Linux was once the standard but only partially helpful answer when asked what to do with an old computer.
For many, it was an academic exercise: something you tinkered with when you’d moved to a new machine and could afford to corrupt your old workhorse. There was no guarantee that a Linux machine would play nicely with your existing data, sharing files with friends and family could be difficult, and the overall process could often have been a lot more user-friendly. None of that is true today.
Let’s be blunt: there’s no reason why Linux shouldn’t be your primary operating system. Most of your data is platform agnostic, many apps run in the browser, and Linux itself is as friendly and easy to use as Windows.
Ubuntu might be the best-known distribution, but Linux Mint (linuxmint.com), which is based on Ubuntu, is where many Windows switchers end up. Where Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop environment, Mint uses Cinnamon by default, but can also work with MATE or Xfce. Cinnamon retains many Windows constructs that Gnome lacks, including the taskbar, applets, and desklets (reminiscent of Windows’ desktop gadgets).
