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 gave my mom my old XPS 9350, with Fedora installed on it. Zero complaints whatsoever, so far, after like 3 years
Not Linux but an old Mac OS X on a Mac Mini a long time ago, it lasted 5 years. Then Linux Mint that lasted 5 years too. Maybe controversial but most people only need LibreOffice and Firefox, so anything as easy as Ubuntu or macOS is enough (if you have a free Mac for macOS).
They switched to Windows 10 or 11 because they didn’t listen to my opinion and now they suffer more than ever, and they even got a subscription for an antivirus.
It’s funny because in 10 years (Mac and Linux) I had no support to do, and now that they switched to Windows, it’s broken 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”
Dad’s PC i gave him to 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 mooth 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
My parents (71f, 77m) run Linux Mint on their PCs and Laptops and a 22Tb Storage Server with Gentoo and an UPS… They update their machines themselves, but the Server hast one Patch day a month where i Run the Updates.
But i’m a senior software architect, fwiw.
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 women, 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.
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.
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.
I’d recommend Linux Mint honestly. It’s popular enough that they can find solutions to common problems, has a Windows-like interface, and it mostly “just works” on common hardware. Printer drivers, networking, and audio all worked out of the box for me. Cinnamon is lightweight but powerful, and the Mint theme looks really good on it. The default package repos have everything you’re likely to need, and the software manager tool is easy to use.
I did this back in probably 2008 with Linux mint.
Mint does not automatically install updates so people will ignore them. It for me also had a broken updater.
I don’t know of many distros that enable automatic updates out of the box, you usually have to enable it after installing.
You can do that in Mint too: https://linuxhint.com/configure-updates-automatically-linux-mint/
Fedora Atomic Desktops, many more “immutable” distros do
Immutable distros aren’t the norm though.
Didnt say that. I just said “Linux mint does not auto update so people will ignore it”.
It is useful that it can be enabled. But keep that in mind, I know people that ignore updates if they arent forced to.
I am here to also echo Mint being great. I installed it on a pretty old laptop and it’s very snappy.
The migration process was not difficult at all.
Yeah, you know Chrome? It’s this button now, this is the internet.
Your emails? Yeah they’re this button now. Just remember that, okay?
Most people use computers as a means to an end and they are not really particular about what’s happening behind the scenes so long as it functions for their needs.
I put Zorin OS on my mother-in-law’s laptop, she just uses Facebook as far as I know and it’s been fine. Only one call for tech support in the last two years.
On a sample size of one, I give Zorin OS a thumbs up to send to tech illiterate family.
When my mom used her laptop, she was using arch btw! It was only for browsing though. Firefox was auto launched and she didn’t have to learn anything. It obviously wouldn’t have been a good choice, if I wasn’t able to do the updates.
I would not force anyone to switch to Linux.
I would have agreed a long time ago, but I wouldn’t force anyone to switch to an OS filled with ads, telemetry, or mandatory hacks and registry keys modifications to be usable (Windows 10 and 11).
Edit: I forgot the requirement to have a Microsoft account which is the cherry on top.
You do have an excellent username btw:-).
Indeed, but in a scenario where children are completely responsible for the management of their parent computers, and with the general enshittification of Windows, I could see people switching their parents to Linux, especially if the parents have no clue and trust their children.
Be careful with that thinking though. I agree that there are many cases where people would be better off with a Linux distro, but after that switch EVERYTHING that goes wrong on that computer (small or big, due to the switch or not) will be pinned to the switch itself.
More than likely, you are signing yourself up for more computer responsibilities, not less in the foreseeable future. If you and your parents are ready for that, then now is a great time to switch.
you are signing yourself up for more computer responsibilities
As I said in the comment above, if you are already completely responsible for the management of their computers, that doesn’t change much, right?
For simple use cases… Linux can actually be a lot more hands off and just works.
It’s actually pretty great for the grandparent use case.
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
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 wouls 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.
