What distros do you install on your mom’s, sister’s, buddy’s, etc machines?
My go-to has usually been Mint, but I wonder if there is a better set and forget, easily understood distro to install on the computers of those who will rely on you for support.
atomic distros would probably be a good option, but it seems that same disk dual boot is a no no, and that can be a deal breaker.
I’m thinlink QoL, for me, that is.
I installed OpenSUSE Tumbleweed on 2 friend’s pcs.
One of them has moved to an iMac now (apple fanboy, was going to do that anyway, no convincing possible) though he did like linux more than windows.
The other dual-booted for a while and finally “booted” windows off of his pc last month. He’s pretty happy with it, too.
I avoid to.
The last time I did a fresh re-install of Windows for my mom (7 I think, years ago anyway), she came home all happy with a CD containing ”1500 games! Great value!”. I gave up at that point, after that my brothers have dealt with it.
Otherwise, when people want a recommendation (especially at work), I just say plain Ubuntu. Almost everything just works, the UI is simple enough to learn and there’s lots of help to be found online.
I use Kubuntu for that. Works good, is reliable, and uses Plasma instead of Gnome. The KDE Plasma environment is way easier to “get” for people coming from Windows than Gnome.
400+ installs in the past four years - discarded/donated business laptops that get fixed, cleaned, upgraded with cheapest SSDs and donated to predominantly tech illiterate users.
99% is ubuntu lts + ansible playbook that removes snap, disables A TON of update naggings, installs flatpak, coupla apps and systemd timer to autoupdate all flatpaks. this is the only thing that has low support requests, everything else we tried (mint, debian, fedora) has a disproportionately higher support request frequency (reinstalls, wifi, fix this, remove that, etc).
I totally could adapt debian to be as good or even better (fedora with the bi-annual versions is right out), but one of the important caveats is the user being able to install it with minimum hassle if needed and that just would not be doable.
I’d urge everyone ITT to look at the thing through the user’s eyes and not get lost in “no true scottsman” fallacies. the goal is to convert a user over, not to demonstrate how cool you are. once they know what’s what, you can sell them on fedora and atomic and whatnot, but not as a first step.
I don’t use ubuntu, have it on none of my stuff, and wouldn’t go out with you if you do. but it’s presently the only option for beginners for use on laptops that has a semblance of a modern desktop OS.
I’m starting to learn Ansible for pretty much this exact purpose. I’ve got a bunch of bash scripts that do this but hoping to switch. Would you be willing to share those playbooks or at least some resources you used?
can’t give the thing out as-is, there’s a buncha stuff in there pertaining to our infra. restructuring and refactoring it (the thing doesn’t even use roles, just a gargantuan yml file with tasks) is long overdue and I thought your query would be the thing that pushes me over the line to finally do it, but after an hour with it I gave up it’s just too big of a mess.
I had the same path as you, was irritated that maintaining idempotency of the existing bash scripts was such a huge task, so started piece by piece, one task, test, add another, etc. mainly by following jeff geerling’s guides and then venturing out on my own by reading the official docs. tried utilizing bullshitgpt on a coupla occasions, but the thing constantly made up shit that doesn’t exist costing me time I ain’t got, so I gave up on it.
I figured that would be the case but also thought it was worth asking. I appreciate the effort and the info and I’ll try to start with good practices (like roles, didn’t know about those).
Mint.
Linux users tend to forget that using Konsole even once is overwhelming for even “seasoned PC users”
My roommate is a gamer, spends lots of time on PC´s and knows his shit. But he felt overwhelmed with the CachyOS Laptop i gifted him.
It’s often a laptop, something us nerds wouldn’t buy generally speaking, so they tend to have hardware issues. So newer tends to be better. So plain old Fedora workstation with gnome. I pin their favorite programs to the dock, and show them the basics of the interface. I show them the software button and say they can install anything they want from there, and that they should do the updates that pop up from there.
Zero issues. Honestly does a better job than windows - things are more intuitive for the non tech savvy.
Edit: mint is pretty good too if it works. It’s one of those two systems.
Us nerds don’t buy laptops?
I interpreted it as a “non-nerd” laptop, like a lower end consumer model purchased at full price for example
Laptops like that tend to be more hit and miss on Linux than say a Thinkpad or Dell XPS
Yes, like this ;)
No no - not like that. Like crappy overpriced laptops. Like “I’m a piece of crap laptop masquerading as a good one and sold to people who don’t know better at a price way way way too high”.
Of course we have laptops :)
Indeed, wild statement if I ever heard one
👆
Linux mint. the go to linux distribution for recovering windows users.
U mean converting?
sure lmao
I don’t see much love for Debian Stable + KDE in this thread, but that’s what I installed for my wife and she absolutely loves it. Don’t underestimate the power of a “boring” but rock solid foundation specifically designed not to break. Users new to Linux migrating away from Windows often really appreciate that.
That sounds like a great combo
Bazzite. It’s immutable so you don’t need to even set anything up or configure things or go into the command line if you’re just doing regular computer things (web browsing, gaming, etc). Best experience on Linux I’ve ever had in 15 years.
I installed Mint on a newly acquired used Thinkpad for my mom, to get her used to it as her Macbook is showing signs of giving up. So far it was smooth sailing until one day the package system broke due to some conflicts (I had set up Signal via their PPA). I had already set up remote access so I could easily fix it for her in a matter of minutes, but she would never be able to fix it herself even though the instructions were clear. Other than this though, she enjoys it. But I still need to set up a couple of additional things, in particular file sync and some way of managing her photos.
They get Windows because I’m not being paid to support their setup
I don’t either, but there are many in my family and friends I will gladly support.
Pay or be punished ;)
I would go with Aurora or Fedora Kinoite. Atomic + KDE is unbreakable and easy for Windows casuals.
The only thing I dislike about Aurora is the illustrations baked into the distro. SDDM & Bazaar have them and can’t be changed. But it’s a freaking awesome distro.
I use it daily on my work laptop through an external USBC M2 NVME caddy. Today I had to move to a new work laptop and I just plugged it to the new one and that was it, my OS and all my stuff on my new work laptop in just a few seconds. No downtime. No drivers to update. Nothing.
The laptops have their factory Windows untouched. No warranty is void. IT is happy and I get to use Linux at work.
Plus, I can plug the drive to my home desktop PC running Bazzite and open files as if it was a regular thumbdrive.
This setup makes me so happy.
I sneak into my sysadmin’s office and install arch over his slackware install whenever he is out on PTO. I don’t think he knows yet who is doing it, but I am sure he secretly enjoys yelling at us while reinstalling.
To me it’s Zorin. It’s the easiest to use when you come from Windows
None… I tried with my Dad and even add some cool tools in additions (youtube dlp frontend). 2 days later he just reinstalled Windows on top because: “My USB audio dongle didn’t worked”.
Guess what? I didn’t either on Windows and was an external peripheral issue, not an OS/driver issue.
But he also said:" Too complicated for me" 🤦♂️
Linux mint debian edition.
