Today at the grocery store a sweet older lady approached me and asked if I knew anything about computers. I said yes I do, and she produced a mouse saying that her son set up Linux mint for her and she was wondering if the mouse was compatible. It needed kernel version 2.6 or newer so I said that the mouse should work, guessing mint itself was probably newer than that kernel. Happy with my answer, we chatted a little, then she thanked me and left.
It was a nice experience, so I thought I should share!
Today at the grocery store a sweet older lady approached me and asked if I knew anything about computers.
Next on things that totally happened today...
They'll probably enjoy Linux way more than windows. It's so much less intrusive.
Yeah plus after two hours googling how to make something work, and then another two hours googling why the solution failed they can get used to getting off the PC and internalizing the concept of 'life's too short'.
Um, no, they're going to call grandson to do it lol.
Also, Linux mint is a very stable distro & I doubt grandma will have to do much if she just uses it for email, a browser, and sudoku
I tried to install Linux on my mom's laptop for her, it was too scary. So she is still using windows 7 and probably getting scammed left and right.
My dad is running xubuntu for about 6 years now. I didn't get any questions in the last 2 years. Besides for installing a new printer.
Before that it was mostly which program he needed for something. Never a black screen anymore, malware or anything like that.
Never a black screen anymore, malware or anything like that.
He's using Linux; even the hackers think he's suffering enough.
My mom on the other hand did not find it problematic , given that she never used computers before and her first exp was linux mint 😌
i worked in sales long enough to know that No, No sweet older lady ever spoke those words to you "setup on linux mint" and include the capacity for understanding hardware compliances? did everyone in the store clap too? but...it would be a nice fantasy ngl
I did once have a very not technical mate ask for some help with their laptop, and it was randomly running edubuntu? I was like yeah no worries I got this but why TF are you running linux, they didn't even really understand, apparently some random friend had set them up with it because they didn't want to pay for windows lol.
edubuntu
An education focused Ubuntu distro, weird. Also getting into Linux because it's free is a great reason to get into Linux, if you get comfortable with it now it can help you in many STEM careers in addition to your own needs and proposes.
Presumably the friend was familiar with it and didn't want to recommend something they didn't know.
asked if I knew anything about computers
lol you got profiled. nice that you could help her tho
I work in IT and my hate for baby boomers is real but after reading this I am less hateful. Thanks
Assuming this story is true, Linux is going to be a nightmare for that woman. It’s come a long way, but it’s still not as dead simple as it needs to be for non-technical elderly people.
I've seen stripped down versions of Android on phones intended specifically for the elderly. I wonder if anyone has approached desktop Linux development like that?
Couldn't disagree more. Do non-techies need anything more than a browser nowadays? Maybe a word processor? The process of turning on and opening a web browser on Mint are practically no different from Windows. Hardware will plug and play just the same. Using printers is equally intuitive (ie, not very). In fact, I can find firefox on GNOME by just pressing the Win key and typing "internet" or "browser".
Both are probably equally likely to run into incomprehensible tech problems that require techie intervention.
Just connecting to the internet on various networks can be confusing. And they're going to need to periodically upgrade system packages, or they'll be vulnerable to various exploits. Even if you set up auto-upgrades, occasionally some things will need manual intervention.
I still don't see how it's any more confusing than Windows. Cinnamon does it almost exactly the same way as windows, and typically detects network sign-in requirements better. Auto-updates work absolutely fine, and again I've not seen them need manual intervention with any more frequency than Windows.
I've been thinking about switching to Mint in my linux experiments, setting up Arch was fun and all but I think I want a bit less fiddling.
I think I want a bit less fiddling
Indeed. That's why I switched to NixOS, set up once (which can be a major PITA), but then you're done anytime you want to do that again in the future.
But I'm thinking of trying Debian, seeing if I can get it set up the way I want, and maybe switching to that in the future?
I worked retail in electronics for quite a while and all the linux people I encountered were turbonerds for the most part. Thankfully I think that is changing. I imagine this lady had one of her family members set her up of course.
