Hey Linux Guys

[Pferox]

I'm looking at having an old build that I wanted to use for dabbling in Linux, and using for data recovery for a bunch of old hard drives I have acquired.

Now, I'm a hardware guy more than a software guy so need it to be pretty brainless to install off of a thumb drive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[FloridaFishinFool]

The easiest linux operating system I have used is Fedora 25 the newest version. It loaded right up and searched out all the laptop hardware and had everything working right from the install.

I tried the free download version but I could not get it to load up. So I just bought a DVD copy of it from off ebay for about $5.00 and it worked like a charm.

[cortman]

Any of the Ubuntu variants; 90% of my posting here is done from a Lubuntu 16.04 virtual machine. It's super easy to install. Xubuntu will be a bit more polished and have more capable programs but will still be fairly light.
LiLi (Linux Live USB creator) is a Windows program that makes burning Linux ISO images to flash drives super easy, highly recommend it.

[caddyjoe77]

ubuntu, but IMO XFCE is about the best graphical intercase...besides fluxbox, which is based off xfce

if you want xfce, plus some stuff that makes for a nice environment:
at the prompt $

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop