In an effort to relieve her PC of constantly deluge of virus and malware, I switched my Mom over to Ubuntu in the 2000’s. She lasted a month.
The experiment ended when she called me in tears because of her silent 4 week struggle with the OS.
She couldn’t get her scanner to work reliably, and none of her “print shop” software was compatible.
I know more now than I did then, and the distros have come a long way since, but I don’t have the time to retrain her and at 70 years old, I just want her to use what she’s comfortable with, even if that means I have to occasionally scrub her PC.
Wow this article perfectly captures the early 2000s experience of trying to teach parents how to use the internet. Internet access wasn’t very widespread in Australia yet, and my parents weren’t really interested in it and thought it was too difficult to use.
Things from that article that really stuck out to me:
Not being able to type searches directly into the address bar. This confused me as a child, and I was really excited when browsers started to incorporate the feature
Mentioning the use of a pager
Knowing that all the photos in the article are of real people and not AI because it’s from 2002
I’m currently holding an opinion that everyone who can enjoy Linux will eventually try it on their own.
I think, despite what many people say, an average user still has a very rough time using it, and in my opinion you need some level of nerdiness in order to overcome adaptation pains, and such people already use internet in a nerdy way and will try out Linux on their own eventually.
Agreed. Unconditionally recommending Linux to regular people isn’t a good idea. In my opinion it’s fine with all the disclaimers about possible disadvantages and recommend them to inform themselves about it.
Just talking about my experience got them interested enough to at some point try to daily drive Linux on their desktop PC, one of them used PopOS for 2 years on their uni laptop at that point.
At the end of the day it’s all about expectations. Most people are uninterested in computers and want to continue using what they know. Others want to experiment and will learn more themselves after being shown something interesting (through YT, conversations, Steam Deck tutorials, …).
The only reason it’s like that is because devices come preinstalled with Windows. I would love if we had the Linux option that makes the device cost less
I don’t either (despite the fact that I use Arch BTW). The average adult in my country is barely able to use their computer for basic tasks (think Word/Excel, basic internet usage). Having all these people on Linux is a nightmare scenario I don’t want to imagine. I would love nothing more than Linux becoming the norm in the not-so-distant future, but the computer literacy in the general population is just too low right now.
I do both. When someone comes to me regarding their laptop overheating and slowdown issues, I recommend them Linux, right before fixing their Windows. And when someone asks me which one to use, or what to start with, or how to install, I warn them about the difficulties (because one who potentially can use Linux, will ask different questions).
Just wanted to add that i know folks who have no problem using distro like Mint but are extremely non tech. To the point they can’t set up their new TV. In fact it’s safer for them than Windows since they can’t just go clicling yes to all dangerous operations like on Windows.
I thinkbeginner friendly distros are more difficult not for total noobs but for users who are slightly experienced with PCs and want to do medium level operations like installing specific soft outside distro repo .
In that case, it seems to be a good idea to setup a linux installation yourself for the user and not give them sudo (or root password) and then make a service allowing them to use the app store and updating their system without requiring root privileges, but not letting them add a repository.
It doesn’t seem to be the case with distros like Mint. I even know folks who have Mint but they have no clue about tech or computers at all. As users they can hardly tell difference. And It’s actually easier on them because it doesn’t get all messy as Windows does for non tech folks, so there is almost no maintenance needed. I very much recommended it for granparents and such, so you don’t have to go fixing their Windows PC each visit because they downloaded tons of random danger ware by not understanding what they do.
Yeah, that’s the thing. Two categories of users can properly enjoy Linux (in my opinion):
Technically advanced users who can figure out a lot on their own
Technically illiterate users (“Show me where to click to get to Facebook”)
While average users are the ones to suffer. They are technically picky enough to require more advanced features than “click to open Google”, but not nerdy enough to spend hours reading stack overflow to make something they need work.
Most average users will be actively displeased that their settings menu is now different and confusing, office tools have slightly different UI, and some specialized software is missing.
Average user does not spend hours learning GIMP, they blame Linux for not having Photoshop and quit. Sad but true
I think this depends. People who need basic computer functions can get on very well with linux.
My classmate in highschool had ubuntu on his home pc as long as I remember, because someone preconfigured it for them and it was mainly a browser - schoolwork machine. He gamed on XBox. There was no hassle, it was fine.
My mom on her run down laptop has mint now, because I configured it for her. I haven’t heard any complaints.
E: Also many hospital here run Linux and it is just fine, and trust me, many of the medical staff are barely tech literate enough to register for email themselves.
Linux is a problem for people who come from windows and need more than basics but are not tech savvy enough to get their hands dirty. Then once your comfort level with tinkering goes up again, Linux is once again not a bad recommendation. It really kind of is the bell curve meme.
What about when they buy a new printer and need drivers. Or want to install some software they heard about that only works on Windows/Mac? I am a software developer and still struggle to find a use case where Linux would be better than Windows. If it’s not a game that won’t work then it’s an IDE that’s unavailable. There always seems to be something that isn’t fully compatible or doesn’t have a functional equivalent in Linux.
This is why I still have windows on the machines at home. There’s always some niche device, especially for my wife’s crafting, that only supports windows.
But then at work thanks to VMs I use windows and Linux side by side every day.
What about when they buy a new printer and need drivers.
Printers have “just worked” on Linux for longer than Windows has provided drivers through Windows Update. What printer do you have that requires special drivers in Linux?
Canon Pro 9000 mkii. It works but in a basic mode. There is no way to select a color profile or borderless printing. There is no way to clean the nozzles. Our Brother Laser Printer on TrueNas was a huge pain to find drivers for it to get air print to work correctly. I think I spent an entire work day messing with CUPS until I got things working properly.
I’ve already given a similar answer somewhere in this thread, but my point is, yes, it works well for advanced users (stack overflow enjoyers) and total beginners (Where do I click to get to Facebook?), while average users are in the middle, and are simultaneously require more features than beginners, but do not have the means to solve them.
Linux is a problem for people who come from windows and need more than basics but are not tech savvy enough to get their hands dirty.
Spot-on. For people with minimal to no computer skills in the first place Linux will serve them well.
The one who well struggle the most ironically are Windows “Power users” and other intermediate/advanced users who don’t have the equivalent skill already in Linux or time/willingness to learn Linux systems.
Either that, or they use specific tools that they can’t or won’t replace and which don’t work on Linux. Usually it’s creative or engineering software. There are usually good, Linux compatible, open source alternatives, but they’re not the same as industry standard tools that they need to know how to use and be 100% compatible with. Windows or MacOS is your only safe bet there.
If you’re a mere hobbyist and interested in learning new tools it’s an entirely different answer. You can try out the windows versions of the alternative software first, then try switching to Linux down the line when see the greener grass.
That’s exactly where I feel I’m at. I’m no tech expert but I’m the guy family calls to help with computer stuff and I know enough to realize I don’t like the direction Windows is going. I’ve gone as far as to install Linux on a single device I use but now I just use that device less cause I can’t be bothered to figure it out when I’ve already got other machines that I’ve got working just the way I like.
Feel like I’ve come to a wall that yeah, I could overcome and climb, but this side of the wall is still livable and I’m not even sure the other side will be much better.
Microsoft Office and Adobe software are the main anchors to Windows currently. Anyone using them (as is professionally required) is stuck with Windows or MacOS.
Please put an NSFW tag on this. I was on the train and when I saw this I had to start furiously masterbating. Everyone else gave me strange looks and were saying things like “what the fuck” and “call the police”. I dropped my phone and everyone around me saw this image. Now there is a whole train of men masterbating together at this one image. This is all your fault, you could have prevented this if you had just tagged this post NSFW.
I have multiple devices, but I just use my trusty KNOPPIX LiveCD to unlock the disk and move everything onto an external hard drive before either troubleshooting via chroot or just doing a clean install.
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