Does Linux Mint Exist?

This has a really good point - recommending folks who are just NOW moving off of Windows XP install a non-LTS Ubuntu based release is insane.

In fact, I'd go as far to say that anyone who wants their computer to "just work" for as long as possible should stick to LTS style releases for whatever Linux distro they prefer.

Ubuntu LTSes have 5 years support on the desktop these days - plenty of time.

I've been running Stella for quite some time now. It's a desktop centric respin of CentOS with two additional repos of it's own plus EPEL and ELRepo, all tested to make sure everything is compatible. The end result is a failry polished if older style desktop with a reasonable software selection and rock solid stability. Considering RHEL/CentOS releases are supported for 10 years upgrading to another major release may not be necessary during the typical lifespan of hardware. To me 5 years is not plenty of time and, besides, I've had less than stellar results with Ubunyu. Maybe 14.4 is different but I have no compelling reason to change distros.

All I have to say is good luck running modern software (like webrowser and office suite) on binaries compiled a decade ago.Even with just five years it can get hard.

Do you know how many businesses are paying Microsoft to support XP beyond it's end of life? For most businesses, and for many normal users, running an old word processor is no big deal. So long as the browser gets updated (and it's still getting updated on RHEL 5 and clones, not just 6/7) by the OS vendor you still get a modern web experience. In this day and age when so much is done on the web and so many people do little locally I think you actually can survive with an OS that old. I don't want to, but I can understand why people would.

Running 10 year old Linux software is like watching black & white movies. Good luck selling it!

@jazz: 10 years is stretching it, but I currently run a distro from 2008 (with several updated apps added by myself according to my needs) and I don't see much of a difference compared to bleeding edge distro releases (which I do check out regularly).

A lot of development in the Linux world is reinventing the wheel over and over again and often the previous wheel incarnation is as good or even better than the current one.

Yes. It would make perfect sense to set-up someone migrating away from Windows on a LTS version of Linux.

The Linux 2.6.x series, started over 10 years ago, is up to 2.6.32.61.