If my mother-in-law can use Ubuntu Linux, anyone can (2012)
zdnet.com
zdnet.com
Linux is fine for day-to-day use if you're already technical and can debug it when you inevitably hit a roadblock, or you have a family member who can provide constant support - thus all these "My grandma uses Linux!" posts that have been a hallmark of this scene for the past 20 years.
It is not a seamless experience for your average Mac or Windows user. There are things like codec restrictions or driver issues (Nvidia), its still transitioning between windowing protocols so things like DPI scaling doesn't work properly across application types. GNOME doesn't even handle tray icons.
Flatpak is a good step but most of the builds are third-party and not endorsed by the vendor (Signal, Chrome, Steam, etc) which leaves them vulnerable to supply chain attacks. Immutable distributions are interesting but rely on the continued success of the above.
I'll continue to recommend Chromebooks to family members. It's incredibly set-and-forget and a more polished experience for the average person.
Chromebooks are OK, but Linux has come a long way in the last 16 years. All the Chromebooks I've bought for family members (ok, only two), the first thing I've done is installed Debian for them.
My wife uses fedora on some super old alienware laptop from like 10 years ago and she is just fine with open office and etc, never had to give any support.
Of course milage may vary, but my daughter is forced to use Windows from her school and I have to tell you I have to give One Drive support at least once per day, where "something" is not working properly, file is missing and etc.
I use macos on my m1 laptop and its probably the best experience, the m1 is just rock solid, besides when I want to gdb -p into chrome and it doesnt let me without disabling the system's integrity protection.
For instance: your family member comes home from the store with a boxed copy of TurboTax expecting it to work on their computer.
Maybe not in 2012, but Windows 11 is such a disaster that I firmly believe that Linux is now the user-friendly option between the two. The only problem is that on rare occasions, you do need to debug some very frustrating issues. It's a tradeoff between having an OS that works well 99% or an OS that's never quite right 100% of the time.
Why are all my links opening in Edge? Didn't I deinstall it? What is Candy Crush?
"How can I use Office?" is an unavoidable question, but it's like asking how you can play Super Mario Brothers on a Sega Master System. You can't, here's the replacement. Same process you'd have to go through when switching to a Mac from Windows or Windows to a Mac for any number of pieces of software, and that doesn't mean that Windows and Mac aren't ready for consumers.
For the rest, in my experience I hear no fewer complaints for why Windows and Macs won't play videos or upgrade correctly, etc. than for Linux. For some reason people have lower expectations of these massive companies; maybe a humility based on their size and marketing.
If you really need the one from Micro$oft, open it in the browser.
For common chores, "it just works". He uses Libre Office, which also just works. I think he uses Shotwell for photo management.
I say did because I haven't used them in a while. It could still be true.
On linux I can use `hpscan` from hplip which works very well, someone also wrote a server that allows you to use the 'scan to PC' functionality of most HP scanners. Printing also works flawlessly with CUPS.
But on Windows... if I open the 'Scan' program and select the HP Scanner it redirects me to the Microsoft Store to download the 'HP Smart' program. And if you want to scan from there you'll need an HP Account (yes, an online account to use your own scanner).
Our Brother DCP-L8410CDW (colour laser, scanner, mid-size) is "driverless" in CUPS. Blew my tiny little mind. No setup, just plumb it into the network and everything can just print to it, scan from it. I've had zero problems with it in 4 years and ~ten thousand pages. I've never experienced that with another printer.
The obvious extra benefit is that Brother are generally —especially compared to HP— pretty decent about consumables.
Hopefully these sorts of driverless, protocol driven peripherals become widespread. And to think, it's only taken 50 years of consumer printing to start to get there.
Can’t hurt that they use CUPS too.
I think it’s more true today. Ubuntu-like distros in 2012 had a few issues with GPU drivers and peripherals and lack of configuration. Today, it’s more polished and works extremely reliably in my experience, especially for desktop.
In the meantime, Microsoft has added (a) literal ads but mostly (b) an insane amount of dark patterns (c) pushing people onto accounts and services for upsells and (d) new control panel-like config while keeping the old ones around. Not that it ever was great, but the user experience has deteriorated a lot. Today, you have to be a power user of windows to not have an absolute shit time.
The year of the Linux desktop really is here. Anecdotally I know several other people who have moved or are strongly considering moving to Linux since they were mostly held back by lack of gaming compatibility which has been ~85-90% solved by Proton.
[1]: https://jakebasile.com/words/2023/12/31/my-year-of-the-linux...
My company runs on MS stuff so we have Outlook, Teams, Office, etc. Back in 2012 I'm not sure I would have been able to use Linux at work because of this software but now I can run all of it in the browser.
Libre office works quite well (especially for csvs)
I’m on popos (Ubuntu varriant) and it really works reliably.
I'm also starting to think that, for the very first time, Linux is now the "stable" option. Microsoft and Apple, being businesses, are constantly trend-chasing as the tech industry loves to do. I'm not averse to new features, but I want to be able to evaluate new things and choose whether or not to use them on my own terms. When cloud became popular, suddenly the operating system was updated to require accounts when none existed before, iCloud and OneDrive were "in your face" and you didn't necessarily ask for this. Then there's things like Ads in the Windows Start Menu.
With Linux, the trend-chasing just isn't there. You might have a software update introduce a bug, that risk can't go away no matter what system you're on, but you're not going to have your user experience change in ways that you didn't expect or want because the vendor decided so.
Of course, with SaaS apps that happens routinely at the application-level. But at least our desktop environments and user experience with respects to the OS can stay the way we're used to and like.
Even with games, which is the typical use-case for sticking with Windows, Steam is growing the number of available titles for Linux and I'm increasingly impressed. Not every game I want is available on Linux of course but it is trending in a positive direction.
Completely off topic but I'm working on a time tracking app now and these types of stories always give me a chuckle.
I’ve come to think a better benchmark for linux having “got there” is, can i run an architects office on ubuntu ?
Architects:
- need access to industry standard, graphics and processing heavy software
- need to exchange files with many other companies, so need inter compatibility
- need things to just work, they are not interested in fiddling with the guts of their os just to make things work
- work in contexts where cost of software is a drop in the ocean in the budget of a project, so the add value of running on linux has to be more than “you get some software for free”
Thinking about reaching a state where you could run an architecture office on ubuntu raises the bar a lot on what still needs to be improved
Obviously this doesn't work the moment these "non-technical people" venture even slightly outside a narrowly defined box of use cases.
But you could swap in many of other industries
Has Just Worked (tm) on Fedora and Mint with the past three Thinkpads I've had, even with AirPods.
> video games
From what I understand Valve's efforts on Proton enable a plurality of modern games to run on Linux to the point that their flagship Steam Deck ships with a Debian-derived distro.
> Adobe suite, etc.
Niche creative software like high-end photo editing and DAWs are, admittedly, not well-supported on Linux and are the only reason that I keep a MacBook around. As you pointed out, however, the people that we're talking about don't have these needs. I've put Mint on multiple machines for friends and family and the only time I've had somebody ask me to use Windows instead is because their clapped-out 8-year-old Android phone with a half-broken USB-C jack had trouble keeping a stable mass storage connection to the machine.
As long as a system has a browser and some semblance of an office suite 95% of people are good to go.
Arch Linux
> In February 2022, Valve released the Steam Deck gaming handheld, running a dramatically updated version of SteamOS, version 3.0, based on the Arch Linux distribution with the KDE Plasma environment
It was once Debian based but since a few years they switched to Arch Linux.
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-is-why-valve-is-switching-from-...
Regardless, I do all the photo editing I need with medium-strength tools all free, and I have great Nikon gear. I don't have the time to spend hours on each photo. "Damn Good" doesn't need much work!
Browser and Libre Office work on Ubuntu for my former windows-shackled brother. Also Shotwell, IIRC. There was a computer "for seniors" once, and it had little more than browser and open office. Addressing the linked article, something that meets all your needs, and is relatively simple (who gets that nowadays?) is best.
I mostly use a mac. Been doing so since the Steves were working from Welch Road. Also linux (Solaris and SunOS when they paid me to) from time to time. I looked at my enormous collection of adapters, cards and cables, and at my age, (relative) simplicity is a good thing.
(IANAL)
Like anyone can drive a (you name it), but said vehicle may not be able to carry a living room set, nor drive OK in the snow.
My take, anyway.