I messed up the first attempt (in VBox) - thanks for the pointers! I'll have another try - but might simply download the full Debian CD instead.

It sometimes works out faster than those clever basic installs which promptly demand an internet connection, and then spend the rest of the night downloading the rest of the distro.

Back in the eighties, I took an aptitude test for computing. I just scraped into the top 97% - and scuttled off and avoided the things for another two decades.

Almost tempted by the Rasberry Pi, although I'll bet my total lack of programming aptitude has not been improved for the better by galloping middle-age.

My own approach to GNU/Linux is much simpler. I go for the easy distros, and google snags quite unashamedly - eke the necessary commands (ah, C & P!) to rectify little bothers.

And I still maintain that for cyber-thickies like me, current distros are really no more challenging than Windows. If Mint offers updates, I tell it to install them. This happens quickly and efficiently. (I'm now really going to tempt fate.) I've yet to have one go horribly wrong.

They very rarely need restarts; when they do, they don't nag you.

And the restart has yet to reveal the need for a reinstallation of the OS as the simplest way of sorting out whatever the update borked.

Third party software (as long as it comes from the official repos) is updated simultaneously and just as easily.

This evening, I decided to update the XP desktop. The poor thing was last started in March.

MSE updates (why on earth are they so slow?). Firefox updates. Malwarebytes updates. Spybot updates. And I've not even looked at Flash or Java yet. Nor booted into the admin account for the Windows updates. Or the Comodo updates.

Compared with the friendly and simple efficiency of Mint, the whole process provokes what a skydiving mate used to describe as a "gargling scream of horror." (No, I didn't skydive, but chucked them out a few times. Not that dumb adventurous.)

And it's now after bed-time, over an hour into the process and Windows updates yet to come.

It'll never catch on.

Oh, wait....