• Urist@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    My neighbour randomly asked me a few months ago if I was familiar with Linux and if I could could get him some boot USB or something. I got him one with several options. He didn’t have any Linux experience before, and isn’t exactly a nerd.

    It’s much easier nowadays for someone to get familiar and use Linux than it was before, and it’s much cheaper than reworking your whole tech ecosystem to accomodate Apple’s monopoly.

    • dirtypirate@kbin.social
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      7 months ago

      My elderly neighbor needed a computer to do accounting, I set her up with Mint on a T430 w/ LibreOffice and told her I’d giver her free support till the laptop died.

      5 years on and the only time I’ve had to fulfill my side of the bargain was when her printer was out of paper and she couldn’t find her eye glasses to read the error message.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        her printer was out of paper and she couldn’t find her eye glasses to read the error message.

        Hahahah, omg that’s awesome.

        To me this user exemplifies where Linux shines: in limited-use-case scenarios (not to say it’s inflexible, just that support increases quickly with increased use-case complexity).

        The more general-use needed, the more technical skill is required.

        This user has a small set of specific requirements, so it’s pretty trivial to get them running on a Linux distro, and it’s a great application of what Linux brings to the table. System management will be minimal.