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Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

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Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#71

Post by jcoffland »

Taek wrote: post #66
loeg wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux hardware support is really good. Probably better than Windows and certainly better than macOS (which only has to support a very limited range of hardware).

I don't think you could call it better than Windows. A lot of wifi cards have issues, and my understanding is that printer support can be pretty bad too. If you are using a Linux machine I'd still recommend that you double check for driver support on any hardware you buy. You can expect it to be okay but you should still check. You generally don't need to check for Windows, you can just assume and you will be right e…

The only reason Linux has occasional issues with hardware support is because people install it on machines that were originally shipped with another OS. The OEM OS likely had all kinds of hardware problems but the manufacturer resolved them before shipping that particular configuration.

Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#72

Post by spullara »

chirau wrote: post #40

I can't believe that some people here think that it is better to move your relatives, who are scared/prone to malware but don't think to restart their computer first, to Linux. What a joke really. Linux is good and all, but come on people, among iOS, MacOS, Windows, Chrome and Linux, it's the least usable and least user friendly.

Nice way to troll a list of anecdotes. But you are still right.

Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#73

Post by spullara »

nathancahill wrote: post #3

So the first 2 are rebooting and making sure it has power. The third is "up to date". I do quite a bit of tech support for my family and neither of those issues are really issues. The #1 issue for me is "this free app I installed wanted to install a browser addon and now I see ads everywhere". The #2 is "this free app I installed hijacks everything on my Mac to show ads". I've spent countless hours educating them abo…

Restrict them to installing only from the Mac App Store.

Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#75

Post by MichaelApproved »

minitech wrote: post #63
chirau wrote: post #40

I can't believe that some people here think that it is better to move your relatives, who are scared/prone to malware but don't think to restart their computer first, to Linux. What a joke really. Linux is good and all, but come on people, among iOS, MacOS, Windows, Chrome and Linux, it's the least usable and least user friendly.

How is it the least user-friendly? In Ubuntu, for example, nothing in regular use seems particularly different. My grandma started using it as her first OS at 84, and she’s still doing fine.

I'm commuter savvy and tried to get HBO Now to play on Ubuntu. Searched Google and found many different commands to try and run but had no luck. How could something so simple be so difficult?

Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#76

Post by redirectleft »

chirau wrote: post #40

I can't believe that some people here think that it is better to move your relatives, who are scared/prone to malware but don't think to restart their computer first, to Linux. What a joke really. Linux is good and all, but come on people, among iOS, MacOS, Windows, Chrome and Linux, it's the least usable and least user friendly.

I'm responsible for my sister, my mother, 6 coworkers and 13 friends running Arch on their hardware, in various personalized configurations that took me maybe 30 minutes each. I can push out updates and flag new software for installation within seconds if they ask me for it and so far, I have not had one serious complaint. Some use Libreoffice for their private stuff, some appstream Office directly into a X window. Oh you don't like GNOME? Let me install Xfce. It's perfect if certain use cases apply. My sister has had hers for 6 years and counting and only complains when she cant execute nickelback.mp3.exe.

Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#77

Post by vidarh »

Taek wrote: post #66
loeg wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux hardware support is really good. Probably better than Windows and certainly better than macOS (which only has to support a very limited range of hardware).

I don't think you could call it better than Windows. A lot of wifi cards have issues, and my understanding is that printer support can be pretty bad too. If you are using a Linux machine I'd still recommend that you double check for driver support on any hardware you buy. You can expect it to be okay but you should still check. You generally don't need to check for Windows, you can just assume and you will be right e…

My experience with the last few printers I've bought is that with Ubuntu they've been recognised out of the box, while with Windows we've had to download massive driver packages from the manufacturer website before anything would work properly.

Haven't had a problem with wifi for a decade.

Double-checking for driver support is probably still worthwhile, but it's rare for it to be an issue these days, but I'd say it applies for Windows as well. Pretty much everything will have drivers for Windows, but their quality can be abysmal and you have require additional downloads.

Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#78

Post by BozeWolf »

kriro wrote: post #65
chirau wrote: post #40

I can't believe that some people here think that it is better to move your relatives, who are scared/prone to malware but don't think to restart their computer first, to Linux. What a joke really. Linux is good and all, but come on people, among iOS, MacOS, Windows, Chrome and Linux, it's the least usable and least user friendly.

My dad (>60, not exactly tech saavy) has been using Lubuntu for 2 years now (actually I don't even remember when we installed it might be 4 years :P). For many parents who only surf the web and do some non power user office (he uses Libre Office now) and check their mail it's the perfect solution. For his use case it's more user friendly than the Windows install because of the lack of constant update requests and ant…

This! Well... not this! Every time the (linux) desktop discussion comes up, at least a few geeks have this "linux+my mother" argument which should prove linux desktop is totally usable for everyone. Just wait until they discover "alternative program X" for "windows program X" is not the same as the program they saw at the computer of the neughbours mom. Or libre office fucks up the layout again.

Come on guys, why always the linux + mother argument. Do not do it. It is silly.

Besides that: most of the time you probably have to give support on apps they use instead of os related issues.

Re: Show HN: Fun tool that cut my family and friends tech support time in half

#79

Post by mclifton »

jessriedel wrote: post #6
ekianjo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing I ever found to reduce the risk of malware is to move them to a Linux distro. The risk is not zero but from a user perspective I install the software they need from package repositories remotely, and that more or less settles it. Of course this is not for everyone, but for folks who for the most only need a browser a Linux distro is a good choice.

If your solution to malware problems with an unsophisticated user is to just cripple their ability to install anything, why not let instead let them keep Windows/Mac and give them an account with minimal privileges?

That's how I set up the in-laws laptop with Windows 10. I kept all admin privileges in a separate account with a password only I know. They both get their own unprivileged user accounts, with the standard protections turned on (Firewall, Defender). Haven't had an issue so far, and it's been about 6 months.
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