I agree with most of what was said before me. I Also have started a few friends on to the Linux road, without any issues.
When a friend says he plans to buy a new computer because the old one is having trouble running the latest version of windows, I tell them "seeing you are going to dump the computer why not install linux first and see how it is". Well all that have done this had no real problem moving over and are very happy with how much faster the computer is. One who had very basic windows skills he now wants to move his wife's laptop to Linux.
As to what flavour to use, the most common is always the safest road to take. That would be Ubuntu at the moment. Also just about (not all) windows programs you will find a Linux version (for free) it's as easy to install a new programs as it is to download an app to your phone.
Just for interest sake I install MS Office on my Linux box using a system called wine. Office runs without any problems, so believe it or not many windows programs (not all) can still run on Linux.
If you can find a old computer someone wants to throw away, grab it and install Linux on that, there is a lot of online information to help solve most problems.
http://www.techradar.com/au/news/sof...articleContent
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/79177.html
http://lifehacker.com/5778882/gettin...complete-guide