Eh, there's a sweet spot. I installed Ubuntu on my dad's computer 12 years ago, showed him how to upload his photos, and to use the browser and abiword, and lef

Eh, there's a sweet spot. I installed Ubuntu on my dad's computer 12 years ago, showed him how to upload his photos, and to use the browser and abiword, and left him to it. I apply updates remotely every 6 months or so, and do OS upgrades every few years between LTS versions. It's been rock solid. Otoh my mom was on ubuntu for about 18 months and switched back to windows. She wanted to do more with it, e.g. install photoshop, scan documents (this was pre ubuntu coming out with simple scan or whatever, when xsane was still state of the art), yada yada. For relatives who just need a stable set-it-and-forget-it computer, linux is fine. For wannabe "power users", they have to be interested in investing the time to get over the learning curve. That's a more evangelical sell. I'm kind of with the author, although am a little less strident about it - "ehh, I haven't used windows in 20 years or so, but let me google that for you and see if I find anything you can try" is my usual approach.