Of course, since he would only be able to run a browser and not be able to install anything useful

since he would not understand what the hell is going on in Linux
User friendly (point and click) Linux like Ubuntu or Mint with proprietary codecs built into the install not Red Hat, Fedora, OpenSUSE, etc........

The only real issue left with Ubuntu and Mint is having to find generic Linux drivers for older Broadcom wireless chips which Broadcom refuses to write drivers for.
As For Linux Mint I'm sure everyone could find something other than a browser that is useful.......
Software Portal - Linux Mint Community
And Ubuntu:
(Though I despise the Unity desktop!)
Overview | Ubuntu
Linux is not user friendly and will take considerable time to become that. Yes the user friendly systems like Ubuntu are much much much better than the bad old days, but the fact remains that the interface is alien to most people who are used to Windows. Installing programs can be a freaking nightmare in linux distros if the program you want to install is not part of the over all distribution package system.
Now if you use your PC for mail, browsing and facebook then a linux distro is just fine. If you have a distro where you can easily install openoffice or something similar, then hey you can also become productive on that front if you understand openoffice. But as soon as you get a tad more technical, then you find out that none of the programs you actually are use too, exist in the linux universe you have installed. Add to that no gaming, and you have a dead platform for most people.
And I agree.. the Unity desktop of the latest Ubuntu blows. My personal favourite distro is Puppy... runs sweet on old machines
Oh and yea... broadcom.. ffs