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Which distros are your parents and nieces running? Every time I try to find the ‘user friendliest’ Linux, there’s just too much outdated and/or bad info out the

Which distros are your parents and nieces running? Every time I try to find the ‘user friendliest’ Linux, there’s just too much outdated and/or bad info out there.

tpxl 6y ago
I've set up Lubuntu (performance reasons) for an old laptop for a completely non-tech person and Ubuntu on a newer laptop for a rather non-tech person. Both have no problems. Most of the work is done in the browser/libre office and the rest doesn't matter (wifi works out of the box and has a GUI, you don't really need anything else).
fsflover 6y ago
Not OP, but for my relatives I am using Debian stable with KDE or XFCE, depending on the computer specs. It's been rock-solid for years without my involvement.
bingerman 6y ago
Not the parent but anyway: my completely tech-illiterare parents have been using Antergos (which is based on Arch, and with Cinnamon) now for several years without any issues. They use only browser and email most of the time, but it's nice to have a always up to date system even though it does not matter to them. I consider user friendliness mostly just a buzzword in linux world these days. Almost everything works out of the box and if not you still need specific knowledge and/or help (and willingness to google error messages) to solve the issue no matter what distro you choose. If you have some special hardware or needs then some distros are better and easier to use but that's another story. Antergos is what I recommend these days to beginners since it's easy and simultaneously offers most (all) of the benefits of Arch. Modern rolling release distros in general are nothing to be scared of.
teclordphrack2 6y ago
Mint or Manjaro
danShumway 6y ago
Both on Ubuntu, but Mint, etc... would probably be fine as well. I personally wouldn't run Ubuntu for myself, I think it falls into some of the same traps as desktops like Windows where I don't really have complete insight into what packages are running. I run Arch & Manjaro on my own computers. But I'm not the target demographic for distros like Ubuntu. The big things when I'm setting up a computer for someone else are: - the distro should be popular enough that software/advice is available for it. - it should run some kind of user friendly desktop environment (Gnome, etc...) - it should be stable enough that it's not going to randomly break for them (so I put people on Ubuntu LTS releases, none of these people need the latest and greatest versions of every software package). I do not want their computer to break when I'm not around. Aside from that, I don't think the distro matters too much, and I think there are a lot of distros that fulfill the above criteria. The big strength of Linux for less technical people is that you need one technical person to set it up once, and then you don't really need to touch it afterwards. Anecdotal, but over the past few years I've debugged more random Windows issues for people than Linux issues (where random in this case means "I woke up today and my computer didn't work"). I've been hearing multiple issues from people where their Windows laptops just have graphics drivers that stop working one day, or where the HDMI port suddenly doesn't output anything. If I'm handling support for someone else, I basically never want to get a call like that, and I never want to try and debug it remotely. So Linux means that those calls mostly just go away. I only need to worry about their hardware once. I think my nieces have had maybe one driver issue since I installed their computers -- and they're actively installing proprietary software like Zoom for their schoolwork. My parents never install anything, so a Linux install for them is basically just set it and forget it.
pixelface 6y ago
not parent commenter but as someone who also has casual user family members on Linux - Ubuntu on a ThinkPad x220 is what I've set them up with.
Arkanosis 6y ago
Not PP, but my parents have been using Kubuntu LTS exclusively since 2009 and I'm thinking about moving them to Debian stable + KDE within the next three years. They aren't wandering much, though, so as long as the OS doesn't get in their way, they are happy.

Which distros are your parents and nieces running? Every time I try to find the ‘user friendliest’ Linux, there’s just too much outdated and/or bad info out there.

tpxl 6y ago

I've set up Lubuntu (performance reasons) for an old laptop for a completely non-tech person and Ubuntu on a newer laptop for a rather non-tech person. Both have no problems. Most of the work is done in the browser/libre office and the rest doesn't matter (wifi works out of the box and has a GUI, you don't really need anything else).

fsflover 6y ago

Not OP, but for my relatives I am using Debian stable with KDE or XFCE, depending on the computer specs. It's been rock-solid for years without my involvement.

bingerman 6y ago

Not the parent but anyway: my completely tech-illiterare parents have been using Antergos (which is based on Arch, and with Cinnamon) now for several years without any issues. They use only browser and email most of the time, but it's nice to have a always up to date system even though it does not matter to them. I consider user friendliness mostly just a buzzword in linux world these days. Almost everything works out of the box and if not you still need specific knowledge and/or help (and willingness to google error messages) to solve the issue no matter what distro you choose. If you have some special hardware or needs then some distros are better and easier to use but that's another story. Antergos is what I recommend these days to beginners since it's easy and simultaneously offers most (all) of the benefits of Arch. Modern rolling release distros in general are nothing to be scared of.

teclordphrack2 6y ago

Mint or Manjaro

danShumway 6y ago

Both on Ubuntu, but Mint, etc... would probably be fine as well. I personally wouldn't run Ubuntu for myself, I think it falls into some of the same traps as desktops like Windows where I don't really have complete insight into what packages are running. I run Arch & Manjaro on my own computers. But I'm not the target demographic for distros like Ubuntu. The big things when I'm setting up a computer for someone else are: - the distro should be popular enough that software/advice is available for it. - it should run some kind of user friendly desktop environment (Gnome, etc...) - it should be stable enough that it's not going to randomly break for them (so I put people on Ubuntu LTS releases, none of these people need the latest and greatest versions of every software package). I do not want their computer to break when I'm not around. Aside from that, I don't think the distro matters too much, and I think there are a lot of distros that fulfill the above criteria. The big strength of Linux for less technical people is that you need one technical person to set it up once, and then you don't really need to touch it afterwards. Anecdotal, but over the past few years I've debugged more random Windows issues for people than Linux issues (where random in this case means "I woke up today and my computer didn't work"). I've been hearing multiple issues from people where their Windows laptops just have graphics drivers that stop working one day, or where the HDMI port suddenly doesn't output anything. If I'm handling support for someone else, I basically never want to get a call like that, and I never want to try and debug it remotely. So Linux means that those calls mostly just go away. I only need to worry about their hardware once. I think my nieces have had maybe one driver issue since I installed their computers -- and they're actively installing proprietary software like Zoom for their schoolwork. My parents never install anything, so a Linux install for them is basically just set it and forget it.

pixelface 6y ago

not parent commenter but as someone who also has casual user family members on Linux - Ubuntu on a ThinkPad x220 is what I've set them up with.

Arkanosis 6y ago

Not PP, but my parents have been using Kubuntu LTS exclusively since 2009 and I'm thinking about moving them to Debian stable + KDE within the next three years. They aren't wandering much, though, so as long as the OS doesn't get in their way, they are happy.