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Distro suggestions for grandparents? (aussie.zone)

submitted 5 months ago by PetulantBandicoot@aussie.zone to c/linuxquestions@lemmy.zip

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Hello there. Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a Linux distro for grandparents? They are over 70 years old, with an old HP desktop and laptop running Windows 10. All they need is a Web browser, so no need for special software or wine to run Windows programs. Would preferably like something that is low maintenance so I don't have to be constant tech support for them (apart from the initial install and setup). Thanks for any suggestions.

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[–] yala@discuss.online 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

For grannies, I like to go with Endless OS. Curiously, it combines aspects of the two most named distros under this post; based on Debian and utilizing OSTree (like Fedora Atomic does).

It's often overlooked (for some reason), but actually combines the best of both worlds:

Over two years of support (since release), while Fedora Atomic only offers 13 months of support since release
Automatic updates are enabled by default and updates are applied atomically in the background, while Debian(-based) are not capable of atomic updates
Does not even offer installing software through apt and doesn't even have it's own rpm-ostree counterpart. Instead, it goes all-in on Flatpak.

The only thing that might give something like Fedora Atomic an edge would be by installing any of the opinionated uBlue images (like Aurora/Bazzite/Bluefin etc.) that just apply and ship fixes for you (without requiring you to do anything for it) and that are even capable of automatically applying updates to major releases for you in the background. This is basically just hands-off mode.