40
Best remote control option to support non-techies
(sopuli.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
40 points (97.6% liked)
Linux
62524 readers
218 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Thanks for your post.
IMHO Windows is getting harder to use with every update. Context and start menus are changing, you get annoyed by One Drive, asked to use a Microsoft account for everything, suddenly stuff like Notepad has Copilot integration, suddenly links open in Edge instead of your default browser and you're confused that your bookmarks are gone etc. Apart from that, hacks to install Windows 11 on non-supported hardware might work fine today, but may break with every next update.
I moved my mum to Linux Mint one year ago and so far didn't have issues or complaints. In fact she's super happy with the Solitaire game as it does have way more play modes while not having any annoying advertisements. She's using Firefox and LibreOffice which she already had on Windows before. It was less of a deal for her than a new Android major release on her phone.
But my mom is living much closer to me. In worst case I can fix any issue in person. Unlike these other relatives. There I need some kind of support access for troubleshooting.
I'm not denying windows 11 is a huge pile of crap. It's absolutely terrible and not designed for the user. Totally agree with all that.
But there are no hacks required to install it on old hardware. You just have to do a fresh install. If you want to upgrade from 10 to 11 then I agree you need to edit the registry which you could consider a hack, although very basic.
In fact there are less hacks required to install / upgrade to windows 11 then there are to install any Linux distro.
Also your point about risk and non supported hardware is not correct. Microsoft don't support any hardware. They provide an os and updates, and any device with a genuine copy of windows will receive all and any updates, and it won't just randomly stop working. Windows is just an os. As long as it is compiled for the correct CPU architecture, it is just as supported as any other hardware. The hardware is supported by individual drivers, normally provided by the hardware manufacturer, not Microsoft.
All my point is don't push the change on people, give them a fair and informed choice.
I think to make an informed choice you need a certain understanding of what an operating system is at all and what might be differences etc. I'm talking about people who are afraid that their emails disappear from the webmailer if they buy a new laptop.
From my experience it's important that, after booting the PC, they immediately find the 1-x icons on the desktop to open the browser etc. Within the browser they need bookmarks to find webmail, banking etc.
They won't try to install new software, enter commands in the terminal or tweak around with the settings.
But to calm you down a bit: if they really don't like it, they can stick with Windows. ;)
I don't know how recent your experience is with installing Linux, but there are no "hacks" required, haven't been for many years. In 99.5% of cases everything just works, including sleep & suspend. This is just incredibly outdated or just plain bad advice. There is no tech-savvy-ness needed to use it either.
I've installed it for as tech illiterate people as you can imagine and told them "just use it like you have before". They had a few questions where the answer would usually be "well what did you do before", told em to try and that was that. I personally found the PCs to feel faster, but that's my own comment, not theirs. I don't think they noticed.
Yes there are.
If you used rufus or ventoy, you've just applied them without knowing.
Unmodified Windows 11 ISOs will refuse to install on any hardware with a CPU older than Ryzen 3000 or Intel 8000.
What?
On the vast majority of systems, the vast majority of linux distros will install and run with zero "hacks" of any kind. Literally just boot the ISO as-is and have at it.
No. On many machines, while windows will install just fine due to the modifications to the installer applied by rufus/ventoy, the yearly major version updates can fail catastrophically.
A lot of hardware will update without issue, but there ABSOLUTELY is risk.
You are confusing functional, and supported.
Something can "technically still work" without being officially supported.
Not being supported means Microsoft can make breaking changes in updates, because they made no promises your hardware would be accounted for in the future.
Just because it works today, no longer means it will tomorrow.