Linux is great for people that are on HN etc because they're techies, but in my experience most normies struggle to cope with Linux.

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jetin 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There is also a whole population category that isn’t capable of differentiating Windows from Linux. Just yesterday I was showing something on Zorin OS to my father and I had to explain to him that I was not using Windows 10 like he is at home. As long as the web browser is working and he can use his printer, a desktop is a desktop and icons are icons that can be clicked. Any other operation will be written on paper in a step by step well phrased manner. OS choice doesn’t matter for him, he will always struggle so making him switch to Linux won’t change a thing of his experience.

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adrian_b 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's right.

My parents, being much over 80 years old, have been using for many years Linux, more precisely Gentoo Linux, but they have no idea what "Linux" is.

Obviously, I have installed all software on their computers and I have kept it up to date.

However, after that, they have just used the computers for reading and editing documents or e-mail messages, for browsing the Internet, for watching movies or listening music, much the same as they would have done with any other operating system. When they had a more unusual need, I had to search and install an appropriate program and teach them how to use it.

They had the advantage of having a "consultant" to solve any problem, but none of the problems that they have encountered were problems that they would not also encounter on Windows. Actually on Linux when you have a problem, you can be pretty certain that someone competent can find a solution, in the worst case by reading the source code, when other better documentation does not exist. On Windows, I have encountered far worse problems than on Linux, when whole IT support departments scratched their heads and could not understand what is happening, for weeks, and sometimes forever.

By far the main advantage of Windows over Linux in ease of use is that it comes preinstalled on most computers. I have installed Windows professionally and it frequently has been far more difficult than installing Linux on the same hardware, but normal people are shielded from such experiences.

Most modern Linux distributions have one great advantage in ease of use over Windows: the software package manager. Whenever you need some application, you just search an appropriate package and you install it quickly and freely. Such package managers for free software have existed many decades before app stores (e.g. FreeBSD already had one more than 30 years ago) and they remain better than any app store, by not requiring any invasive account for their use, or mandatory payments.

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skeeter2020 5 hours ago | parent [-]

>> They had the advantage of having a "consultant" to solve any problem, but none of the problems that they have encountered were problems that they would not also encounter on Windows.

I drew a hard "no family tech support" line decades ago, and the difference then is that they can at least find a Windows tech-support consultant. What happens if an octogenarian phones Geek Squad and says they're running Variant <X> of Linux?

	▲	Telaneo 30 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> What happens if an octogenarian phones Geek Squad and says they're running Variant <X> of Linux? Geek Squad: 'Sorry, we don't support that.' Grandma: 'Well, what can you do to help me then?' Geek Squad: 'We can set you up with a new computer. That'll be $Cost-of-new-computer plus $Cost-of-X-hours-of-setup.' Grandma (possibility number 1): 'Alright, guess I don't have much choice, and you're the expert.' Grandma (possibility number 2): 'No thanks. I'll use my phone instead.'
	▲	hansvm 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> Geek Squad Man, they've really screwed up all the settings. I've never seen Windows 11 look like this. A clean reinstall ought to fix it.

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zahlman 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

IMX people often care more about which web browser is installed than which OS.

	▲	nephihaha 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, very true. Lost count of the number of people who moan about ads on YouTube but don't seem to know how they can get rid of them without paying for Premium. I hate all the Google and Microsoft worship out there. They just have market dominance, they're not our friends.

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vander_elst 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Any other operation will be written on paper in a step by step well phrased manner.

Same exact experience, I cannot get my parents to think about what they are doing, they just follow the steps; if an icon changes or if the button is in a different place the whole workflow stops until I help them. Any suggestions here on how to improve the approach?

	▲	nephihaha 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Avoid jargon/technical language, show practical steps and tell them what to avoid doing on the new system. (Last bit is important. I like to play around with new things to get to know them, but you need to avoid anything which crashes the system, erases etc.)

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viraptor 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You'll see a number of stories where this is not the case. I moved my gf to Linux ~2 decades ago instead of upgrading a laptop. She never had issues I had to deal with after that.