OT: Recomendations for Linux my mother could use.

Exactly as the topic states. I want a linux distro my mother can use.

It has to have / do / be ....

* KDE Desktop as standard
* 100% point and click, no command line voodoo.
* Be able to install packages & updates easily.
* Not end in hours of tech support calls to me. (Basically i want to put it on her PC, brief guided tour and walk away)

I tried Kubuntu but it for some stupid reason the provided package manager (Adept) only installs kde menu items for kde apps. So, if/when my mother installs firefox or gnucash, she has no way of launching it.

Ubuntu tends to be the most straight forward that there is. There is very little command line work. Even the nvidia drivers can be installed through synaptic, just about any program desired can be installed that way through synaptic which will add it to the menu system, or programs can be installed through the add/remove on the menu itself. In a lot of ways otherwise it is like windows. Things like DVDcss installs will likely never be gui, though gnome tends to be more desktop compliant than KDE for such things. The next release is before Octobre 1st, it should be a pretty good one too, been running it and doing well. It should have the fancy Vista/MacOS gui eye candy too.

I think your problem of not getting KDE menu items for your non-KDE programs is a problem with Adept, not with Kubuntu itself. You can install Synaptic instead (a GNOME application, but it runs fine on a Kubuntu system) and use that to install packages.

No such thing in the Linux world yet, though there is much effort being expended to get there.

I use Kubuntu, which is basically Ubuntu with KDE, and would recommend it to anyone looking to start using linux. But even though I am a huge fan of Kubuntu/Ubuntu, there just simply isn't a Linux distro available yet that is friendly enough for the average grandmother. I hope to see this change eventually, and I really hope that it gets to the "linux my gramma could use" before we are all grandparents

With Kubuntu, to address your comment about the menu, you can install the Debian menu which will show just about everything that doesn't get included in the stock KDE menu, and you can also use Synaptic which is imo a little bit friendlier than Adept.

Sad, really, that the very best distro I could think to recommend is one that you've already tried and have been dissatisfied with :/

Fedora Cora has a great installer now, and you can do most of the work graphically. I believe you can choose the Window Manager during install. Installing drivers and such you still have to do from the command line, but it's pretty rare.

I req: http://www.pcbsd.org/ - http://www.pbidir.com/ - http://www.nomachine.com/

Great to hear Ubuntu is finally getting there to being _the_ best OS money can('t) buy. Seems that the only real lack is easy installation of apps. I'd love for Ubuntu to approach it the Apple way with standardized Frameworks upgraded in release cycles, and applications bundled into a single (c)lickable package. That would make it grandma-safe IMHO.

I'll probably still use Mac myself for the foreseeable future, but the prospect of spreading Ubuntu Linux goodness in Africa and developing countries with the the UN-sanctioned $100 MIT laptop is just so satisfying.

And with SL soon released for Linux (full release), every child with that laptop (and an internet connection... WiMax, you on it?) could join and enhance our world infinitely. Great times ahead!

Personally the real lack is the political distinction between KDE and Gnome - its like nobody has told them the Qt licence changed years ago

I'm more of a command line junkie, but I adore Aptitude for a package manager shell.