will give you some place to work and learn while leaving the XP setup alone.

[CharlesA]

I would only advise running a VM on a machine with at least a dual core CPU and 2-4GB of RAM. Trying to virtualize on a single core is asking for trouble (don't ask how I know this..)

[mips]

...(don't ask how I know this..)

Probably from experience

Done it before but it ain't pretty.

[sdowney717]

install cinnamon desktop
looks very nice sort of xp win7 type look. I plan If my father in law upgrades his Hardy old desktop with new system to do that. He would be totally lost with unity or gnome3.

Keep it simple. people mostly just want to get on the web browser.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/94201...nnamon-desktop

[AstroLlama]

Just keep the dual boot, you could even make the grub menu "silent" and set the XP to boot by default, so that when you restart you personally know to press ESC at the right time, choose ubuntu on grub and boot up.

This way she won't worry at all.

[Jakin]

I remember back when on Ubuntu 7.10, i hid grub on a floppy. If the floppy was not inserted on power-on, it would auto load Windows. You had to have the Floppy inserted before power-on to have access to what you wanted to boot.

Just another example of hiding Grub

[stalkingwolf]

zorin 5.2 has a winxp desktop look in its lookchanger.

[speedwell68]

I have permanently converted 3 family members to Linux. My Aunt & Uncle, their Windows Vista laptop went screwy so I lent them my spare one that had Mint on it. My intention was to reinstall Vista. After a day or so they phoned me and asked if they could have Mint on their laptop, they preferred it as it was faster and easier to use. Their choice.

The second was my Father in Law. He wanted a new PC, I showed him W7 and Lubuntu, explained the difference and he chose Lubuntu, it was the virus thing that swayed him. He had never really used a PC before, so knew no different.

It has to be the users choice.

[Linuxratty]

If it is her computer it is her choice, end of story.

Yes, I agree 100%. It's her computer, notyour computer.

Let's put the shoe on other foot,how would you feel if someone tried to force you to use W8, even to the point of putting it on your machine and locking it down so you could not remove it?

Same difference.
Leave her be.