There are always stories of people installing Linux on their parents computer to provide them a more secure and stable operating system, seems interesting to share experiences.
Edit: I’m assuming that parents are okay with the changes, or do not care. Obviously do not force anyone to switch OS if they don’t want to.
I installed Linux Mint on my Mom’s and Grandma’s PCs as it’s one I use for most of mine. They took to it like a duck to water.
My Mom has a little bit of growing into it as she plays a lot of videogames (literally more than I do lol) but it’s been smooth sailing.
My Grandma primarily does stuff in her browser so for her it was more of a new skin for her PC.
My Mom is running a system with a R5 1600 and a RX 580 and my Grandma is running a Intel Broadwell CPU (I can’t remember which kind with integrated graphics.
To get my Grandma into Linux required some prep before hand teaching her about doing all of her office stuff in her browser because she was rude or die on Microsoft Office. Now she’s ride or die for Google’s office suite (not perfect but primarily painless for me).
For my Mom it was pretty simple after she started getting pop-ups to upgrade to Windows 11 and then being told her system doesn’t support it. Also her finding out that Windows 10 was going EoL in 2025 really helped.
I have the same PC as your mom… I’m really fit for an upgrade.
If it works it works
It does everything she needs so she keeps on using it
Plus she got her rig from me as a gift a number of years ago
Linux Mint. She opens Firefox to check her emails and work panel. Only complaint is that it is my old giant laptop that I let her have. I will give her a different one soon.
Just a shout-out that Mac OSX is also a very nice OS that is neither Windows nor Linux. In fact I am interested: would anyone argue against this, again this is for parents, presumably someone who has (been forced to) used Windows their entire lives at work yet knows nothing whatsoever about tech?
You make a valid point.
One counterpoint does come to mind: Cost. The hardware to run it on ain’t cheap
(Im not up to date on the used market and the cut off point where old macs become unsupported and stop receiving software updates)
Macs are horribly overpriced even used.
I am looking at Best Buy and Intel Macs from 4 generations ago are still going for 500-600 dollars, and that’s on a low-end MacBook Air circa 2012 with an i5.
For reference, I recommend used ThinkPads to anybody looking for a business machine and they are generally under 400 dollars for basically twice as much power.
Okay so (1) very good points, especially the details but also (2) genuinely, have you ever actually tried using a Mac? e.g. the glass feeling of the touchpad is noice, for someone who can afford it. And those built-in Expose features are astonishingly useful, in providing things that I had previously only ever seen on a Linux or even new features that I never had. They are super-light, and functionally beautiful. The “Air” in particular at that point was iirc more of an almost tablet concept, not meant to be a full laptop, so like something to take to class and write notes in, not perform video editing in like a Pro - though it still had a full-sized standard keyboard, unlike some ThinkPads that I had to use (though way back in the day so not sure about modern ones there) where the keyboards were all smooshed and I had to spend 15 fucking minutes hunting for the damn tilda/backtick key.
Ngl, Apple got complacent and for several years fucking Microsoft Windows has been the one actually innovating the UI/UX, and yes Linux far more so as always, but the Apple experience is still fairly solid.
So if we are talking about “parents”, who may even own their own home b/c those things weren’t fantasy way back in the day (when, no kidding, the government actually paid out socialist subsidies to encourage people to do just that; back before that ladder was yanked up for the rest of us), then for them cost might not be the overriding factor? Or some people may just be okay with paying the premium price to get the good stuff? Again that trackpad… hmm…:-) - if it were free I doubt you’d turn it away at least (b/c if nothing else you could put Linux onto it):-D.
Yes, I have used modern Macs. They are nice. They are not worth the money.
I have also done Apple support professionally, and I can tell you that it feels disgusting to have to sell somebody a several hundred dollar repair when you know they’ve just maxed their cards buying the device. It’s awful, and it’s how Apple makes most of their money.
I wouldn’t even sell a homeowning millionaire a Mac because of the way Apple operates.
Modern ThinkPads rock. The ultrabooks are aluminum like a Mac without any of the proprietary bullshit and I can buy it for three hundred dollars with an abundance of replacement parts.
Yikes, that’s… a good perspective. We all did not used to be this poor, especially with the expectation that it will never get any better, so I hope that my comment was not too terribly insensitive. Maybe I’ve led a charmed life - e.g. I’ve literally never had to repair any Mac device that I’ve ever worked with, mostly work machines but one in particular that I bought entirely on my own lasted a good 10+ years before it simply gave up one day (whereas another was stolen, etc.) - but yeah they definitely don’t make them to be easily repairable, being made mostly out of like fucking glue or some such.
I would definitely sell a homeowning millionaire a Mac though - at that point they can afford whatever they want, so I’d happily take the cut:-).
And I would still hesitate to recommend Linux to an old person - if only for fear that I’d be stuck answering all their numerous requests for free tech support - but yeah I get you that it’s a solid option, and a way more cost-effective one if that is the chief concern i.e. not a homeowning millionaire.:-D
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
That is a very good point. If the constraint was added that someone would need to purchase a new machine either way - their old one died lets say, and possibly they want to switch form factors from desktop to laptop or vice versa - then would it change your answer?
Trying to put Linux onto a new machine can involve literal horror stories, especially with a particular vendor of graphics cards (Nvidia) that seems to enjoy breaking things. And too many of the cool/special features that would “just work” on their machine if it were on an OS provided by the manufacturer - some neat-o keyboard buttons lets say - could take potentially hundreds of hours and ultimately writing your own driver coding to make it functional on Linux. Not always, obviously, but it can, whereas with a manufacturer-provided OS it is guaranteed to function right out of the box.
But yeah, getting a new Mac is something on the order of like $1000 USD, plus older machines have had more time for Linux drivers to have been written anyway, so cost and newness of the machine are definitely major factors.
Nope, MacOS would be too different for them to handle. Linux Mint, or something with KDE Plasma would be way better IMO.
I guess my argument would be that you can choose/configure Linux to use many of the Windows conventions, whereas Mac has its own way of doing things that need learning.
True… though Windows itself keeps changing things between major releases, so someone may feel that they need to learn a new interface either way, which lowers the barrier to such a switch-over. For myself I did not think it was that hard, but then again I came from Linux to Mac OSX so I am definitely not the average use-case:-P.
Anyway, good point.
First challenge would be trying to convince them to spend a ton of money for a computer that they only use to do basic web surfing.
Then there is the fact that MacOS is different than Windows in look and feel, so a larger learning curve, all to do what they’ve always done before. People don’t like change, and the bigger the change, the more the pushback.
And in my parents case, they have already talked to other parents who’s kids convinced them to get a Mac. And heard all the complaints and regrets of those other parents for buying a Mac, and how it will be their first and last Mac. (My mother needed help buying a new laptop a few months ago, so I know about this).
Okay but… will putting Linux on it be any better, in your view, or are you saying Windows or bust?
Could be good if they are willing to try, and you choose a distro that closely resembles Windows. And they aren’t purchasing new hardware and their current Windows OS isn’t being supported anymore.
Big fan of if it works, why change it?
Also, don’t promise them that it’ll be perfect and magical, set their expectations to be realistic. (This is where typically people convinced to buy a Mac quickly learn to hate it. They are promised it will never have problems and then they have one problem after another, leading to hating it and tired of having to message for more help. And a lot of people I’ve found that sing blind praises for anything are the same ones quick to blame and down talk users when things goes wrong)
Oh that’s definitely true - if their existing machine works and they only want to get away from Windows then it’s not even a question (putting Mac OSX onto a not-Mac hardware just isn’t quite the same experience…:-P), definitely go with Linux then.
Yeah there is no OS in existence and never will be one that has zero issues, true dat. Windows included.
I put Pop_Os! on my mums MacBook and stopped having to do remote support almost entirely.
The PC i gave my dad on birthday to replace his 10-year cheapo Medion pc with random bluescreens on boot.
Had initially a bit of trouble to get his work software running in wine, with integrated TeamViewer for support and all. But since then it’s smooth sailing, he thought it was the new Windows for the first two years (Materia theme on XFCE).
Motivation was that Debian stable and unattended upgrades with occasional support for linux-vs-Windows things is less trouble (for me) than fighting an OS working against you long-term.
He did manage to have xfce-panels disappear once though.
Remote support via rustdesk.
Rustdesk is so good for us family admins
He did manage to have xfce-panels disappear once though.
Tbf even I’ve done this.
Firstly, don’t go out of your way to try and convince or force people, but TL;DR – if you have an opportunity and want to give someone a solid start, my recommendation is always Linux Mint.
My mother asked me to switch her in September 2022. Some bad Windows Defender definitions update started triggering warnings every 5 minutes starting at 2AM or something riduculous. I got a frantic call to come over because of “someone hacking her computer” fully expecting to just fix whatever was busted and move on with my day.
After a conversation, I installed LMDE for her and set up automatic updates plus Timeshift. She has had exactly two problems since then:
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she forgets that the scanner isn’t accessed by right-clicking the printer’s tray icon and messing with settings
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she didn’t like that she can’t move desktop icons to wherever she wants
She was also just about the easiest switch there could have been. Like many older folks, her primary use for her desktop is web/email and she has already been using Firefox/Thunderbird since the '00s.
WHAT!? Apparently desktop icons are forcibly rearranged and while the location of the setting varies across versions, you can turn off the auto-align to let her do that. I haven’t used a Linux UI for a few years but this may help: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=288291.
I hope that helps make her happy:-).
Well now, don’t I feel stupid. I never really bother messing with customizing the desktop layout nor do I use Cinnamon regularly, so I somehow must have just glossed right over that option. She only mentioned it one time in passing and had already gotten over it by that point.
Thanks!
I may prefer Mac OSX, but Linux really is a fantastically beautiful - and functional - OS, so I am glad that she can enjoy it better with this!:-)
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I’m heavily considering it. My parents are on windows 7 and don’t want to use windows 10/11. Right now I’m leaning towards ZorinOS
In my opinion everything after Windows 7 progressively got worse. Windows 7 (with some exceptions) was about as good as Windows got.
If their computer is secure and they’re still happy with it, I’m not sure I would poke that bear. I’m glad that newer versions of Windows aren’t a consideration.
I hate Windows with a passion, but when forced to at work, Windows 7 is the only thing I would consider. Until they allowed me to switch fully over to Mac that is:-). (Linux was not an available option.) Hey, maybe one day Microsoft will make something that is somewhat good like… hehe I can’t even finish that sentence with a straight face:-P.
Ubuntu on my nanny’s PC. Windows was choking its 4GB of ram and now it boots in 3min instead of 15min. She is super happy with it because you can actually do stuff on it.
Anyway, made the mistake of choosing Ubuntu because I knew the installer offered a minimal Gnome installation (yes minimal Gnome XD) For the future I’ll do Debian/XFCE. Btw at the time I installed that Ubuntu I was 3 Months into switching to Linux.
In the end its all good.
3 minutes? Must be an old pc.
Its actually less than 3, I was being generous. I would think it has to do more with Ubuntu more than the PC. Plus i think it does not have one of the newer SSD that boot faster.
Poorly, I setup Mint while I was in town, a couple weeks later it won’t boot, can’t troubleshoot that kind of thing from out of state, so… Yeah
I’m considering installing Fedora Silverblue on my dad’s PC. Install Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice as Flatpaks, show him the software center, set up his printer and wifi, set updates to automatic with no notifications, and hide the terminal from Gnome menus.
It would be like a debloated phone OS that requires no maintenance at all.Im just not sure if updates are reliable enough to work without intervention.
I gave my mom my old XPS 9350, with Fedora installed on it. Zero complaints whatsoever, so far, after like 3 years
During the pandemic after Win 7 went out of support Jan 2020, I changed the harddrive to an SSD, and installed KDE Neon on a laptop from around 2014. At the time it was an Ubuntu 18.04 based distro with a KDE frontend.
All I had to do was put Chess, Go apps, shortcuts to use common sites, put two web browsers (Chromium and Firefox) to separate my parents’ browsing and it was ready to go.
For the most part after I showed them how to use it they had no issues. I had to show them how to print, and scan things, transfer files from their phone (honestly doing it by email was less complicated). The computer had an icon in the tray that told them to update every once in a while (and the sudo password is 1234, they wouldn’t know how to even mess things up using the GUI only).
The slightly annoying issued that cropped up now and then was keeping the browser up to date to ensure that video sites didn’t nag my parents for the computer being out of date. Chromium eventually stopped seeming to work at some point.
Fast forward to today, only my mom uses it because my dad got a separate, faster laptop, cuz idk, they got tired of sharing. The laptop’s still humming along and quite responsive. Since Bionic Beaver has been end of support for a year now, I have to go back over and upgrade it to 1 or 2 LTS versions up. I hope this doesn’t introduce new lag or break my mom’s workflows which are 90% just web browsing.
You know there are firefox profiles right?
cp /usr/share/applications/whatever.firefox.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/- replace
firefoxwithfirefox -pin the app launcher - if you want it, use a master password in every user account
Yes I know, I have played with the options. I just wanted to set something up and get two different icons for them with nothing shared and installing two browsers seemed like the easiest way at the time.
I dont know how to have 2 icons.
I mean you are forcing one to use Chromium XD which is a pain and pretty creepy (contacts Google all the time).
Had great success on Kubuntu. Set up the desktop to have two giant icons only: Firefox, and shutdown.
On Windows the constant popups for updating various components were causing much confusion Java, flash (back in the day), printer “drivers”, and of course windows itself would throw popups about updates requiring clicking buttons every time they used the computer, which was very infrequently, and cause them much confusion (“what does update mean” ?")
Meanwhile on Kubuntu all updates go “shhhh” in the background, and no more confusing “To shutdown, press Start”
Context: my mum’s laptop is so old that velociraptors used it as a heating stone. So around 2022 (two years after W7 EoL) I gave her three options:
- keep using Windows 7 - highly insecure, I heavily recommended against it, but it was still an option.
- upgrade to Windows 10 - easier said than done because her computer is old, it would definitively not run well, and it’s also a privacy nightmare.
- switch to Linux - it has some rough edges here and there, she’d need to adapt herself to a different workflow, but we might be able to squeeze a bit more performance from it.
She eventually decided Linux, under the condition that any issue that she got she’d ask my help. (That was already the case - I was already the one doing maintenance of her machine.)
So I did. I went for Mint because it’s the distro that I use, with Cinnamon there; it was closer to the W7 interface that she’s used with. As she got used to the system she started asking less and less for my help, except when the computer is slow (quite a bit - again, velociraptors and stuff).
Recently I run some test with MATE in that computer (as it’s lighter), and asked her if she could notice any difference in performance. She didn’t, and she hated the DE so it’s still running Cinnamon.
Debian is never a bad choice. Put some flatpaks there, backport some goodies, and install some kind of AnyDesk system. Put some KDE Plasma and they’ll think Windows finally runs well again.
