Change is always hard, be it Windows 7 to Windows 10 or 11. The German company Tuxedo Computers has pretty nice Linux laptops for beginners and professionals, this is what made the change easier for my parents: http://tuxedocomputers.com/ They even offer RTX 4090 custom laptop builds, but for the screens they still have no OLED option when I looked the last time.
Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I set my mom (62) up an old laptop running Ubuntu last year when her laptop was stolen out of my sister's car. She's adjusted fairly well to it. She needed a lot of hands on support at first and any time she uses her printer, but she has figured out how to do a lot of things on it on her own.
She makes papercraft activities in inkscape for a weekly storytime she hosts at a bookstore and has gotten very proficient, but still needs some hand holding when printing errors crop up.
I've been running Linux on my laptop for a few years now (started with Mint, on Manjaro now). I have our HTPC set up with Mint, and the family is good with it. When my kids are old enough for their own, I'll probably keep them going with Mint as well, we'll see.
My wife's laptop still has Windows, but I'll likely move her over if she gets a new PC at some point.
I threw my brother and my dad into EndeavourOS and Garuda respectively. So far, they are swimming. My brother even does almost all his gaming on Linux.
(Well OK, apart from my dad generally yelling at everything tech. I guess that's where I got it from.)
Haha, dunno about Garuda, but EndeavourOS is a tad difficult if you never used any Linux based distro before ! Granted it's easier to setup and maintain than Arch, but still...
This reminds me of how in the past the swimming instructor just throw you in the pool even If you can't swim... Some learned the hard way others were traumatized for life.
I haven't tried yet with my grandparents, but I will next time I see them. I have tried with my dad but he wasn't much of a fan of it and preferred MacOS. My mom uses a chromebook and it suits her well enough, so I won't try to budge her.
Replaced on old windows install on living room media pc with popOS. Newer hardware, just didn’t make sense to run such a vulnerable and outdated os any more and I wasn’t about to pay for a new windows version for it. A few choice apps linked in the dock, and the main streaming websites bookmarked on homepage in the browser, and we are golden. No issues making the switch really, apart from occasional Bluetooth hiccups with the combo wireless keyboard/trackpad that drives everything. To be fair, Bluetooth occasionally has a meltdown on windows or Mac as well, so I don’t think this detracts from a successful conversion. The end result is actually much more stable and approachable for the whole fam, so quite happy with results.
I moved my elderly mother to ChromeOS and I no longer have to deal with the IT burden of supporting whatever she installed or broke this week. Move your parents to Linux if you truly enjoy being an on call unpaid helpdesk
Just do not give them sudo.. Pretty hard to break Linux without sudo.
Not Linux but MacOSX.
They all know how to operate their iPhones, which we got them because it was like their iPad; it’s easy troubleshooting: how would you do this on your phone? Well, it’s exactly the same here.