It depends on how long he plans to keep it. Mint 13 LTS will be supported for only 3 more years. LMDE is forever... [I run LMDE on all my computers, except my Virtual Private Server machine and my work computer.] > From: Chris <http://www.picis.com/~Chris> > Date: Fri, 9 May 2014 10:36:54 -0400 > > I think the best version would be Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon(32-bit) since this > version is Long term supported. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert [http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert] > Sent: Friday, May 09, 2014 9:56 AM > To: Chris; Chris; Chris > > > From: Chris <http://www.picis.com/~Chris> > Date: Fri, 9 May 2014 09:13:17 > > -0400 > > Hi Robert, > > I have a friend who has an old laptop that > > has Windows XP with a 1.73Ghz > processor and 1 gig of memory. > > > > I was thinking about replacing Windows XP with Linux Mint for him. > > > > What version of Linux Mint do you think would be best for a Windows user? > > If this person wants to keep this computer for the rest of his life, I would > recommend Linux Mint Debian Edition. > > http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php > > I think with only 1 gig of memory, you'll have to stick with the 32-bit > edition. > > > Would you recommend Cinnamon or MATE desktop environment? > > Unfortunately, both will be slow, regardless. There used to be LMDE XFCE and a > Fluxbox edition, but they have been dropped. > > I use Mate. There's actually very little difference between Cinnamon and Mate. > (Mate is a slightly more customizable.) > > It might be best to go with Cinnamon since it's based on gtk3, which is the > latest release of gtk, despite it being a little slower. It has a higher > probability of lasting longer. > > > Thanks, > > > > Chris