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’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.
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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?
I would much rather have them on Linux. The thing with OSX is that the UI works very differently from Windows. Going between KDE and Windows is very similar, but I still don’t know how to use OSX
As long as you are available to be on-call to fix literally all of their support issues:-). That’s an old joke, back from the time people used to have “printers”, and so like on a Windows and Mac machine adding a new peripheral is trivially easy whereas to install a new printer/scanner/whatever on a Linux machine, even if it is as simple “apt get whatever” can be quite intimidating to elderly people (tbf the OP does say “parent” and not “grandparent”, but I was thinking both).
Anyway, that’s a good point that I have no fully thought through yet:-).
I think you may be misremembering some osx fun with cups in the past, just like with Linux. Honestly most activities for the older folks these days is mobile or web based, the tech support needs for them is about the same regardless of OS imo.
Back when I did solo IT work (a good 20+ years ago now), the questions were pretty much the same no matter what was being used too, though the Linux desktops at the time were usually focused on specialty hardware (so the dot matrix they were connecting to was about as easy as it could get).
At the time though, macs were getting popular again, even among folks like me who appreciated Darwin and thought OSX would lean more heavily into open source rather than the outright thievery they ended up doing, but that part is neither here nor there.
I’d say back then it was maybe 65/25/10 split of windows/osx/linux (usually redhat there, and two machines with slack), but the questions were mostly the same. And no matter what OS it was, it usually became a request for me to just do it for them on my next trip over.
If anything, aside from specific bits of software that may be unique to an industry and someone actively working, which OS has gotten far, far, far less important than it used to be.
Boomers in particular are known for extremely often falling into the trap of “ask not what I can do for you but what I can get out of you”, so yeah, that makes sense. And when it comes to a personal desktop I actually get it b/c while you may be busy with work + kids & having a real life where you touch grass, and then something doesn’t work, at that point it’s less of a choice to have to spend hours trying to find why this driver doesn’t work with your hardware, and what older dependencies you are not meeting, so you have to roll backwards and then set up multiple concurrent installations of whatever e.g. Python and then change EVERYTHING to either use one or the other by default… it’s exhausting.
Which as a “hobby” is fine (is it thogh…?:-P), but if you were simply trying to look at pics of your newest grandkids or something, is standing in the way of the real fun that you want to be having instead.
And using computers - and software - is literally a shittier experience today than it used to be, where even the major vendors (Google, Microsoft, etc.) don’t walk you through what you need to do in order to get some particular setting applied or working right. For some reason they cannot be bothered to always put onto their tech pages tiny little details like what version of the software a tidbit of advice is meant for, or what I would want would be to see all of the versions collated together on the same page. It’s too much work to keep up, therefore they simply don’t. And average people just give up in frustration.
Therefore fwiw I like Macs b/c you need that support far less on one of those, where it truly does “just work”, far more often than Linux, yet doesn’t have literal ads in the Start Bar like Windows.
I don’t know if I can agree on that, I personally find osx frustrating even today with how little control users are provided with, but I’ve also been a Linux user for far longer than just about anything else.
Still though, I do put OSX above Windows these days - purely based on software, not their hardware/price - for being easier than windows.
With package managers and stable desktop solutions (Debian for example), I think it’s easier now than ever to ditch the proprietary and have a better experience.overall as a user.
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)
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.
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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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.
I installed Ubuntu about 15 years ago and my Dad thought it was the new Windows. Had far fewer problems with it, but he kept hitting random keys and causing the most amazing errors. I just heard about EndlessOS which seems perfect for old folks.
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.
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.
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 gave my mom my old XPS 9350, with Fedora installed on it. Zero complaints whatsoever, so far, after like 3 years
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.
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”
