I’m visiting my parents for the holidays and convinced them to let me switch them to Linux.

They use their computer for the typical basic stuff; email, YouTube, Word, Facebook, and occasionally printing/scanning.

I promised my mom that everything would look the same and work the same. I used Linux Mint and customized the theme to look like Windows 10. I even replaced the Mint “Start” button with the Windows logo.

So far they like it and everything runs great. Plus it’s snappier now that Windows isn’t hogging all the system resources.

  • Grass@sh.itjust.works
    16·
    2 years ago

    Welcome to the club. It’s the don’t need to remove malware from the parents computers every week club.

  • Yerbouti@lemmy.ml
    12·
    2 years ago

    My dad has a Surface Go. I’ve installed Fedora on one of those and it works really well. Dad is still unsure about this but I will try to convince him during the holydays.

    • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      Any trouble spots on the Surface? I have a 2017 model that could use a refresh, but I was worried about the touch screen, digitizer pen, and detachable keyboard.

      • Lonewolfmcquade@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 years ago

        I recently loaded the latest Ubuntu LTS onto my old Surface Pro and I wish I had done it a long time ago. It works so much better than Windows. Zero issues with any hardware. I don’t have a digitizer pen though I remember reading you can load a special kernel if you have any issues with it. Give it a go, I think you’ll be happy you did

      • Yerbouti@lemmy.ml
        2·
        2 years ago

        The only problem I had was using a specific App (Tidal music). The virtual keyboard doesn’t show up so I either have to plug the real keyboard or use the web version of the app. Otherwise its really smooth, way better that it was on windows 10. Touch screen is super responsive, I dont have the pen.

  • fhang@lemmy.world
    11·
    2 years ago

    I did the same thing with my Dad. He’s been using Linux Mint for a bit over 2 years now.

    Linux Mint is more than enough for his usage: Email, internet browsing and word processing.

    • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.mlOP
      17·
      2 years ago

      As if I’m not already doing that. Why do you think I was home working on my parent’s computer in the first place?

      Plus with how shitty Windows is getting, I’ll likely be doing less tech support going forward.

    • ardent_abysm@lemm.ee
      15·
      2 years ago

      I set up Mint on my parent’s PC a couple of years ago, and the amount of support I have had to provide has dropped to basically zero.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      71·
      2 years ago

      I don’t know, maybe?

      I play support now, and have for decades. Sometimes windows can be a bear.

      Maybe, for basic usage like this, Linux can make sense if it’s well thought out?

      I have an older (80’s) family friend who recently switched from a laptop to an iPad, and seems OK with it (surprisingly).

      • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
        51·
        2 years ago

        This article seems misguided, people pick their OS because of what they need. I can list many things with subpar experience on Windows: emacs suck; latex is slow; libreoffice and thunderbird crashes like nobody’s bushiness; opam is straightup unsupported (which means ocaml, dune, coq is a pain); there is absolutely nothing in the app store, means that people will need to resort to commandline tools to install and update app.

        All of this obviously will not decrown Windows from a OS with mass appeal. Since the software most people need runs well on windows.

        Another example, in my crowd it is quite rude to send a docx file between people assuming people want to use or have access to Microsoft office, so everything is in PDF. Yet in many other crowd docx is the default. We were never bounded by the need of a specific office software, while others do not enjoy the same luxury.

        There is needs by different groups of people, and that means they choose the OS that is most comfortable for them. Linux is not going to have 70% desktop adoption rate overnight, and no one is saying that. In fact both the quote in the article and this post explicitly dismissed “linux is ready for everyone” delusion. They are just comfortable in Linux, and what is wrong with that?

        • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
          13·
          2 years ago

          Well the article lists at least 8 groups of people with real and common professions that can’t run on Linux because it wont cut it.

          Linux is not going to have 70% desktop adoption rate overnight, and no one is saying that. In fact both the quote in the article and this post explicitly dismissed “linux is ready for everyone” delusion. They are just comfortable in Linux, and what is wrong with that?

          Yeah, Linux isn’t for everyone yet people here on Lemmy defend it like a religion.

  • yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    2 years ago

    Similar story—last year my mom wanted a new macbook for Christmas. I got her a refurbished Asus something or other for a fraction of the price, installed Linux Mint on it, and customized it with a Mac theme.

    I was transparent with her about the fact it’s not a Mac, and taught her to use things like Keepass and Firefox. It took some convincing and persistence, but in the end she stuck with it and I’m kinda proud of her tbh.

    Good on you for showing your rents there’s a viable alternative to Windows.

  • Sanyanov@lemmy.world
    71·
    2 years ago

    Recommending Linux is good; forcing it down someone’s throat is not.

    If parents are just comfy using Windows, it’ll get them super frustrated when they’ll face new issues coming from Linux use, as you just can’t turn Linux into Windows and they never asked for it.

    Now, if they complain about all the shit Windows throws at them, you can offer an alternative.

    • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.mlOP
      1·
      2 years ago

      I see what you’re saying, but it has gone down fine so far. My dad is completely computer-illiterate, every phone/computer he uses seems like it was found in an alien spacecraft to him, so changing from Windows to Linux doesn’t make any difference to him. He just needs to be able to click the Chrome icon and then click the YouTube favorite button or the Hotmail favorite button.

      My mom worked way back in the day for a corpo that used DOS systems, so she actually has remained slightly computer savvy. She was worried about the change until I showed her that the Spotify app worked perfectly, she could read her emails, open Word documents, and print stuff.

      I also explained that the computer would run faster and would be safer for them to use because the malware that effects Windows doesn’t effect Linux, and that made sense to her.

      If she had insisted I keep them on Windows, I would have. But she was just concerned that nothing would work the same and she would have to become some techie to figure it out. Once I addressed those concerns, she was alright with switching.