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 had some good rate of satisfaction (anecdotal empirical and personal) with Silverblue. Good support for UKI + Secure Boot + TPM2 + SELinux. All of that transparent to end user, and we can roll back stuff quite easy with the Atomic philosophy.
Those were experiments conducted on Lenovo and Dell laptops that have good Linux support with continuous firmware updates via fwupd.
Personally, I use Arch, btw. Not a big fan on the relation of companies with distros.
Mint xfce
I don’t know, my family are really, really not into that. And my dad was an IT guy, he taught me about Linux when I was 10. But now he becomes so burnt out and start to turn back to windows because there are too many compatibility issues (that’s what he said, honestly my mind was blown at how he handles it ten years ago but not able to do it now when the compatibility has significantly improved. And he is an IT guy which is the craziest thing because I’m a f*cking mechanical engineer and that huge obstacle did not stop me from dual booting). But if he finally decides to give Linux desktop a chance again I would recommend EndeavourOS+KDE…
You know i always keep that thang (a ventoy thumb drive with Manjaro w/ Xfce, KDE plasma, and Gnome) on me. I find that DE is what matters most to new linux convertees, since its so visible. I also like the add/remove software with gui; command line stuff is eventually gonna come up, but letting them have something to look at is critical to start.
If they are coming from Windows: Kinoite
If they are coming from Macintosh: Silverblue
Linux mint. the go to linux distribution for recovering windows users.
U mean converting?
WIndows 7
One because as soon I touch a family computer I own it and I have zero desire to remotely figure out their problems
Mint or Pardus. Mint’s interface is very familiar to someone who has used Windows, and most people doesn’t find it much different while using it.
Pardus is a country specific choice because some people really need Turkish support to its full extent. Pardus offers direct support lines and host a dedicated forum where people can troubleshoot their issues using Turkish.
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.
For somethings, it makes it harder to install so being immutable sometimes adds an extra hurdle. But for the type of people who wouldn’t install the OS themselves, they aren’t going to try those methods anyways and if they did, they wouldn’t know enough to not break things. So this is what I was thinking.
OTOH, it makes it harder to get find answers since its less popular than the parent OS’s and fedora instructions often don’t apply, so if they ever do get interested in learning more it could be a hurdle. But they’re just gonna ask me to deal with it, and I’m currently using bazzite (+ windows dual-boot for work stuff).
You’re grossly overestimating the amount of people who want to explore around with distros and advanced stuff. The overwhelming majority of every computer user wants to browse the internet, play games, and store their files. For the average person, one can install an immutable distro (for them) and leave them to use their computer.
Yeahh java is a pain in the ass to get setup on bazzite without breaking stuff when you have an os update. I spun a fedora vm up and just installed it there but I need to redo that because the program I need java for is on my main os and I can’t move the license without javing java installed on the main os…
How did you install it?
BTW, for these kinds of things toolbox is usually a good choiceOn the fedira ws vm, I just layered it because its easy. I tried running openjdk in distrobox on bazzite but I didn’t have time to screw around with getting the program (Tunerstudio MS) that is already on my bazzite install to “find” the java in distrobox. I’m also REALLY new to distrobox so I was probably using it wrong. I’ll checkout toolbox later today.
Oh it’s pretty much the same thing but IMO actually a little worse, so if you didn’t have luck with distrobox it’s either a limitation or a misconfiguration somewhere
Edit: what the heck is a MegaSquirt with a dedicated forum on msextra.com?? Lmao
Don’t worry it’s engine nerd shit, no one there is having any sex.
devuan. i don’t have much experience outside that and slackware, and devuan is mostly better for non techies.
Elementary on my wife’s, the rest of the family manages mostly. Outside family I now go to great lengths to avoid it. I just help them find the right distro and guides.
Otherwise some will see you as 1st 2nd and 3rd line support as well as hardware engineer from installation onward. Kind of the same as in the past when tv’s could be repaired. If they know you can do it, your done for. You have not stated working hours nor tariffs. And why pay for parts? You probably have boxes full of all kinds of stuff. (Including a demand to come over and fix stuff on xmas eve at 22:00)
I know, it sounds bitter, I’m not. Or …well over this point maybe a bit, I enjoyed helping out until too many saw it as a right and not a favour.
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.
They get what I have so when they have questions I’m more likely to know, and if I don’t I have a machine with me that I can check. It was Mint when I was still learning, now it’s Fedora Atomic. Or for the really tech-averse, ChromeOS Flex.
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).
I installed Zorin OS on two family laptops today. Hope it works out. They also run Ubuntu Cinnamon on another one and I was amazed to see a crusty 2005 laptop I’d last booted to install Debian on in 2018 start up for the first time in 7 years just fine. The thing just bloody worked, no drama.
