@krisfreedain@linux
I started from Ubuntu in high school and it felt bloated. I moved to Void which was nice, but not really supported in general. I started recommending Fedora to beginners but started using Alpine as my daily driver. Don't think I will ever move from Alpine, but maybe I will recommend something other than Fedora in the future.
So far I’ve switched 4 people to Linux (with approval and interest obviously, plus unlimited tech support lol). 3 are happier with it than Windows and the other liked Linux but had to switch back to Windows due to some audio production software they needed.
It’s also secretly been an experiment to see what distro is the most user friendly. I have one on Linux Mint, one on Debian, and the other on Fedora Silverblue. All three have been great, but I think the winner is Silverblue so far. I don’t love how quick Silverblue versions become EoL, but it’s also the distro with the easiest updater. It’s an Apple level of simplicity; click update, restart at some point, done. No scary package lists or changelogs, just a nice blue button to press.
Also Flatpak + Flathub continues to be a huge contributor in making Linux friendly to normal people, in my opinion.
The issue I’ve run into is primarily compatibility with existing documents and being able to share it with other in industry. Like it or not, for business in the US, the office suite is pretty much the only document & spreadsheet application you can expect everyone to have.
It’s not fair to ask people who aren’t interested in learning linux to deal with the incompatibilities between Libre/Open office and O365 because “I don’t like Microsoft”. If they’re pushing to move away from MS and understand this, I’d still probably recommend LibreOffice over OpenOffice because moving someone from a well maintained industry standard Microsoft product to a less supported and less compatible Oracle app seems irresponsible.
Edit: The whole second paragraph is about OpenOffice and not OnlyOffice. Please disregard
I’ve got ZorinOS 17 running on a laptop I share with my partner. Her initial reaction was “what is this?” but now that she’s used to it, she’s been happy.
Silverblue looks quite interesting, I might give it a go in a VM. As long as it kinda looks like Windows it shouldn’t be too hard of a transition
I am fascinated by your user friendliness experiment and I often daydream about conducting one myself. I would be interested in reading a more detailed write-up of the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
For Debian, did you consider setting up unattended upgrades?
Would you consider adding an RHEL/CentOS derivative such as AlmaLinux to the mix? The current version of AlmaLinux is supposed to be supported until 2032. The EPEL repository brings the software selection a little bit closer to Fedora.
I’d also consider CentOS Stream for desktop use, as it’s probably a good mix between Fedora and RHEL, being more stable than Fedora and more up-to-date than RHEL.
I love Linux and I think a lot of my non-technical family members would benefit from it, but I am not as brave as you. The danger with messing around with someone’s computer is that you are basically taking ownership of all tech problems the person may run into. It’s like the “You break it, you buy it” rule. The person may seek help from another tech geek, but as soon as that geek finds out they’re dealing with a “weird” Linux system, they’re going to run away from it. You are effectively volunteering to be 24x7 on-call tech support for the people whose laptops you’ve installed Linux on.
That’s a gatekeeper-y take. I tried Linux a few years back, so I guess I became a “real” tech geek a few years ago. Never mind the fact that I was 3/4 the way through a CS degree, I’d built my own computer, and was the go-to tech guy in my family. But nope, not yet a tech geek.
Yeah, I’m not sure what OP is on about or how they get away with it. I’d get phone calls for how to use outlook and MS word. I’m fortunate to have a fairly tech literate grandma, but she is old, which means set in her ways. She probably could use Linux, but she would not see the point in putting in the effort to switch habits.
If you use modern and painless distro.models. I had a Fedora Atomic bug and the alternative was literally just rebasing to the same OS but automatically the same version and it worked.
This brings back really bad memories…and this is why I refuse to help others when it comes to IT stuff. The last thing I wanted to read was what I used to do in the past to gain others approval, and how it never worked.
I used to think that helping my other dumb grad mates with installing Linux made me look cool and I would be accepted. On the contrary, I looked like an idiot, now that I think of it. i became that weirdo support tech kid for the idiot professors, who could not tell the difference between Java and Javascript.
I only help my “internet” friends now. At least they don’t treat you like shit.
I used to think that helping my other dumb grad mates with installing Linux made me look cool and I would be accepted. On the contrary, I looked like an idiot, now that I think of it. i became that weirdo support tech kid for the idiot professors, who could not tell the difference between Java and Javascript.
I guess the worst part is that people will eventually take advantage of you… and demand for more and more hours of your free support, hold whatever you installed against you like “after you did X… Y stopped working” etc. At the end of the day if you’re proving free support it must be easy, quick why wouldn’t they ask for more.
In their heads your efforts / help doesn’t provide any value and if by any chance one day they are in a situation where you could bill them or someone for tech support they would rather call any other random tech support guy or company instead of calling you - after all they’re looking for a “professional” now :)
It really depends on who is being helped and the motive for you “helping” them. I’ve had both really good and pretty bad experiences helping and trying to help people with various computer things. As with providing any kind of support, it’s important to get out of your own head and understand what the person your helping wants and needs
As with providing any kind of support, it’s important to get out of your own head and understand what the person your helping wants and needs
Yes because someone that uses MS Word 6-8 hours a day certainly doesn’t want to use Linux and have compatibility issues while sharing documents with others who do the same.
Both of my parents heavily use O365 and I have to fight the urge to suggest linux every time they complain about automatic updates or weird microsoft integrations.
Part of me really wants to try Fedora or Mint for them instead of the incoming windows 11 update, but it’s such a bad fit
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