I'm being asked quite frequently now for Linux options to replace XP.
What would people here pick?
Hardware will generally be pretty old so good support for older hardware is important.
I note that current Ubuntu versions only get updates for 9 months from release (ie 3 months after they cease to be current) which is fine as long as the next version updates smoothly, but that would depend on continued support for the older hardware, and I know from experience that updates aren't always smooth (typically graphics issues as an older card loses support). I can go with the LTS version of-course, would that be better?
Mint follows the same release cycle but doesn't (AFAIK?) provide upgrades.
There's no point replacing XP because it's reached EOL with a Linux distro that will go EOL a few months later unless updates are pretty much guaranteed to work without my assistance.
(I use Kubuntu in general on my own boxes and would prefer to stick with .deb -based systems, which rules out Fedora/OpenSUSE/etc.)
And then there's the choice of desktop - probably something less memory hungry than KDE - or do I look at MATE, Cinnamon, etc with which I have no experience?
I'm not great at Linux advocacy because I don't have the confidence in my ability to pick the right option for friends and family who "want" XP...