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.
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.
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.
That sounds like a great combo
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.
400+ installs in the past four years - discarded/donated business laptops that get fixed, cleaned, upgraded with cheapest SSDs and donated to predominantly tech illiterate users.
99% is ubuntu lts + ansible playbook that removes snap, disables A TON of update naggings, installs flatpak, coupla apps and systemd timer to autoupdate all flatpaks. this is the only thing that has low support requests, everything else we tried (mint, debian, fedora) has a disproportionately higher support request frequency (reinstalls, wifi, fix this, remove that, etc).
I totally could adapt debian to be as good or even better (fedora with the bi-annual versions is right out), but one of the important caveats is the user being able to install it with minimum hassle if needed and that just would not be doable.
I’d urge everyone ITT to look at the thing through the user’s eyes and not get lost in “no true scottsman” fallacies. the goal is to convert a user over, not to demonstrate how cool you are. once they know what’s what, you can sell them on fedora and atomic and whatnot, but not as a first step.
I don’t use ubuntu, have it on none of my stuff, and wouldn’t go out with you if you do. but it’s presently the only option for beginners for use on laptops that has a semblance of a modern desktop OS.
99% is ubuntu lts + ansible playbook that removes snap, disables A TON of update naggings, installs flatpak, coupla apps and systemd timer to autoupdate all flatpaks
Is this public?
I’m starting to learn Ansible for pretty much this exact purpose. I’ve got a bunch of bash scripts that do this but hoping to switch. Would you be willing to share those playbooks or at least some resources you used?
can’t give the thing out as-is, there’s a buncha stuff in there pertaining to our infra. restructuring and refactoring it (the thing doesn’t even use roles, just a gargantuan yml file with tasks) is long overdue and I thought your query would be the thing that pushes me over the line to finally do it, but after an hour with it I gave up it’s just too big of a mess.
I had the same path as you, was irritated that maintaining idempotency of the existing bash scripts was such a huge task, so started piece by piece, one task, test, add another, etc. mainly by following jeff geerling’s guides and then venturing out on my own by reading the official docs. tried utilizing bullshitgpt on a coupla occasions, but the thing constantly made up shit that doesn’t exist costing me time I ain’t got, so I gave up on it.
I figured that would be the case but also thought it was worth asking. I appreciate the effort and the info and I’ll try to start with good practices (like roles, didn’t know about those).
I installed Zorin OS on two family laptops today. Hope it works out. They also run Ubuntu Cinnamon on another one and I was amazed to see a crusty 2005 laptop I’d last booted to install Debian on in 2018 start up for the first time in 7 years just fine. The thing just bloody worked, no drama.
zorin woulda been a solid contender if it weren’t for the crew involved and its murky path forward. but as a first, “see it ain’t that bad” step, sure.
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.
Mint.
Linux users tend to forget that using Konsole even once is overwhelming for even “seasoned PC users”
My roommate is a gamer, spends lots of time on PC´s and knows his shit. But he felt overwhelmed with the CachyOS Laptop i gifted him.
My mother-in-law has been using mint for close to ten years.
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.
Linux mint. the go to linux distribution for recovering windows users.
They get Windows because I’m not being paid to support their setup
I don’t either, but there are many in my family and friends I will gladly support.
Pay or be punished ;)
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.
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 use Kubuntu for that. Works good, is reliable, and uses Plasma instead of Gnome. The KDE Plasma environment is way easier to “get” for people coming from Windows than Gnome.
Mint or Fedora would be my first choices. I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed for my own computers but I think those others are better for people new to Linux. In my experience Fedora does a good job of combining up-to-dateness and stability. Mint is less up to date, but close enough to Ubuntu and Debian that loads of the help materials out there will apply to it.
I don’t know, my family are really, really not into that. And my dad was an IT guy, he taught me about Linux when I was 10. But now he becomes so burnt out and start to turn back to windows because there are too many compatibility issues (that’s what he said, honestly my mind was blown at how he handles it ten years ago but not able to do it now when the compatibility has significantly improved. And he is an IT guy which is the craziest thing because I’m a f*cking mechanical engineer and that huge obstacle did not stop me from dual booting). But if he finally decides to give Linux desktop a chance again I would recommend EndeavourOS+KDE…
ZorinOS
Came to say this. Has not failed me yet.
Hard to go wrong with Linux Mint as a first or last timer.
