I'm totally with you in not wanting to spend free time fiddling with a system for a laptop that is used for really basic stuff. The interesting thing is that i

I'm totally with you in not wanting to spend free time fiddling with a system for a laptop that is used for really basic stuff. The interesting thing is that in the last couple of years, some of the Linux distros are now pain-free to the point that I have had no problems installing them for my wife and then leaving the rest to her. She has zero interest in anything beyond getting stuff done. I guess my point is that certain distros have actually sort of quietly gotten to that place where it's better as a consumer laptop OS than Windows. So for very little money compared to a Windows or especially an Apple laptop, it's easy to buy her a well-equipped machine and get her up and running quickly, and it's very easy to maintain. That is a good thing.