I’m looking for recommendations.
I have run Linux on my own computers off and on for the last 10 years. I’m not an advanced user, but I’m comfortable enough playing around with different distros and settings to find a good fit for myself and my own devices, and problem-solve as needed.
But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member’s computer to Linux. This device is only used by people whose attitude toward computers is “if it doesn’t just work, it’s too hard and I can’t engage”. So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won’t be accidentally broken by the users. As well as not being too steep of a learning curve for Windows users. (Their needs are uncomplicated - mostly just LibreOffice and Firefox, both of which they already use.)
Mint is often recommended for inexperienced Windows refugees. But I’ve had several things break in the process of getting Mint installed and updated on this machine. That wouldn’t be an issue if it were my own computer, but it’s not filling me with confidence that this is going to meet the ongoing “just works” requirement for this device. There’s no way I’m going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.
Which other distros would you recommend for this use case?
Thanks in advance.
Bazzite Gnome- a hidden gem, as many think Bazzite is just for gaming, but it also has a great desktop mode. Pretty much indestructible (immutable), polished, pretty, has a modern kernel (so good driver support) and has Firefox and Libreoffice installable as Flatpaks. Great for kids and grandmas.
+1 for immutable in general.
Seconded, but since they’re coming from windows, just do the normal bazzite non-deck, as that uses KDE plasma which is a lot more similar to the modern windows shell
+1 I am installing bazzite gnome (configured to look like windows 10) on my wife and mum’s computers. As long as they have chrome they are good.
i cant believe anyone still uses that garbage
I moved my wife’s laptop to Debian with Cinnamon as a desktop. She loves it and is as technophobic a person as I know…
Auto login, automated-updates set up, remote backups. She just has to open the lid and firefox is there, which is 95% of what she wants. Libre office is around for the remaining 5%.
This is someone who used to get angry at Windows forced updates and reboots, so not having any of that improved her quality of life.
Linux Mint
Mint is the easy and safe choice and works fine for anyone who just wants to use their computer with minimal fuss.
I’ve had several things break in the process of getting Mint installed and updated on this machine
Like what? That doesn’t inspire confidence in the PC itself.
There were some broken package dependencies which I had to fix manually (a non-issue on my own device; a major red flag for this device). And after one set of updates, it needed about three tries to boot successfully (requiring hopping into recovery mode to smooth out the wrinkle - again, a non-issue if it were my own device, but…).
As best I can tell at the moment, it’s working fine with Mint installed. My concern is what happens next time something is updated or installed and I’m not there to resolve an issue.
Maybe something immutable, then. Solid updates, easy rollback.
What do you do when Windows crashes and you’re not there?
98% of the time when they’ve had a problem with Windows, they just needed to restart the computer. (It has been impossible to convince them that computers need a full shutdown periodically, and Windows doesn’t cope with ‘always on’.)
When it’s something more than that, they either have to find someone closer to help or wait until we visit. Doing tech support long-distance for people who can’t adequately describe the problem is a losing game.
I put LMDE on my mother’s machine about 8 months ago. I think it has only been restarted twice and once was a power outage. She uses it daily.
Whatever you setup, also do a reverse ssh connection back to a PC of yours and forward ports for SSH and VNC-or-similar to local ports on your PC.
That way if it still boots you’ve got a way to fix it remotely and with reverse ssh they don’t have to do anything with port forwarding on their end.
TBH once Mint’s up & running and all those updates / dependencies are sorted.out, I’ve not had a problem with it.
I’m supporting a couple of people that don’t do updates, so it just stays static until I get there… when we arrive (ie for a weekend) I’ll do a full backup whilst we’re all catching up and then at some point I’ll do a full update and make sure it’s working again well before we leave.
Agree with the other point on enabling remote access - and also setup something (ie syncthing) to get their data somewhere else.
FWIW, you can install Win11 on unsupported hardware with a pretty easy registry edit to bypass the TPM check. I did it for my mom’s PC that lives 600 miles away from me, thus far with no issues.
If it has to be Linux, I’d recommend something that’s immutable and atomic on a platform you’re familiar with so as to prevent careless mistakes by technophobes.
Ubuntu Core, Fedora Silverblue, MicroOS from openSUSE are all pretty stable and have rollback if something gets borked. Unfortunately, nothing is guaranteed to ‘just work’. Good luck!
Windows 10 will still be usable after support ends. Security is the only concern, and not that big of one if you regularly back up. It may be a good idea dual boot with Linux on a separate drive while you hammer out the issues with whatever distro.
I personally think anything with plasma 6 will fit for interface coming from windows. Some sort of distro like Ubuntu or Debian that commonly has pre-packages in the wild would make sense.
Better install Windows 10 IoT and get support till Jan 2032. As a Bonus the, so I heard, best version of Windows 10 will probably phone home minimally to never, won’t rearrange your startmenu, won’t install Candy Crush again and maybe not reset settings so aggressively after updates. Can imagine stuff like news, wallpaper of the day or the graphics in the search bar is left out too.
Find installation instructions here. Seems they’re inofficially tolerated by Microsoft, because it’s hosted on Github and the iso’s come from MS, AFAIK. I want to try it on Proxmox where I installed 10 with GPU pass-through recently. Using Linux for 8 years now after being a long time Windows user.
IIRC they offer a way to install 11 without the hardware restrictions too on above site. I don’t know how the gaming situation on 10 (IoT) is and and how much Nvidia, AMD and Intel will still support 10 from now on.
Edit: corrected send too early cut off sentence
I would go for mint.
I want to suggest something immutable, but even when I use it, I have just had some issues occasionally or when trying to get the one off software here and there.
Of all the people in my family, even elderly, mint has been the easiest transition and I have very rarely needed to perform any additional maintenance outside of doing updates for them here and there.
But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member’s computer to Linux.
Why?
Did they ask for Linux? Do you have authority over them?
So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won’t be accidentally broken by the users. … There’s no way I’m going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.
Issues appear. I would be more focused on setting up remote access than choosing a distro.
I’d choose something LTS that has been around for a while (Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL-derivatives, SuSE if there’s a freely-available LTS, etc.).
If you are not against the use of Google products, ChromeOS devices are about the best well-designed low maintenance operating systems. (Not Flex, a ChromeOS device.) But you would be sacrificing Firefox and LibreOffice, which might not be an option. (And technically, it’s running a Linux kernel, if I remember correctly.)
People tend to reccomend the only one theyve tried lol, id say de matters more, most distros will just work in my experience, and most of them use guis for grabbing apps with the terminal being optional, Mint is an obvious pick, with cinnamon de being easy to use, prob wouldn’t reccomend gnome with extensions unless you’ve already used linux for a few months, most other des have a solid default experience and easier (more straightforward) customizability
Anduin Os is ubuntu gnome themed like windows 11, could be an easier transition
Ubuntu studio may be a good pico if they are creative and don’t know about linux apps, will have many preinstalled, bazzite if they game
If Mint is misbehaving that badly on that hardware I’d be far more inclined to blame the hardware. What is it?
Biebian
You didn’t even declare the hardware specs…
Regardless, Mint…
Fedora kinoite for windows-minded users. Fedora silverblue for everyone else.
That’s what I’ve used for the old people I do tech work for and except for one who thinks Microsoft invented everything and nothing without MS branding is legit, they are all happy.
Isn’t Fedora and these immutable versions on a six month upgrade cycle? Do these update to a new version reliably? As much as immutable is hard to break, I know Fedora’s regular distros and spins seem to update to the new version reliably.
Yea fedora does sometime leave them Behind a while but catching them up again is simple. Even when the process breaks, it does so in a simple to salvage way.
I guess that’s my worry. Simple for me to fix, yes. For my parents or grandparents, I’m not so sure.
Well you could always just host a remote session from a home machine and have them just use a dumb thing client. If anything goes wrong it’s at your end and easy to fix.
I’ve never had Mint having dependencies issues, particularly when updating it. I don’t know what you were doing, but I have put Mint in 20 laptops in the last 2 years (both on mine, and other people’s), and no one, no one had a single issue like that. So I’d still suggest Mint.
Hannah Montana Linux
Lol…I was curious if HML was still going, so I looked it up…
TL;DR: It’s not: Hannah Montana Linux in 2025
But RebbecaBlackOS still is.
