I’m looking for recommendations.
I have run Linux on my own computers off and on for the last 10 years. I’m not an advanced user, but I’m comfortable enough playing around with different distros and settings to find a good fit for myself and my own devices, and problem-solve as needed.
But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member’s computer to Linux. This device is only used by people whose attitude toward computers is “if it doesn’t just work, it’s too hard and I can’t engage”. So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won’t be accidentally broken by the users. As well as not being too steep of a learning curve for Windows users. (Their needs are uncomplicated - mostly just LibreOffice and Firefox, both of which they already use.)
Mint is often recommended for inexperienced Windows refugees. But I’ve had several things break in the process of getting Mint installed and updated on this machine. That wouldn’t be an issue if it were my own computer, but it’s not filling me with confidence that this is going to meet the ongoing “just works” requirement for this device. There’s no way I’m going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.
Which other distros would you recommend for this use case?
Thanks in advance.
Any one of the uBlue projects is perfect for this use case.
KDE: https://getaurora.dev/
Gnome: https://projectbluefin.io/
Gaming: https://bazzite.gg/Install and setup once, run forever. Immutable so impossible to break for a tech illiterate user, no package upgrades fuck-ups because updates are atomic and don’t touch the currently running system, are done in the background and are completely invisible for the user, great hardware support, based on Fedora. Users can only install Flatpaks through the App Store.
The only “maintenance” needed is a weekly reboot to move to the latest OS image.
As a personal feedback, I moved my gadget enthusiast but tech illiterate father on Bluefin. He can ruin a Mac in less than a few months. He can generate undocumented bugs on iOS by his mere presence. But somehow, Bluefin is still running perfectly after a year. That’s how robust it is.
thanks, I’m moving my mom’s laptop from regular fedora to aurora right now
Far and away the biggest thing I can recommend: Use the same distro yourself. If there ever are issues, you’ll almost certainly encounter them first and know how to fix them quickly. Ideally use it yourself for a bit before you put it on your mom’s computer so you can find any initial issues too.
I vote against immutables. Been there and it’s not if something breaks it’s when. I had to completely reinstall my kiniote. Trust. Go with Mint LMDE to be exact skip ubuntus bullshit.
I experienced that only when doing expert things on my system like trying to install new drivers. I’ve been using 4 different immutable distros for a few years and literally the only “breaking” thing was when UBlue distros moved to Fedora 42, which no longer allowed you to use the
ostree admin unlock --hot-fixhack to directly modify your system and made you build your own modified variant using their GitHub template repo.I’m actually moving my wife to a UBlue distros specifically because I set it up remotely and it just auto updates.
I will warn however that Flatpaks can be a nightmare for basic things like browsers if you want to do things like use a webcam, microphone, or, god forbid, a USB device. Make sure you manually set that up in the (probably flatpak) you’re using before handing it over (probably by using Flatseal).
I had difficulty getting 1password set up on fedora atomic.
I think there are still gotchas where you need a relatively experienced person to set up for you.
If you’re setting it up for somebody else, ask them to go through 5 things they mostly do with you so you can make sure they work.
For power users like ourselves sure but for beginners who are not tinkering immutables are perfect.
Just go with Aurora (or Bluefin), that’s the way to go for tech illiterates. Most of these recommendations are 5 years out of date, like why recommend Ubuntu or Zorin, when those are almost the same as Mint.
I moved my wife’s laptop to Debian with Cinnamon as a desktop. She loves it and is as technophobic a person as I know…
Auto login, automated-updates set up, remote backups. She just has to open the lid and firefox is there, which is 95% of what she wants. Libre office is around for the remaining 5%.
This is someone who used to get angry at Windows forced updates and reboots, so not having any of that improved her quality of life.
People tend to reccomend the only one theyve tried lol, id say de matters more, most distros will just work in my experience, and most of them use guis for grabbing apps with the terminal being optional, Mint is an obvious pick, with cinnamon de being easy to use, prob wouldn’t reccomend gnome with extensions unless you’ve already used linux for a few months, most other des have a solid default experience and easier (more straightforward) customizability
Anduin Os is ubuntu gnome themed like windows 11, could be an easier transition
Ubuntu studio may be a good pico if they are creative and don’t know about linux apps, will have many preinstalled, bazzite if they game
I put everyone on LMDE
Since tech illiterate people don’t really care what’s under the hood as long as it works, I would choose anything with Cinnamon desktop: Gnome is a little alien for newcomers, KDE and XFCE are far too easy to screw up if you don’t know what you’re doing.
If Mint doesn’t work well with you I would suggest either LMDE, stock Debian or the Fedora Cinnamon spin (in this order of priority)I would love if there was an atomic Cinnamon spin. Fedoras Atomic Budgie version gets close but I think I still prefer god old Mint Cinnamon. There is hardly stuff to simply break anyhow.
Yeah I have zero experience with atomic distros so I don’t feel like suggesting those, but I have seen good comments in this thread about those as well
Bazzite Gnome- a hidden gem, as many think Bazzite is just for gaming, but it also has a great desktop mode. Pretty much indestructible (immutable), polished, pretty, has a modern kernel (so good driver support) and has Firefox and Libreoffice installable as Flatpaks. Great for kids and grandmas.
Seconded, but since they’re coming from windows, just do the normal bazzite non-deck, as that uses KDE plasma which is a lot more similar to the modern windows shell
+1 for immutable in general.
+1 I am installing bazzite gnome (configured to look like windows 10) on my wife and mum’s computers. As long as they have chrome they are good.
i cant believe anyone still uses that garbage
Fedora kinoite for windows-minded users. Fedora silverblue for everyone else.
That’s what I’ve used for the old people I do tech work for and except for one who thinks Microsoft invented everything and nothing without MS branding is legit, they are all happy.
Isn’t Fedora and these immutable versions on a six month upgrade cycle? Do these update to a new version reliably? As much as immutable is hard to break, I know Fedora’s regular distros and spins seem to update to the new version reliably.
Yea fedora does sometime leave them Behind a while but catching them up again is simple. Even when the process breaks, it does so in a simple to salvage way.
I guess that’s my worry. Simple for me to fix, yes. For my parents or grandparents, I’m not so sure.
Well you could always just host a remote session from a home machine and have them just use a dumb thing client. If anything goes wrong it’s at your end and easy to fix.
All the normal folks I have moved over use Mint. It is not the distro I use. It has worked great for them. No complaints.
I would go for mint.
I want to suggest something immutable, but even when I use it, I have just had some issues occasionally or when trying to get the one off software here and there.
Of all the people in my family, even elderly, mint has been the easiest transition and I have very rarely needed to perform any additional maintenance outside of doing updates for them here and there.
If you(they) don’t mind having outdated software Debian stable might be worth looking into. Otherwise there are immutable distros which are very hard to fuck up, and even if you do there is the option to rollback to the previous version. I’d recommend Aurora or Fedora (fedora doesn’t include some proprietary stuff like some codecs so if you need that it’s probably better to use Aurora).
Linux Mint also has a version based on Debian stable, LMDE, which is could also be an option. It’s not as stable as Debian as it adds its own stuff but has the out of the box experience.
As general advice I’d suggest using less packages and more flatpaks as a faulty flatpak update can only break that flatpak, not your system. For packages be sure to disable online updates, meaning you have to reboot to apply them. This isn’t as convenient but if stability is that important to you I’d go for it
These days I just install Aurora Linux for this kind of situations. It’s exactly how you described it. Haven’t heard complains about it yet and their tech service needs from me almost dropped to zero.
I’ve never had Mint having dependencies issues, particularly when updating it. I don’t know what you were doing, but I have put Mint in 20 laptops in the last 2 years (both on mine, and other people’s), and no one, no one had a single issue like that. So I’d still suggest Mint.
But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member’s computer to Linux.
Why?
Did they ask for Linux? Do you have authority over them?
So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won’t be accidentally broken by the users. … There’s no way I’m going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.
Issues appear. I would be more focused on setting up remote access than choosing a distro.
I’d choose something LTS that has been around for a while (Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL-derivatives, SuSE if there’s a freely-available LTS, etc.).
If you are not against the use of Google products, ChromeOS devices are about the best well-designed low maintenance operating systems. (Not Flex, a ChromeOS device.) But you would be sacrificing Firefox and LibreOffice, which might not be an option. (And technically, it’s running a Linux kernel, if I remember correctly.)
Debian with the MATE window manager (looks like older Windows) worked pretty well for my mom after I set it up for her. I don’t think she ever figured out that it wasn’t Windows.
