[gentoo-user] [OT] Simple to upgrade Linux distro

[Dale]

Howdy,

This isn't a Gentoo question but most everyone here used something
before Gentoo.  I need a simple to upgrade distro for someone else. 

A friend of mine had windoze XP, which is dead to M$.  She needed
something and buying a computer or new OS is not a option, even tho she
needs to upgrade that 10 or 12 year old thing she has.  So, I put Mageia
on it a couple years ago, used to be Mandrake way back which is what I
started with.  She has been doing updates every week or so since it is
GUI based and pretty easy.  Tell it to update or just click the pop-up
when it tells you one is available and when it is done, reboot.  Yea,
windowish I know.  lol  Anyway, she did a update and now she can't login
to KDE.  I drove up, hour away, and tried to figure it out.  It has
changed so much, I'm pretty clueless.  It is NOT Gentoo by any means.  I
renamed the user directory in case it was a config that the new update
was hanging on but nothing.  It just won't let you login.  Also reset
the password as well.  Thing is, I installed ICEwm during the install
and it works.  It logs in but the screen doesn't refresh like it
should.  You close a app, it's closed but it doesn't refresh the screen
so it looks like it is still there.  The whole thing is weird.  Since I
couldn't figure out what the problem was, I tried upgrading to Mageia
6.  Figured if it was a software bug, maybe that would fix it.  Nope. 
So, she's using ICEwm for the moment but it is weird. 

What I'm looking for.  Something that I can install fairly quickly from
a DVD.  Rig is to old to boot from USB stick.  Something with a GUI
update process that is fairly easy.  Uses either KDE by default or is
easily installable, hopefully during install by default.  The big one,
needs to be able to run on older hardware.  Her rig is something like a
2GHz single core CPU and around 2GBs of ram.  The drives are SATA but
that's about the most advanced hardware it has.  The video is a built in
Intel of some sort.  Nothing fast or even fancy for that matter.  Yes,
I'm keeping a eye out for a newer rig but it is what it is right now.

I've used Gentoo for so long, I don't know what other distros offer
nowadays.  I figure that there are several distros that are graphical
nowadays but also need good support for older hardware and easy update
process.  Googling around isn't helping me much.  If I find something I
like, no KDE.  If I find KDE based and a GUI updater, something else
won't work.  I figure asking those who have personal experience would be
best.  :-) 

Thoughts?  Suggestions??

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-)