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People who have installed Linux on their parents computer, how did it go? Which distro do you recommend? Any tips?

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.

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  • 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:

    • she forgets that the scanner isn't accessed by right-clicking the printer's tray icon and messing with settings

    • 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!:-)

64 comments