With all due respect but I would encourage you to try exactly this with a recent version of a major distribution like ubuntu. It is so much easier for non tech

With all due respect but I would encourage you to try exactly this with a recent version of a major distribution like ubuntu. It is so much easier for non technical people to install applications with all those comfortable package management frontends alone. I recently have successfully "deployed" such an environment on an absolute beginner's PC. I would clearly say that everybody who was able to use WinXP is easily able to use a modern major Linux distribution. I have been an enthusiastic osx user for many years now but then again I originally came from BSD world and I am somewhat married to my workflow now. IMHO Linux is a great option - certainly for casual users and programmers.