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Comment by zamalek | Hacker News Reader

Same story here. Purchased a System76 machine for my ex-wife's grandmother. She "enjoyed learning about the new system". As a bonus she is now completely support scam immune, one of the advantages of the year of the Linux desktop not having happened yet.

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Not going to lie, I feel a System76 machine is way overkill for someones grandmother who likely doesn't really need that kind of horsepower... Especially given the cheapest model they sell is 1400.

Could have been one of the mini desktop models

That makes more sense

minus the cost of windows

minus the cost of supporting windows

minus the cost of malware and virii on windows

hmm, so that works pretty well, IMHO :-P

Windows is like 80? For the average user the average cost of supporting windows is basically 80.

You can get windows laptops for $100–$500 just get one of those and put Linux on it? Not a single person's grandmother (except maybe that one that plays Skyrim) needs a $1400 laptop, total waste of resources.

My kid has an excellent Thinkpad I picked up for something like $500. Runs linux (NixOS, specifically) perfectly well. Even the fingerprint reader works! And if he spills something on it, replacing it is substantially less awful.

Yep, pre-owned Thinkpad is going to be your best option, slap a decent Linux distribution on it and that thing will run for years and years. No need to spend thousands on a laptop that will be used by a kid or an elderly person.

NixOS is honestly the most kid proof system imaginable

Not everyone is a broke college student. Especially grandmas.

Honestly, iPad might have been better.

It depends of the person. I know many old people who struggle.with touch screens.

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