Ive just finished getting Linux Mint installed on my old Dell Vostro 1015. I was surprised how straight forward it was.
Any way im Brian im 34 and am based in the UK. I decided to have a look at Linux in preperation for the Raspberry Pi comming out, though to be fair I may just end up doing on this laptop what i was going to do on that which is programming.
In my youth i used to mess around with Spectrum BASIC and am slightly annoyed at myself for not carrying forward in that field but things move on. I was hoping to once again try my hand at programming. Ive asked on a lot of places about where to start and such, thinking of learning C++ and Python. I have been advised not to bother with C++ till much later and also that Python is an excelent starting language. So hopefully ill be moving forward in that.
I got hold of Eric a Python IDE but it means nothing to me but after seeing these videos for starting on the Raspbery Pi - http://www.youtube.com/user/RaspberryPiTutorials
In this he suggests a program called Geaney which i have now installed and have used
So Ill now be looking for more guidence on programming and also what else i can do on Linux.
At the moment i feel a little lost. Things look very different to Win7 or XP. The main thing being the way you get softwear and all that stuff there for you to just install as you need it, cracking
.Anyway this is me nice to meet you all
Take care
Brian.
Thanks for giving Linux Mint a try and I hope you continue to enjoy using it! Raspberry Pi will certainly be some fun 
Python is an excellent choice to pick up programming again, and supported on all major operating systems. Google has a free Python Class online, with examples and lectures: 
And Geany is a good choice as IDE, but even Gedit works fine for learning it and doing small projects. After Google's Python Class you may want to also use the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python: 
