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this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2024
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I would much rather have them on Linux. The thing with OSX is that the UI works very differently from Windows. Going between KDE and Windows is very similar, but I still don't know how to use OSX
As long as you are available to be on-call to fix literally all of their support issues:-). That's an old joke, back from the time people used to have "printers", and so like on a Windows and Mac machine adding a new peripheral is trivially easy whereas to install a new printer/scanner/whatever on a Linux machine, even if it is as simple "apt get whatever" can be quite intimidating to elderly people (tbf the OP does say "parent" and not "grandparent", but I was thinking both).
Anyway, that's a good point that I have no fully thought through yet:-).
I think you may be misremembering some osx fun with cups in the past, just like with Linux. Honestly most activities for the older folks these days is mobile or web based, the tech support needs for them is about the same regardless of OS imo.
Back when I did solo IT work (a good 20+ years ago now), the questions were pretty much the same no matter what was being used too, though the Linux desktops at the time were usually focused on specialty hardware (so the dot matrix they were connecting to was about as easy as it could get).
At the time though, macs were getting popular again, even among folks like me who appreciated Darwin and thought OSX would lean more heavily into open source rather than the outright thievery they ended up doing, but that part is neither here nor there.
I'd say back then it was maybe 65/25/10 split of windows/osx/linux (usually redhat there, and two machines with slack), but the questions were mostly the same. And no matter what OS it was, it usually became a request for me to just do it for them on my next trip over.
If anything, aside from specific bits of software that may be unique to an industry and someone actively working, which OS has gotten far, far, far less important than it used to be.
Boomers in particular are known for extremely often falling into the trap of "ask not what I can do for you but what I can get out of you", so yeah, that makes sense. And when it comes to a personal desktop I actually get it b/c while you may be busy with work + kids & having a real life where you touch grass, and then something doesn't work, at that point it's less of a choice to have to spend hours trying to find why this driver doesn't work with your hardware, and what older dependencies you are not meeting, so you have to roll backwards and then set up multiple concurrent installations of whatever e.g. Python and then change EVERYTHING to either use one or the other by default... it's exhausting.
Which as a "hobby" is fine (is it thogh...?:-P), but if you were simply trying to look at pics of your newest grandkids or something, is standing in the way of the real fun that you want to be having instead.
And using computers - and software - is literally a shittier experience today than it used to be, where even the major vendors (Google, Microsoft, etc.) don't walk you through what you need to do in order to get some particular setting applied or working right. For some reason they cannot be bothered to always put onto their tech pages tiny little details like what version of the software a tidbit of advice is meant for, or what I would want would be to see all of the versions collated together on the same page. It's too much work to keep up, therefore they simply don't. And average people just give up in frustration.
Therefore fwiw I like Macs b/c you need that support far less on one of those, where it truly does "just work", far more often than Linux, yet doesn't have literal ads in the Start Bar like Windows.
I don't know if I can agree on that, I personally find osx frustrating even today with how little control users are provided with, but I've also been a Linux user for far longer than just about anything else.
Still though, I do put OSX above Windows these days - purely based on software, not their hardware/price - for being easier than windows.
With package managers and stable desktop solutions (Debian for example), I think it's easier now than ever to ditch the proprietary and have a better experience.overall as a user.