looking to convert from windows for daily operating OS (email and web browsing) what would be the easiest to convert to? i have already tinkered a bit with ubuntu and ive heard good things about http://zorinos.com
Mint is really easy to convert to and has a similar UI to windows.
mate or cinnamon?
I prefer Cinnamon, but both are good.
I use Linux mint cinomon 17.2 64bit and its really nice.
The equivalent Windows-Like Distro is ZorinOS. it's aesthetically a Windows "Bed Cover" on a "Linux Mattress" if I could give you a terrible Analogy. that's the closest you're going to get to a Windows-Like Distro. or if you don't want that. any Distro that runs Cinnamon will be just fine.
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Cinnamon it is thanks guys.
No problem! But if I were you I'd play with a few distros (including Zorin and Mint) before picking one to install. A lot of it comes down to personal preference. I experimented with about a dozen over a week and ended up loving Mint Cinnamon and Kubuntu (but Kubuntu was a buggy mess).
Mint KDE for that love of docks look.
Mint with cinnamon or Zorin, but tbh I'd go with mint. Zorin is just not as clean and tends to have more error issues.
if i install it alongside windows do i need to download drivers for linux aswell?
that has no baring on drivers its a completely different os so you would. That being said most drivers are open source in linux so thing like lan and usb3.0 audio work out of the box the drivers you will have to deal with are graphics card and possibly wifi drivers depending on the make. If I were you I would get a completly diffrent hdd or ssd for linux so then you wont run into formatting issues and if something goes terribly wrong in linux you can still boot windows.
Pretty much what shadow said, especially the part about using a different drive. Also if you do end up using a separate drive I'd disconnect you windows drive as it can still end up putting the boot loader onto the linux drive.
(disconnect during the installation of linux)
Zorin is exaly pretty good.
Tobad they ask money for the full verion with MAC OSX desktop envoirement aswell.
Makulu Linux 10 Aero edition is also a cool Windows look a like distro.
Its based on debian, and comes with Aero theme´d Cinnamon start menu.
But there are a few flavs with it.
Linux Mint Cinnamon is definitely a good choice.
openSuse is also very good for Windows like experience, it's easy to navigate and learn while still being very powerful and a up to date distro.
My first question is: What knowledge do you have of the Linux command line.
Second: Are you looking for similar windows functionality, or simply just the windows interface look?