So, I have a pretty old PC back home (Pentium IV 2.4 GHz, 1 GB RAM, GeForce IV 64MB, 80GB HDD, can't remember much else) that I want to refurbish a bit in the summer, simply because I don't like thinking that it's dead and useless. At the moment it runs on a pirated version of WinXP which has been recognized by the Windows Update and prevents it to be connected to the internet, so it cannot be used for a whole lot other than using it for office work.

Thanks to Navagon who mentioned Libre Office, I now have a nice free office application to install to it (because the Microsoft Office in the PC is also pirated :-P), however I have to find a free OS. I have been pondering about trying Linux or Ubuntu, but truth be told, I have next to zero experience with other operating systems other than Windows and iOS (because of an iPad), and the majority of people who will be using the computer (my brother and my mother) share the same experience as me.

I have a couple more licenses for Windows 7 (I bought them for my laptop), but I don't want to waste one on a PC that will obviously have trouble running the OS correctly, that II will be using twice a year and that I don't want to spend money on, either for an upgrade or for a genuine XP edition, because it's just too old nowadays.

So I am wondering if anyone here knows or is using a free, easy to use, and light OS that won't be a pain in the ass for people who don't have experience with and which is basically a shameless Windows rip-off, that will breathe some life in an old, forgotten PC.

Well, first of all Linux is not Windows, so if you are looking for a Windows rip-off you'd probably be disappointed. That said, why don't you give Ubuntu a try, see if it works for you.

EDIT: I definitely can't promise you it will be free from that PITA. But again, why don't you give it a try? Puppy Linux will breathe life to old hardware, but it is not as simple as Ubuntu to get used to.

EDIT 2: Here is a link I was supposed to post yesterday, but I was on mobile and was soon going offline, so I did not have a chance to post until now:
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

It is an old article, so maybe some parts of it are no longer valid, but it is still a good read nevertheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yQqiExfYLjA
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
I installed it on my mother's computer. She thinks it's great and easier than Vista.
The video link's just to show what it looks like.

/edit: the newer Ubuntus use Unity, and I think it's bad, but maybe that's just me.

I don't think you have a choice other than Linux or one of the BSDs. I have no experience of the latter, so I'll speak of the former. Someone else can fill you in on BSD I guess.

I think you should give a Linux a try. Ubuntu and Mint are popular beginner distributions. Linux package managers like apt (with graphical frontends like Synaptic) make installing software easy (e.g. open synaptic, search for the name of the package, click install, and it will be downloaded and installed, along with any other software it needs to work, automatically).

If you need it to be light-weight, choose a distribution with a light-weight desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE (when you download a Linux distro there are often several different versions, corresponding to which of these environments it uses as default, e.g. Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Mint XFCE, etc.). There are environments that have even lower resource requirements (e.g., I like to use TWM), but they may not be as user friendly. That being said, more fully featured DEs like Gnome or KDE should run fine on your hardware, if a little bit slow (I am using a P4 2.8 ghz right now with Gnome).

Ultimately, they are free, so you've nothing to lose. You could also download a live cd of a distro which can be run from your cd/dvd driver, which would give you an idea of what it's like (although it will be a lot slower than one installed on your harddrive).

Good luck, and look me up if you need any help.

I've seen Windows 7 running adequately well on hardware worse than what you're describing; why not give it a go without entering the product key? This will let you see how it runs before committing, and you can easily enter the key later on (Windows will run without a key for 30 days before it starts insisting you provide the key).

If you want a free OS, go for Ubuntu, and stick with Unity. The distribution is one of the easiest to manage.

you only other choice would be linux

really if you would like to just run windows xp or even 95 . there are working copies out there. or else just download the updates seperatly from somewhere.

It's not just you Unity should be made a criminal offence it's THE worst interface I've ever encountered -.-

For someone wanting something close to windows I recommend a KDE based distro if you want it more apple like go with GNOME
I would avoid Ubuntu like the plague now and rarely recommend it unless someone insists on using it...

Well, he could use some BSD variant, but I think it'll be even more confusing than Linux.

I haven't tried it in years, but Knoppix was an excellent zero-effort OS back in the day. It might still be worth taking a look. It's a live operating system, which means you don't need to install it - just burn it to a DVD and reboot the computer with it in the drive. It had a beautifully preconfigured KDE desktop, every device I owned worked perfectly right from the start (contrast to Windows XP which took most of a day to find and set up drivers) and it even ran Windows programs out of the box as easily as if they were native (I'm sure there were plenty of Windows programs which had trouble but I didn't find any - of course games are the most likely to have problems with WINE).

Maybe someone can say if they're still as good as they were. Personally, I've been meaning to try out Sabayon for quite some time, so that's the next OS I'll be installing.

Have you seen Gnome shell lately? ;)

Even that pile of dog crap is better than Unity >.<

Unity is great. It just gets residual hate from the anti-Apple crowd and people afraid of Linux distributions setting themselves apart.