I’m looking for recommendations.
I have run Linux on my own computers off and on for the last 10 years. I’m not an advanced user, but I’m comfortable enough playing around with different distros and settings to find a good fit for myself and my own devices, and problem-solve as needed.
But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member’s computer to Linux. This device is only used by people whose attitude toward computers is “if it doesn’t just work, it’s too hard and I can’t engage”. So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won’t be accidentally broken by the users. As well as not being too steep of a learning curve for Windows users. (Their needs are uncomplicated - mostly just LibreOffice and Firefox, both of which they already use.)
Mint is often recommended for inexperienced Windows refugees. But I’ve had several things break in the process of getting Mint installed and updated on this machine. That wouldn’t be an issue if it were my own computer, but it’s not filling me with confidence that this is going to meet the ongoing “just works” requirement for this device. There’s no way I’m going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.
Which other distros would you recommend for this use case?
Thanks in advance.
But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member’s computer to Linux.
Why?
Did they ask for Linux? Do you have authority over them?
So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won’t be accidentally broken by the users. … There’s no way I’m going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.
Issues appear. I would be more focused on setting up remote access than choosing a distro.
I’d choose something LTS that has been around for a while (Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL-derivatives, SuSE if there’s a freely-available LTS, etc.).
If you are not against the use of Google products, ChromeOS devices are about the best well-designed low maintenance operating systems. (Not Flex, a ChromeOS device.) But you would be sacrificing Firefox and LibreOffice, which might not be an option. (And technically, it’s running a Linux kernel, if I remember correctly.)
Any one of the uBlue projects is perfect for this use case.
KDE: https://getaurora.dev/
Gnome: https://projectbluefin.io/
Gaming: https://bazzite.gg/Install and setup once, run forever. Immutable so impossible to break for a tech illiterate user, no package upgrades fuck-ups because updates are atomic and don’t touch the currently running system, are done in the background and are completely invisible for the user, great hardware support, based on Fedora. Users can only install Flatpaks through the App Store.
The only “maintenance” needed is a weekly reboot to move to the latest OS image.
As a personal feedback, I moved my gadget enthusiast but tech illiterate father on Bluefin. He can ruin a Mac in less than a few months. He can generate undocumented bugs on iOS by his mere presence. But somehow, Bluefin is still running perfectly after a year. That’s how robust it is.
Since tech illiterate people don’t really care what’s under the hood as long as it works, I would choose anything with Cinnamon desktop: Gnome is a little alien for newcomers, KDE and XFCE are far too easy to screw up if you don’t know what you’re doing.
If Mint doesn’t work well with you I would suggest either LMDE, stock Debian or the Fedora Cinnamon spin (in this order of priority)I would love if there was an atomic Cinnamon spin. Fedoras Atomic Budgie version gets close but I think I still prefer god old Mint Cinnamon. There is hardly stuff that to simply break anyhow.
Yeah I have zero experience with atomic distros so I don’t feel like suggesting those, but I have seen good comments in this thread about those as well
These days I just install Aurora Linux for this kind of situations. It’s exactly how you described it. Haven’t heard complains about it yet and their tech service needs from me almost dropped to zero.
If you(they) don’t mind having outdated software Debian stable might be worth looking into. Otherwise there are immutable distros which are very hard to fuck up, and even if you do there is the option to rollback to the previous version. I’d recommend Aurora or Fedora (fedora doesn’t include some proprietary stuff like some codecs so if you need that it’s probably better to use Aurora).
Linux Mint also has a version based on Debian stable, LMDE, which is could also be an option. It’s not as stable as Debian as it adds its own stuff but has the out of the box experience.
As general advice I’d suggest using less packages and more flatpaks as a faulty flatpak update can only break that flatpak, not your system. For packages be sure to disable online updates, meaning you have to reboot to apply them. This isn’t as convenient but if stability is that important to you I’d go for it
Just go with Aurora (or Bluefin), that’s the way to go for tech illiterates. Most of these recommendations are 5 years out of date, like why recommend Ubuntu or Zorin, when those are almost the same as Mint.
Debian Stable. Get it installed, get everything working right and configured the way this person likes it on a reasonable DE with default themes, and more likely than not, you won’t have to touch this thing for years.
The setup’s not necessarily for noobs, but if you’re the one doing the setup, you should be able to get it into a place where it will pretty much never break for them.
You should probably give them KDE or GNOME (probably KDE, as it’s more Windows-like and less my way or the highway than Gnome). As much as I love XFCE, it’s probably a good idea to give a layman a feature-heavy DE so that nothing is likely to be missing; also, it’s way too easy to accidentally delete panel items or entire panels on accident and a little annoying to restore things back to the way they were. KDE’s panels implementation mitigates these issues.
I’m currently playing around with Debian on an old laptop of mine. If I can get the setup to a place where it feels sufficient for me to take my hands off, it could be the answer for this other computer.
(Thanks for DE recommendations. It does my head in trying to keep straight which ones are suited to which uses.)
I’ve had several things break in the process of getting Mint installed and updated on this machine
Like what? That doesn’t inspire confidence in the PC itself.
There were some broken package dependencies which I had to fix manually (a non-issue on my own device; a major red flag for this device). And after one set of updates, it needed about three tries to boot successfully (requiring hopping into recovery mode to smooth out the wrinkle - again, a non-issue if it were my own device, but…).
As best I can tell at the moment, it’s working fine with Mint installed. My concern is what happens next time something is updated or installed and I’m not there to resolve an issue.
TBH once Mint’s up & running and all those updates / dependencies are sorted.out, I’ve not had a problem with it.
I’m supporting a couple of people that don’t do updates, so it just stays static until I get there… when we arrive (ie for a weekend) I’ll do a full backup whilst we’re all catching up and then at some point I’ll do a full update and make sure it’s working again well before we leave.
Agree with the other point on enabling remote access - and also setup something (ie syncthing) to get their data somewhere else.
Maybe something immutable, then. Solid updates, easy rollback.
What do you do when Windows crashes and you’re not there?
98% of the time when they’ve had a problem with Windows, they just needed to restart the computer. (It has been impossible to convince them that computers need a full shutdown periodically, and Windows doesn’t cope with ‘always on’.)
When it’s something more than that, they either have to find someone closer to help or wait until we visit. Doing tech support long-distance for people who can’t adequately describe the problem is a losing game.
Whatever you setup, also do a reverse ssh connection back to a PC of yours and forward ports for SSH and VNC-or-similar to local ports on your PC.
That way if it still boots you’ve got a way to fix it remotely and with reverse ssh they don’t have to do anything with port forwarding on their end.
Linux Mint
Zorin OS
I had Zorin on my own computer for a while and really liked it, but it was crashing every few days and I decided I didn’t want to put up with that. I’ll give it another try one of these days - the issue may have been resolved, or my hardware my be different by then. But I won’t use it on a computer whose user can’t do their own tech support.
This has become my go to OS for less technical users. I’ve even had a couple go for the Pro version so they could get the pre configured macOS like desktop.
Maybe SpiralLinux? It’s basically just Debian with a few twealks, but the btrfs+Snapper might come in handy if/when you need to do tech support.
Ubuntu is a commercially supported os. That is my bar for recommending an OS to someone.
Then Mint is Ubuntu refined for technophobe or people too busy to mess with their OS, plus perfect ability to reuse all Ubuntu targeted software and skills.
Hannah Montana Linux
Lol…I was curious if HML was still going, so I looked it up…
TL;DR: It’s not: Hannah Montana Linux in 2025
But RebbecaBlackOS still is.
The typical recommendation in this case is Debian.
I don’t know how hard it is to install since I don’t use it myself. There are a lot of people swearing by it’s stability, even running it for 10+ years on the same hardware without a reinstall.I’ve always found the installation process of Debian unintuitive for people not used to linux. But I could imagine that it’s probably abreally good contender once the packages are installed and the DE setup with any necessary extensions for file browsers and other programs, for example preview of files in Nautilus for GNOME. Unsure if that is automatically installed or not in Debian but could be a good idea to check.
I’d suggest trying a test install in a VM if you can to check how well Debian will hold after configuration. Package updates for my Debian servers happens every once or so week and with a DEs GUI package manager it could simplify the process of the user actually hitting the update button.
If you want your updates automatically, you can install
unattended-upgrades
