Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Linux and your family (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by Tekkip20@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

70 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Greetings, I am asking whether Linux has helped your family or not going from Windows to a friendly distribution that caters to young or elderly.

How was your experience with helping relatives or your kids with Linux? Was it because of an older spec machine? Costs etc?

I helped get my grandmother (dad's side) to move from windows 8.1 to Linux Mint which so far has been good, she only really browses and required some basic budgeting apps.

This was on something like an older core i3 or i5 but I didn't hear that many problems apart from getting drivers for her Epson printer to work.

So how has it been for you?

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[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago

Both parents are on openSUSE KDE. They only use the web browser and printer, so it pretty much doesn't matter what UI they use, but it really helped with their acceptance that KDE not only works similar to Windows, it was a clear upgrade from Windows 7, with it looking more modern and being a lot faster.

I also like openSUSE for this, because YaST allows me to administer their PC without cracking out the terminal for everything. It just gives them at least a tiny bit of hope that they might be able to do this themselves. And my brother, who's not a Linux person, has managed to fix things via YaST without my help.

Ultimately, though, I use openSUSE KDE myself, and that's really important.
If my parents mildly complain about something, I can proactively offer to change that, because I know all the settings of KDE and YaST.
Or if I don't know whether there's a setting, I can go digging for it on my system.

But perhaps most importantly: "This Linux thing isn't working." – "Hmm, it's working on my system, so there's gotta be a way to fix it."
That immediately shuts down any negativity, so I can concentrate on fixing it, rather than deflecting their grumbling.