I need a distro recommendation.

[penguinpants]

I'm new to Linux, and I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out with a recommendation regarding which distro to use in this situation.

It's for my dad, a computer novice, so it has to be pretty clean and simple. He's running an old Pentium 4 (2.4GHz, I believe) with 512MB RAM and a 4200rpm hard drive -- pretty disastrous on Windows 7. Ideally it would look and function as close to Windows style as possible (button on a taskbar that pops up a list of applications).

I would need to get drivers for his Netgear USB wi-fi antenna and USB printer, which might be hard.

And lastly, can someone suggest applications that function like and look like Thunderbird, iTunes, Excel, Powerpoint and Word (2007, and if possible, capable of opening their .docx/.xlsx files)?

I know this is a nooby thread but I'd really appreciate the help.

[reed9]

I would recommend Linux Mint.

And lastly, can someone suggest applications that function like and look like Thunderbird, iTunes, Excel, Powerpoint and Word (2007, and if possible, capable of opening their .docx/.xlsx files)?

Thunderbird runs on Linux.
Itunes...this is a tough one. There are some apps that look like it, notably Rhythmbox, as I understand (never used itunes myself) but I think some newer iphones/ipods have trouble syncing. (Again, never owned an apple product, so I can't be more
specific.)

Excel and Word can be replaced with OpenOffice.

I don't know of a Powerpoint equivalent with the same functionality, but OpenOffice has a Presentation tool that may fit your needs.

We would have to know more about the specific hardware for your USB wireless adapter and printer. If you boot a live CD of a distro, start with the wireless setup sticky.