After hearing complaints for years from my mom about how slow her laptops were (with Windows), we bought her a NUC and I put elementary on it. That was about 4 years ago. Since then: not one single complaint.

She’s not a power user. She uses a web browser for Facebook, her bank stuff, and to play silly word games and puzzles. She checks email. But even those two tasks were enough to land her into trouble on seemingly any Windows machine we put in front of her.

I assume she was clicking on questionable ads, accidentally visiting who knows what websites from weird Facebook clicks, etc. but since she’s not on Windows, she’s less of a haphazard target.

Whenever I’m a good son and visit her, I’ll make sure everything’s updated and it usually is. She knows to click the update button when it asks.

I’m sure this could have been ANY Linux that would have fixed this, but Elementary looks the most simple, and that’s what it’s a great fit for her. It’s easy to use, easy to keep updated, and won’t virus itself up when your mom clicks on weird banner ads. All in a cheap little package. (Which I get could have been even cheaper.)