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 sneak into my sysadmin’s office and install arch over his slackware install whenever he is out on PTO. I don’t think he knows yet who is doing it, but I am sure he secretly enjoys yelling at us while reinstalling.
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 the we and 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.
Since I’m doing all the admin stuff anyways, I went with EndeavourOS. Arch, but on easy mode. I’ve even got my sister in the habit of updating regularly!
ZorinOS for closest match to Windows, for my gf who did not care for the OS as long as it didn’t change much of her day to day habits. I now use it myself, and despite a few minor issues and people pointing out that it’s quite out of date software, i’m very happy with it, even for audio/visual/gaming stuff that could be tricky.
I don’t see much love for Debian Stable + KDE in this thread, but that’s what I installed for my wife and she absolutely loves it. Don’t underestimate the power of a “boring” but rock solid foundation specifically designed not to break. Users new to Linux migrating away from Windows often really appreciate that.
Well you’ve given my answer for most scenarios these days.
I did do a bazzite setup for my BIL recently, but thats an edge case. Debian + KDE is what I run mostly too, so its not much of a surprise I’d use it for others either.
Guix.
My Dad wanted to switch to Linux because he always liked watching me use whatever distro I was on my machines at the time. So I started him out with Fedora and he didn’t really like it. he likes to tinker. He started out on DOS and the Commodore 64 back in the 80s. So I showed him my current setup on my main machine with NixOS. he liked it but I think the whole flake and configuration.nix went over his head. He liked how it worked, just really didn’t want to deal with all that. So I found a compromise for him. Guix.
He friggin loves it. Yes it’s slow, too slow for me, but he adores it. he has a system configuration setup but also different user profiles for himself and my mom. He loves that all he has to do is “guix install whatever” and that’s it. It’s not like he’s gaming or doing any dev work so for what he and my mom needs it’s perfect.
all that being said I would NOT recommend you start off new users to Guix. as I previously said, it’s slow, but it’s god damn simple.
I would go with Aurora or Fedora Kinoite. Atomic + KDE is unbreakable and easy for Windows casuals.
The only thing I dislike about Aurora is the illustrations baked into the distro. SDDM & Bazaar have them and can’t be changed. But it’s a freaking awesome distro.
I use it daily on my work laptop through an external USBC M2 NVME caddy. Today I had to move to a new work laptop and I just plugged it to the new one and that was it, my OS and all my stuff on my new work laptop in just a few seconds. No downtime. No drivers to update. Nothing.
The laptops have their factory Windows untouched. No warranty is void. IT is happy and I get to use Linux at work.
Plus, I can plug the drive to my home desktop PC running Bazzite and open files as if it was a regular thumbdrive.
This setup makes me so happy.
If they are coming from Windows: Kinoite
If they are coming from Macintosh: Silverblue
It’s often a laptop, something us nerds wouldn’t buy generally speaking, so they tend to have hardware issues. So newer tends to be better. So plain old Fedora workstation with gnome. I pin their favorite programs to the dock, and show them the basics of the interface. I show them the software button and say they can install anything they want from there, and that they should do the updates that pop up from there.
Zero issues. Honestly does a better job than windows - things are more intuitive for the non tech savvy.
Edit: mint is pretty good too if it works. It’s one of those two systems.
Us nerds don’t buy laptops?
I interpreted it as a “non-nerd” laptop, like a lower end consumer model purchased at full price for example
Laptops like that tend to be more hit and miss on Linux than say a Thinkpad or Dell XPS
Yes, like this ;)
No no - not like that. Like crappy overpriced laptops. Like “I’m a piece of crap laptop masquerading as a good one and sold to people who don’t know better at a price way way way too high”.
Of course we have laptops :)
Indeed, wild statement if I ever heard one
👆
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…
None… I tried with my Dad and even add some cool tools in additions (youtube dlp frontend). 2 days later he just reinstalled Windows on top because: “My USB audio dongle didn’t worked”.
Guess what? I didn’t either on Windows and was an external peripheral issue, not an OS/driver issue.
But he also said:" Too complicated for me" 🤦♂️
Linux mint debian edition.
Not entirely related but whenever I told my dad to “install Linux” he shrugged it off. Then I specifically started telling him to look into Linux Mint and sent him a link to the site and he was more intrigued.
Mint is a very good option for this purpose. In my case, it’s Debian, but with a much more involved process.
The only ones who ask me to help with installing Linux are either very close friends or people in my family with whom I spend more time, and they tend to be curious about the exact setup that I’m using. I just so happen to have a fully-configured system image in a VM that I duplicate onto my machines, so I work with my friend or family to figure out what they need and how they want it to look, then I clone that VM, customize it to taste, and let them try it out. If they like it, I image it to their machine, make sure it’s bootable, work out any machine-specific issues, set a new password and encryption key, and make sure that
unattended-upgradesis working.Everyone else just asks me to help install Windows. I have a penchant for LTSC, with an obligatory trick up my sleeve.
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.
They get Windows because I’m not being paid to support their setup
Pay or be punished ;)
I don’t either, but there are many in my family and friends I will gladly support.
