So basically, my dad doesn't have any tech literacy, like at all.
The only reason he learned how to ever use a computer was thanks to Linux (in my experience the elderly find it easier to use than Windows btw).
However, I moved to a different country long ago, and his old Ubuntu installation is getting extremely old. Not only that, but I forgot to install something like Rust Desk before I left, which means his browser etc hasn't been updated in years (he forgot how to do updates and lost the page with instructions).
So, my solution now that I know he needs an updated system is to send him a USB drive and detailed printed instructions on how to install it with pictures by mail.
I'm planning on sending him Linux Mint, because I wanted to use the OEM install option in order to pre-install some programs (freetube, signal, and especially Rust Desk) using it in a virtual machine, and then turn that into an iso/img that I could flash to a USB so that it's ready for him to just install once he gets it. I also need to be able to preemptively rename Rust Desk and change the icon to something he can easily identify so that if he needs help, he can easily find the program, ideally already pinned in the panel or with a desktop shortcut.
Problem is, I can't figure out how to do that. I've been trying for 3 days. I tried converting the vdi into a img file using qemu but that causes errors when trying to run the img or iso (I think it's still raw?). I even got desperate enough to try ChatGPT by it gave me a very advanced answer that I didn't understand that involved calculating memory, or to use Cubic (which can't modify Rustdesk), and it also gave me a solution that didn't work.
I also noticed that the vdi is much bigger than the initial mint iso - I guess because everything has been unpacked in the virtual machine. Shrinking it so it can fit in my spare 8gb drive would be the next step of I even made it that far.
So a lot of people here don't realize that any kind of transplant outside of a waiting list is considered a trafficked organ (excluding Iran). Or how cheap it is.
I had kidney failure for many years (btw, being young doesn't help with wait times except unless maybe if you're a kid in some cases).
At some point after some years, my dad (who still has a Facebook) started asking for help for a kidney donor (for the swap program thing, basically you donate to someone else on a chain), and immediately started getting messages from people in places like the Philippines "willing" to sell their kidneys. In quotations because you never know how willing they actually are, and even if not under direct pressure, I'd say extreme poverty is still a forceful pressure.
Regardless, the prices they were asking for? Between 5-15k$.
You'd think it would cost more than a used car, but apparently not. I scolded him for even thinking about it - explained that just because you can live with 1 kidney, you're still more prone to kidney failure yourself now.
I ended up on dialysis for a little over 8 years and essentially lost my 20s to that, but at least when I finally got a transplant I didn't have to deal with any guilt (came from someone who was braindead - wear your dang bicycle helmets people).
And I'm glad I never even considered that offer - apparently I was destined to get an aggressive cancer after a kidney transplant because I'm part of a very rare estimated 5% of the world population never exposed to an extremely common virus (Epstein-Barr). That cancer would likely not have been caught by an overseas doctor who is doing shady surgeries, and I'd be dead anyways.
So maybe karma does exist (in the psychological/outcome sense at least). I got the good karma and Steve Jobs got the dumbass karma (look up the details of his liver transplant and death. I want to point out, he must've been a true asshole to not have a willing live donor for a liver transplant, as it's actually the easiest of them all to get).