Ubuntu is believed to be one of the most user friendly debian distro of Linux (of course people might debate that Linux Mint is friendlier). Still Linux avoiders argue that it is still no way closer to Windows in terms of user friendliness. People often misinterpret the term user friendly with user familiarity.
In Ubuntu all the applications are integrated seamlessly as if they are one unit. Everything can be connected inside Ubuntu. They’re stable, lightweight, and almost infinitely customizable. Ubuntu has a rich GUI ( compiz package). In addition to this there are two tools to work with the command line and the GUI.
Automatic update of all the software, more support through the Ubuntu Forums (with around 600,000 members and the default chat room generally having about 1500 people), automatic defragging in the background and ram caching, multiple workspaces, operation almost exactly like XP, Vista or Mac (as per user choice), easy installation and special effects like wobbly windows, 3D cubes etc make Ubuntu more friendlier than ever.
However Ubuntu’s own repository for most of the software you will need, drivers for almost any kind of device from many vendor, excellent crash recovery, support to read and write NTFS drives, full support for MS office files including docx are some points which suggest that we ought to give Ubuntu a try.
As, a conclusion i cany say yes it's elder-friendly and it deserver to learn and try