this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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I question who these imaginary windows users are.
I set up Windows for my parents. The biggest challenges is them not not knowing how to log into their email. Every 2-3 years, I move their stuff to the cloud and throw in a fresh Windows. Did that for 15 years. Not once did I have to mess with any weird settings for them.
During the pandemic, hating windows 11, I switched them over to linux. Every month, there's a new problem. Audio stopped working. Had some DNS issues (that required me to zoom call my brother) They did some weird things where they downloaded two Google chromes (?). I'd have to run updates manually because I don't trust them to open up terminal.
Already Linux for my parents requires more support than anything else.
I still plan to keep encouraging them to use Linux, because I really don't like the new WIn11 updates.
Your parents have root or what?
It's probably best to use an immutable distro like NixOs or Fedore SilverBlue when installing for people who don't know Linux and don't want to learn
Honestly the worst part about Windows is the fact that sometimes it will restart to install updates through the night, closing everything you had opened. The preinstalled garbage is also annoying, but can be uninstalled easily.
Outside that, it honestly just works. It's great for old people.
My experience has been the same as yours. Trying to get WiFi, Audio, webcam, bluetooth, GPU, etc. working on a Linux distro is a nightmare. Then when you get it working somewhat, it'll just be randomly borked the next time you boot your system. Requiring another 5 hours and 600 tabs of research to figure out what you did to fix it the first time.
Edge begs to differ
My mom barely uses desktop anymore. Everything on iPad essentially. I'm chuckling thinking of what she'd do to me if I tried to migrate her to linux.
Different people's experiences are different. My Linux installs are stable. My Windows installs are garbage.
Which distro are you using? For what you describe, it should be something like Pop! OS or Ubuntu.
For real. I spend a lot less time supporting my Ubuntu users than Windows users. I push them into Ubuntu not for ideological or moral reasons but to save my hair. I keep saying Ubuntu because I mean it. Some folks picture Arch or some other non-boring OS when people say Linux and that would be counterproductive in this context.
Read the following in a super friendly tone.
Sounds like you might be one of these Windows users. 😁 Most Linux users I know, who have managed to kick the Windows reinstall habit, install Linux at the time of hardware purchase and never reinstall. It's a robust habit taught to us by Microsoft's not-that-great software combined with lax documentation. Personally I'm on Linux since 2005 and only managed to kick the habit around 2012. My current main machine I built in 2014. Installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on it and it's just been upgraded ever since. It got switched from Intel to AMD half way through. Its SSD setup changed from SATA to NVMe, then NVMe MDRAID. Several graphics cards replacements. Zero reinatalls. A friend of mine has an Ubuntu install that dates to 10.04. The better you understand how the system works, the more pointless it becomes to nuke and pave.
Sounds like an administration issue. Ubuntu LTS with unattended upgrades and without sudo membership for their users wouldn't run into surprising breakage, update problems or unwanted installed software. Or Debian stable for that matter but that's more work to setup.