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My wife bought one of these early 2010s netbooks running Ubuntu. She didn't know what it was or how it was different, but eventually she started asking me for s

by tapoxi 2y ago

My wife bought one of these early 2010s netbooks running Ubuntu. She didn't know what it was or how it was different, but eventually she started asking me for support. "How can I use Office? Why can't I play this video? What's this error in the software upgrade screen?" Linux is fine for day-to-day use if you're already technical and can debug it when you inevitably hit a roadblock, or you have a family member who can provide constant support - thus all these "My grandma uses Linux!" posts that have been a hallmark of this scene for the past 20 years. It is not a seamless experience for your average Mac or Windows user. There are things like codec restrictions or driver issues (Nvidia), its still transitioning between windowing protocols so things like DPI scaling doesn't work properly across application types. GNOME doesn't even handle tray icons. Flatpak is a good step but most of the builds are third-party and not endorsed by the vendor (Signal, Chrome, Steam, etc) which leaves them vulnerable to supply chain attacks. Immutable distributions are interesting but rely on the continued success of the above. I'll continue to recommend Chromebooks to family members. It's incredibly set-and-forget and a more polished experience for the average person.

alamortsubite 2y ago
Those netbooks came out in 2008. I had one (fun toy). Chromebooks are OK, but Linux has come a long way in the last 16 years. All the Chromebooks I've bought for family members (ok, only two), the first thing I've done is installed Debian for them.
vorticalbox 2y ago
I'm running fedora atomic, you can also use toolbx or distrobox and install apps there and then export them if you are worried about flakpak.
throwaway71271 2y ago
Which ubuntu is that? I moved my gaming pc to ubuntu recently and everything has been amazing, even dist upgrade worked without bricking anything. My wife uses fedora on some super old alienware laptop from like 10 years ago and she is just fine with open office and etc, never had to give any support. Of course milage may vary, but my daughter is forced to use Windows from her school and I have to tell you I have to give One Drive support at least once per day, where "something" is not working properly, file is missing and etc. I use macos on my m1 laptop and its probably the best experience, the m1 is just rock solid, besides when I want to gdb -p into chrome and it doesnt let me without disabling the system's integrity protection.
- pdimitar 2y ago
  Well, part of what you said was probably not true back in 2012 (which is the date of the original article).
  - throwaway71271 2y ago
    :) none of it was true in 2012, the dark times of the linux desktop.. but I was replying to the gp not the article, and assumed they put recent ubuntu on the netbook
matteoraso 2y ago
>It is not a seamless experience for your average Mac or Windows user. Maybe not in 2012, but Windows 11 is such a disaster that I firmly believe that Linux is now the user-friendly option between the two. The only problem is that on rare occasions, you do need to debug some very frustrating issues. It's a tradeoff between having an OS that works well 99% or an OS that's never quite right 100% of the time.
- number6 2y ago
  > The only problem is that on rare occasions, you do need to debug some very frustrating issues. Why are all my links opening in Edge? Didn't I deinstall it? What is Candy Crush?
kube-system 2y ago
Yeah, Ubuntu is fine if someone is using a browser and that's about it. When they start interacting with other software or services that expect them to be on Windows/Mac, that's when the problems start. For instance: your family member comes home from the store with a boxed copy of TurboTax expecting it to work on their computer.
- alamortsubite 2y ago
  TIL you can still buy a desktop version of TurboTax.
  - kube-system 2y ago
    I see them at some aisle end-cap in just about every big box store January through March.
afavour 2y ago
Yeah, IMO the biggest competition here is ChromeOS. My dad's old laptop was really starting to creak with whatever version of Windows it had and he said he was going to buy a new one. I suggested instead I do an experiment and install ChromeOS Flex on it. He's been over the moon with it since and after a few initial questions hasn't been confused by a single aspect of it.
pessimizer 2y ago
> "How can I use Office? Why can't I play this video? What's this error in the software upgrade screen?" "How can I use Office?" is an unavoidable question, but it's like asking how you can play Super Mario Brothers on a Sega Master System. You can't, here's the replacement. Same process you'd have to go through when switching to a Mac from Windows or Windows to a Mac for any number of pieces of software, and that doesn't mean that Windows and Mac aren't ready for consumers. For the rest, in my experience I hear no fewer complaints for why Windows and Macs won't play videos or upgrade correctly, etc. than for Linux. For some reason people have lower expectations of these massive companies; maybe a humility based on their size and marketing.
xigoi 2y ago
> How can I use Office? If you really need the one from Micro$oft, open it in the browser.

by tapoxi 2y ago

alamortsubite 2y ago

Those netbooks came out in 2008. I had one (fun toy). Chromebooks are OK, but Linux has come a long way in the last 16 years. All the Chromebooks I've bought for family members (ok, only two), the first thing I've done is installed Debian for them.

vorticalbox 2y ago

I'm running fedora atomic, you can also use toolbx or distrobox and install apps there and then export them if you are worried about flakpak.

throwaway71271 2y ago

Which ubuntu is that? I moved my gaming pc to ubuntu recently and everything has been amazing, even dist upgrade worked without bricking anything. My wife uses fedora on some super old alienware laptop from like 10 years ago and she is just fine with open office and etc, never had to give any support. Of course milage may vary, but my daughter is forced to use Windows from her school and I have to tell you I have to give One Drive support at least once per day, where "something" is not working properly, file is missing and etc. I use macos on my m1 laptop and its probably the best experience, the m1 is just rock solid, besides when I want to gdb -p into chrome and it doesnt let me without disabling the system's integrity protection.

pdimitar 2y ago
Well, part of what you said was probably not true back in 2012 (which is the date of the original article).
- throwaway71271 2y ago
  :) none of it was true in 2012, the dark times of the linux desktop.. but I was replying to the gp not the article, and assumed they put recent ubuntu on the netbook

matteoraso 2y ago

>It is not a seamless experience for your average Mac or Windows user. Maybe not in 2012, but Windows 11 is such a disaster that I firmly believe that Linux is now the user-friendly option between the two. The only problem is that on rare occasions, you do need to debug some very frustrating issues. It's a tradeoff between having an OS that works well 99% or an OS that's never quite right 100% of the time.

number6 2y ago
> The only problem is that on rare occasions, you do need to debug some very frustrating issues. Why are all my links opening in Edge? Didn't I deinstall it? What is Candy Crush?

kube-system 2y ago

Yeah, Ubuntu is fine if someone is using a browser and that's about it. When they start interacting with other software or services that expect them to be on Windows/Mac, that's when the problems start. For instance: your family member comes home from the store with a boxed copy of TurboTax expecting it to work on their computer.

alamortsubite 2y ago
TIL you can still buy a desktop version of TurboTax.
- kube-system 2y ago
  I see them at some aisle end-cap in just about every big box store January through March.

afavour 2y ago

Yeah, IMO the biggest competition here is ChromeOS. My dad's old laptop was really starting to creak with whatever version of Windows it had and he said he was going to buy a new one. I suggested instead I do an experiment and install ChromeOS Flex on it. He's been over the moon with it since and after a few initial questions hasn't been confused by a single aspect of it.

pessimizer 2y ago

> "How can I use Office? Why can't I play this video? What's this error in the software upgrade screen?" "How can I use Office?" is an unavoidable question, but it's like asking how you can play Super Mario Brothers on a Sega Master System. You can't, here's the replacement. Same process you'd have to go through when switching to a Mac from Windows or Windows to a Mac for any number of pieces of software, and that doesn't mean that Windows and Mac aren't ready for consumers. For the rest, in my experience I hear no fewer complaints for why Windows and Macs won't play videos or upgrade correctly, etc. than for Linux. For some reason people have lower expectations of these massive companies; maybe a humility based on their size and marketing.

xigoi 2y ago

> How can I use Office? If you really need the one from Micro$oft, open it in the browser.