Apparently my love language is installing on the laptops of people I really care about.

This brings back really bad memories...and this is why I refuse to help others when it comes to IT stuff. The last thing I wanted to read was what I used to do in the past to gain others approval, and how it never worked.

I used to think that helping my other dumb grad mates with installing Linux made me look cool and I would be accepted. On the contrary, I looked like an idiot, now that I think of it. i became that weirdo support tech kid for the idiot professors, who could not tell the difference between Java and Javascript.

I only help my "internet" friends now. At least they don't treat you like shit.

It really depends on who is being helped and the motive for you “helping” them. I’ve had both really good and pretty bad experiences helping and trying to help people with various computer things. As with providing any kind of support, it’s important to get out of your own head and understand what the person your helping wants and needs
- also don't help to gain approval, help who already cares about you
- As with providing any kind of support, it’s important to get out of your own head and understand what the person your helping wants and needs
  
  Yes because someone that uses MS Word 6-8 hours a day certainly doesn't want to use Linux and have compatibility issues while sharing documents with others who do the same.
I used to think that helping my other dumb grad mates with installing Linux made me look cool and I would be accepted. On the contrary, I looked like an idiot, now that I think of it. i became that weirdo support tech kid for the idiot professors, who could not tell the difference between Java and Javascript.

I guess the worst part is that people will eventually take advantage of you... and demand for more and more hours of your free support, hold whatever you installed against you like "after you did X... Y stopped working" etc. At the end of the day if you're proving free support it must be easy, quick why wouldn't they ask for more.

In their heads your efforts / help doesn't provide any value and if by any chance one day they are in a situation where you could bill them or someone for tech support they would rather call any other random tech support guy or company instead of calling you - after all they're looking for a "professional" now :)
@velox_vulnus

oh that's bad😿😿 yeah that would be a toxic way to look for approval alright ahahah

So far I’ve switched 4 people to Linux (with approval and interest obviously, plus unlimited tech support lol). 3 are happier with it than Windows and the other liked Linux but had to switch back to Windows due to some audio production software they needed.

It’s also secretly been an experiment to see what distro is the most user friendly. I have one on Linux Mint, one on Debian, and the other on Fedora Silverblue. All three have been great, but I think the winner is Silverblue so far. I don’t love how quick Silverblue versions become EoL, but it’s also the distro with the easiest updater. It’s an Apple level of simplicity; click update, restart at some point, done. No scary package lists or changelogs, just a nice blue button to press.

Also Flatpak + Flathub continues to be a huge contributor in making Linux friendly to normal people, in my opinion.

Id really love to get my mom on Silverblue but she refuses to use Libreoffice.

Office 2023 is a little jank in WINE unfortunately 😞

She'd be such an easy candidate otherwise, she only needs office, email, and Internet and loves the Thinkpad I gave her.
- The browser versions aren't too awful, if that's an option.
- Just tell her to get gud and start using ViM for everything
- I’ve got ZorinOS 17 running on a laptop I share with my partner. Her initial reaction was “what is this?” but now that she’s used to it, she’s been happy.
  
  Silverblue looks quite interesting, I might give it a go in a VM. As long as it kinda looks like Windows it shouldn’t be too hard of a transition
- What about onlyoffice? The UI is a lot more modern which is probably the issue right?
Cool, agree on Fedora Atomic but you cant dualboot which is a huge problem for many.

A person I know has an education in basically Adobe software. Completely insane but this is a thing.
I am fascinated by your user friendliness experiment and I often daydream about conducting one myself. I would be interested in reading a more detailed write-up of the advantages and disadvantages of each option.

For Debian, did you consider setting up unattended upgrades?

Would you consider adding an RHEL/CentOS derivative such as AlmaLinux to the mix? The current version of AlmaLinux is supposed to be supported until 2032. The EPEL repository brings the software selection a little bit closer to Fedora.
- I'd also consider CentOS Stream for desktop use, as it's probably a good mix between Fedora and RHEL, being more stable than Fedora and more up-to-date than RHEL.
If I recall silver blue needed you to choose the new default at boot ( after uograde). is it still like that? if so I'd go with OpenSUSE GNOME, you get and update notice on the top notice bar , click update and packages install. Reboot defaults to latest snapshot

Please don't force Linux onto people, it'll only make them hate it.

I assume they are installing it with their approval...
- I've installed Linux on my old family PC. It's been two years and they haven't noticed.
- With consent is perfectly fine, yeah
@isVeryLoud
dw consent comes first🥵🥵 their machine, their choice (until the manufacturer has their saying, that is)
I've noticed a lot of people are moving to it on there own.

Yes that way they're trapped and need you for tech support, classic move.

These days installing Linux and upgrading it is easier than it was years ago. Installing Linux can be a good deed indeed :)

If you use modern and painless distro.models. I had a Fedora Atomic bug and the alternative was literally just rebasing to the same OS but automatically the same version and it worked.

This person here is doing the Lord's work. Thank you, OP, and have a great day.

I love Linux and I think a lot of my non-technical family members would benefit from it, but I am not as brave as you. The danger with messing around with someone's computer is that you are basically taking ownership of all tech problems the person may run into. It's like the "You break it, you buy it" rule. The person may seek help from another tech geek, but as soon as that geek finds out they're dealing with a "weird" Linux system, they're going to run away from it. You are effectively volunteering to be 24x7 on-call tech support for the people whose laptops you've installed Linux on.

@stormio
(not even a) hot take: if they think a Linux system is weird, they are not a real tech geek.

But yeah, that is why I only install extremely stable stuff. So that I am basically never asked for shit
- That's a gatekeeper-y take. I tried Linux a few years back, so I guess I became a "real" tech geek a few years ago. Never mind the fact that I was 3/4 the way through a CS degree, I'd built my own computer, and was the go-to tech guy in my family. But nope, not yet a tech geek.
If you are gonna have to be anyway, it may as well be one you can run bash scripts on over ssh
Yeah, I'm not sure what OP is on about or how they get away with it. I'd get phone calls for how to use outlook and MS word. I'm fortunate to have a fairly tech literate grandma, but she is old, which means set in her ways. She probably could use Linux, but she would not see the point in putting in the effort to switch habits.
I usually just mention it. I don't give to many details and before you know it they will need tech support.