We have awesome merch! shop.thelinuxcast.org [time stamps] 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:11 Our Week In Foss 00:01:16 Drew's Week in FOSS 00:05:07 Tyler's Week in FOSS 00:06:48 Matt's Week in FOSS 00:16:39 Should Your Mom Use Linux? 00:58:09 Nuggies of the Week 00:58:57 Drew's Nuggie 01:02:40 Tyler's Nuggie 01:03:34 Matt's Nuggie 01:05:16 Contact Info and Goodbyes
I helped a friend's mom to get into Linux. She's a Buddhist so I relived her laptop with Boddhi Linux, some tweaks an scripting, and she is happy.. she even understood Enlightment/Moksha workflow on the firts week. No complains from her.
My grandma's ancient netbook, which came with Windows 7, stopped working. An "IT guy" decided it would be a good idea to install Windows 10 on it, and it's a miracle that it even ran. So, I installed Bodhi Linux on it, and now she can play solitaire again. P.S. Windows 7 didn't work, despite my attempts to reinstall it. Additionally, my mom had a horrible laptop that came with Windows 10 for some reason, and it was unusable. However, after I installed Linux Mint, it now runs much faster compared to how it was before.
Don't use home folder encryption on Linux Mint, cause there's a bug that prevents you from decrypting it from another Linux Distro. That might be relevant if you can't login and want to save your files from outside
Man I popped mint on a laptop recently and after working with arch for the last 4 years, it was refreshing. I do find cinnamon to be pretty ugly tho :(
Well, my wife uses MX Linux KDE for both home use and her business. All happy. She just uses it. Much less trouble with Linux than we had with Windows. I have also given Linux to many a local family or computer illiterate basketball fanatic student to keep their wreck of a laptop going. Again, all happy. For general day to day use or business use without need for super specialised software (Adobe, we know!) Linux is sweet now. I mention because the Window fanbois INSIST Linux is unusable by the common man.. or woman
I put my Mom and some friends on NixOS, I put together a fairly agnostic desktop configuration I can just drop on 90% of computers and it suits most peoples needs, I just have them manage the applications they actually work with through flatpak, they can't break the thing. Depending on the skill-level of the user often times it's better to give them only SOME freedom because they're not trying to do anything outrageous, they just need it to work and they need to feel comfortable that the "Next" button doesn't lead to a kernel panic. I think everyone has seen older people practically run away in fear from their own computers when sitting on a Windows rig. I figured "well.. they can't change SYSTEM configurations just all willy nilly" as long as they can get into userspace and just play around in there, seems fine to me. Also you gotta remember most people don't want to have to relearn "computer" to just use the computer, while you and I will think it's great that we have so many options and choices, for most people that's just way too much. The way Windows limits the user's options has it's place and this is essentially where it works.
Yes. LMDE and it is all enough. I have never received a call from my mother since I built some scripts to be automated in almost anything that can happen during her usage and modify some functions here and there. I only manually check the PC for 6 months or more. Unless you do have some special needs or your workflow is too integrated into Windows (unfortunately, I am), most of the time Linux is good.
Love you guys, but the first 15 minutes makes the answer seem like a loud NOOOOOO. Love the bug rage! Also, props to the older hardware slant at 32:30 ish. Save an old machine and newbies get impressed. Speed = happy.
I set my ex up on her old laptop with Ubuntu. She was able to use Facebook, read her emails, use youtube, play her browser games. Everything she needed to do was easy for her.
I would only install Linux on a non-technical person's computer if I had ready access to it afterwards, because at some point I will have to help with something.
Linux is easier for first time PC-users than Windows, but most people are not first time PC-uses and have 1-4 decades of Windows under their belt and 0 days of Linux. Having said that, the ordinary PC user could very easily switch to Linux and he would get used to it quickly if you use the right desktop environment for that person, probably either KDE or Cinnamon.
I usually install Linux Mint Cinnamon or Xfce for friends and family and sometimes neighbors, depending on how old the PC is. It would be nice if they had an immutable, would make things easier as far as support.
I've got personal experience with this. I put Fedora KDE on my mother's laptop and Kubuntu (regrettable distro choice, but oh well) on my ex's computer. They were both the type of computer user who doesn't really need anything other than a familiar looking interface (KDE provides that) and a way to browse the web efficiently. They both told me they preferred the experience over Windows, and my mother still runs Linux to this day. Not sure about my ex. I think installing Linux on a "normie" family/friends computer is a great choice as long as you take into account what OS the user comes from and what they're familiar with.
I installed Linux Mint 22 on my mother's old Samsung laptop. It's an weak machine, so Windows 11 is too much for in to handle satisfactorily, and my mother only uses her laptop to basic browse. So Mint is 100% fine
So 16 min into this and still haven't heard the content promoted in the thimbnail title. Seems to be happening more often across youtube content, and I think it's an annoying trend. You're better than this.
