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When it comes to parents, a 'tech support call' is not just a tech support call, it's a chance for them to talk to their kids.
So this comes down to "After I switched my parents to Linux, they don't want to talk to me any more"...
I run Ubuntu on three machines and never in a million years would I set it up for my parents. I still struggle with lots of little gotchas and annoying issues like sometimes it just doesn't want to suspend. Or sometimes after resuming, the keyboard doesn't work so gotta unplug it and plug it back in. Sometimes my wifi just conks out for no apparent reason. On and on, just lots of little paper cuts. I switched my pare…
But anyhow, back on topic, it really depends on your hardware.
Just to add another anecdote... Back in 2008 or so, my relatives did the really nice thing of buying my Grandma the cheapest possible Walmart computer they could find. You know the sort of Windows eMachine that comes preinstalled with spyware? Of course, my relatives live about 6 hours away from her and all of the "on site support" fell to me. In the first 2 years of my Grandma getting this computer I must have gone…
After that, I had a realization - yes, the system ran for 4 years without any maintenance, but it also received no updates and no patches whatsoever during that time, because linux does not do that by default(or at least Mint didn't). And then the only issues my windows-using family have is 90% of the time due to....windows updates. Things are not where they used to be, some application changed so it's now different, they had something open and the computer restarted itself....the usual. And while that is a problem....at least their machines are always patched and up to date. That Mint installation was running in the same state that it was in the day I set it up, and after just few years it couldn't even be updated any more(to my best effort). That's pretty bad too.
I first tried to switch family to LibreOffice but existing Office documents kept getting corrupted (especially complex spreadsheets). That was a deal breaker. Last attempt was as recent as last year
My fav part is cheating with SSD, made my day!
I also tried to. The first thing they did on my absence was having a local PC store install XP again on it, because they couldn't use any of the software for their devices. Nowadays they just use Windows and I am confident any local PC store will take care of their issues, instead of having me deal with them.
I provide very little tech support for my family since then. I'm no longer convinced that I really know what's best for them.
Just to add another anecdote... Back in 2008 or so, my relatives did the really nice thing of buying my Grandma the cheapest possible Walmart computer they could find. You know the sort of Windows eMachine that comes preinstalled with spyware? Of course, my relatives live about 6 hours away from her and all of the "on site support" fell to me. In the first 2 years of my Grandma getting this computer I must have gone…
So my personal anecdote also involves mint - I've set one up for someone years ago(probably around 2013-2014) and you're right, it had no issues. However, when I came over to visit last year I wanted to do some maintenance, so "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" would be the start. Nope, turns out that the update servers for that version of Mint have been switched off long time ago and none of the links resolve an…
Also I think Ubuntu suffers the same problem, if you wait long enough. I'm pretty sure I have an Ubuntu install that I waited too long to upgrade.
It is enough to make me serious consider switching to FreeBSD, except I don't think the 3D (game engine) library I want to use is supported.
When it comes to parents, a 'tech support call' is not just a tech support call, it's a chance for them to talk to their kids.
I don't mind talking to my parents or grandparents, but I just want our conversations to be about something else than computers. There is nothing worse than being with your family, and constantly dreading the moment they are going to ask about 'fixing their computer'. It makes one look forward to talk with one's (grand)parents.
I got in from work on Friday and got handed an ipad that wouldn't connect to the wifi and a laptop that has some weird malware.
I love my family but after a hard days programming dealing with that stuff is tiresome.