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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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My 73 year old mother never had a computer before when she asked me for one, so she could talk online with her friends.
I installed Xubuntu and it has been working wonderfully for her. She just browses the web, types some poems using Libre Office and plays solitaire.
I just have to do a system update every year or so.
She's now 87.
For my my father I only have to make sure it looks not so different after each major upgrade. I have to be careful when there are new things, but apart from that he can do everything for himself except these major upgrades and backups.
So, he is happy with Fedora and Gnome classic.
Pretty much the requirement for my wife. She really struggled with inconsistency of Windows and how slow it responded. Move to Linux, and she runs it fine with no more complaints, she just wants it identical after a version upgrade or if there is a reinstall ever needed. So for her I went with NixOS and have her config files stored for later.
Glad to hear it's working well for her. I used Xubuntu myself in the past but switched to Fedora KDE on a whim :). When my wife wanted to ditch Windows I thought Xubuntu would be a good choice for her, but honestly I was surprised with how many different problems and errors we ran into while installing it on her computers. Granted it's more stable now, but during the first couple of months I occasionally had to spend hours trying to get pretty basic stuff working, when it required more advanced Linux knowledge to fix.
I love this, because it's exactly the opposite of the received "wisdom" you'd get from many corners of the Internet. As long as you aren't mucking around the internals of a Linux install, it's going to be stable, and it will be adequate for common computing tasks. Arguably, even better than adequate.
Exactly! For the majority of people it is easier yet many people will fight you to the death that the opposite is true
don’t forget the original comment though: unable to upgrade without reinstall, and glibc incompatibility
i’m not saying that changes the latter comment, but it’s certainly far from the experience for every single person every single time… windows is like macdonalds: it’s the same horrible thing every time but it’s consistent
With Windows if you don't have a tpm you have to get a whole new computer lol
I remember you asking about what distro to pick, what a wonderful follow-up post. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Glad you enjoyed it!
As for the choice of distribution, the installation of Bazzite was actually far from trouble free. The precise issue and its solution escapes my mind at the moment, but it refused to boot at first, and I had to spend more hours than I had hoped for before it was up and running. But after that it seems to be stable, the only question the kid has sent me was "can it break my computer if I switch Project Zomboid to the beta branch?" so I assume everything is working well now :D (There was a warning about switching to beta, saying that you should make a backup because things could break, and he wasn't sure what they meant)
Sorry to hear you had trouble with the installation. Since we have such a vast variety of hardware, you will always find a person having trouble with a specific distro I believe. That's why having so many to choose from is awesome - but also a bit daunting at the start. Glad it's working now, hope it stays that way.
A few years ago, I installed mint 21.1 on my mum's old NUC; a 2013 model; was running Win7.
I said, it doesn't meet the minimum for Win10, so it was either buy something new or try Linux.
Just got back from visiting them, I updated it to 21.3, still running fine. It still does everything they need.
Mum even said, "it always just works". A great endorsement, as a non-technical user mum needs a no fuss distro, mint works so well in this regard.
As an early Linux adopter who tried everything under the Sun, I can only say that Mint is absolutely awesome.
My ex father in law would always always ALWAYS install random ass flash games / random sketchy software and bork their windows PC.
He was always complaining about popups and his antivirus was always flagging a threat etc.. they'd spend tons of money annually to have their computer fixed and he'd go right back to the same behavior.
Anyway... I installed a dual boot setup with his windows and Linux mint.
He bitched and complained about it.. but he never had any actual issues. His complaint was it was different. He ran mint until he died like 5 years later.
Honestly, if my exFIL can run Linux.. anyone can.
The year of the Linux Desktop is closer than we think. Too bad the art of just owning a PC is sort of dying, thanks to GPUs costing just as much as the rest of the parts put together.
I've been trying to get my stepmom to switch over to Mint on her old Dell AIO. I already spun up the live on it to see if it was compatible and it ran flawlessly. She's just afraid to make the jump and I respect that.
Its good to see the younger generations just growing up with Linux readily available and easier than ever to install.
What does "spun up the live" mean? Is this a USB install?
Yeah, the usb live environment. Sorry, I just have a certain older way I say things. When PCs used to have CD drives, we used to say we'd "spin up" something like a game or software. If I was gonna play something like Tonic Trouble, which was a CD game, I would "spin up" Tonic Trouble to play it.
More like an USB live iso. This allows to boot up a system directly from USB without installation !
This is mostly used as rescue technique, to chroot (=login) into your old system and try either to backup your data or fix issues !
Wasn't aware it could be used as testing ground for hardware compatibility ! Good to know !
Thanks for sharing, this made me smile. Also it warms my heart to hear how you are making tech accessible to this kid.
Many of us take it for granted but I remember how my dad used to go over to family friends in his free-time to help with computer stuff. I feel like I was too young to learn but it did set an example for me.
So fun watching someone try Linux as their first OS, none of the "Linux is difficult because I learned how to use Windows" or "Linux is bad because it's not exactly like Windows" comments :D Roblox stopped working when the devs intentionally blocked Wine, but he just shrugged and said he didn't play it that much anyway.
It's a little heart breaking hearing him often ask which parts he could buy to get more FPS, because he'd need to replace half the computer to get a newer CPU and DDR4 RAM, since I suspect the DDR3 could be the current bottleneck. But other than that he's very happy with the computer.
I mean... Why would you play Roblox when you can play Project Zomboid? 😁🤗 good call little guy !
Best reviews are like that, people who don't know shit, when theres a massive nerd following for said thing going wow that's amazing.
The best example of fighting the good fight as far as OSes. Good on you. Linux these days is for sure way better than commercial oses in most ways. Windows is more supported and macos is more obsessively polished on the surface. Otherwise they got nothing going for them
Kudos! Glad to hear things are working out.
So Linux can be a pain in the Ass to set up done things, but I'd light years ahead of what it was in the late 90's
True but have you tried windows? The registry editor is just one example of the top tier bullshit that the windows apologists will gloss over. To them it's normal to have to open what I'm sure started as a tool Microsoft only saw themselves using just to fix basic problems that shouldn't have occurred in the first place
Of course I've used windows. From 3.1 to 11.
I'm in Linux now. Been using that A long time as well
Additionally very very few people even know what a registry editor in windows is
Because what they want windows to do doesn't need them to understand it. That's the point.
They click a couple buttons, windows crashes behind the scenes then loads again , all without the user seeing it now.
Back in the day the bsod would show up but they got rid of it.
Now dos (both ibm and Ms ) that was a fun thing to play with. .
You're right that most people don't use the RE. That was a bad example I guess.
The point of my question is this though: as pointed out in the original post, maintaining windows is no easy lift. To the point that your average user knows and hates the constant windows update process, and needs an "IT guy" in their life to help them overcome the hurdles which will arise. The idea that windows just works is a fallacy. Also same with Mac (or linux), but honestly? To a large degree linux can be that way for most users most of the time. Probably even more so than macs as long as it's a good setup to begin with (the right distro, the software installed the user needs). Most people just need a browser. And it's not without challenges just to keep even that running on windows. I'm aware of zero linux distros which force updates and even if you seek them out and install them, they aren't very disruptive 99% of the time.