I remember first trying RedHat years ago and it ran like a dog if the machine wasn't super high spec (back in the day).
Since then I've tried various Linux flavours on older PC's and netbooks towards the end of their lives. The one thing that has tended to be the deal breaker is that the family was never that fussed.
Last summer I converted an old windows laptop to Ubuntu 11 while the family was away, and there wasn't anything I couldn't do that I needed to. Out of the box it comes with an open office suite, Firefox browser and plenty of utilities.
The installation process has been dumbed right down from the old RedHat says and I reckon most home handi-geeks to could get it running quick smart.
The one thing that might trip up some people is the need to track down drivers for various things that you take for granted in a windows environment. And some third party installation requires good old fashioned command line interaction. Welcome to 1980 :)
I recently upgraded that laptop to Ubuntu 12 and I'm going to take a crack at getting the family to use it. Wish me luck! In this day and age of windows ubiquity and the proliferation of Apple i devices throughout our house, I may have left my run a bit late.
Anyhow, I'm quite taken by Ubuntu and enjoy the little bit of command line interaction. It's like retro computing.
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