251–260 of 299 posts
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My mom's NUC has never caused any trouble running the latest Ubuntu. Network printer, scanner, wireless mouse, webcam, bluetooth headphones, USB hard drives, sleep/hibernation... not a single problem.
Which NUC model is it? I looked into NUCs a couple years ago but at the time they had a reputation of not being great with Linux.
I gave them a few options at the laptop replacement cycle. I said you can do either Linux or Mac, I didn't care which. Mac had always worked well in laptop format for me, though my primary machine has been a linux desktop for about 15 years. I knew both would work without problem.
I gave my wife my mac laptop for a week, and she used it. Then I had her play with the linux desktop. I asked her which one she liked better. She opted for Mac. As did my daughter.
Just replaced the first one for wife, and daughter had to buy a new one for college anyway. So far, 1 problem on wifes old mac, which turned out to be a hardware problem with the wifi card. Quickly fixed, and pretty much no problems since then.
Though I have to help them do system updates.
Either Mint or Mac. Both work very well. I even have mint working on my work Mac.
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…
I would never in a million years subject my parents to Linux on the desktop unless there is some kind of support system that is not entirely dependent on me.
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The point here is that the solution is simply to get better hardware, which is much less expensive outside the Apple ecosystem.
In my experience the same hardware when ran under Windows does not have these issues. EDIT: also just want to say I'm not anti-Linux, I'm just being realistic. I understand Linux's history and how it has some disadvantages (and advantages). I'm just saying at the end of the day, my interest is a reliable machine, regardless of how I get there.
OPs point is that if you're comparing Linux to macOS, you need to also compare the hardware accordingly - just as you buy a Mac to run macOS on, you need to buy hardware that's guaranteed to work well with Linux. And such Linux hardware is still going to cost less than a MacBook or a Mac Mini.
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Sure, but that hardware advantage is something Apple should be able to take advantage of, they worked hard to get it. And I take advantage of it as well. At the end of the day, I just care about my needing to do support and that a computer generally works. I run Ubuntu on a 2015 and 2017 Lenovo ThinkPad (T450 and T470s) and a desktop I built myself. Interestingly it runs the best on my custom desktop. I use Ubuntu du…
your problem here is not linux, your problem is probably ubuntu and lenovo. ubuntu is notoriously buggy and lenovo thinkpads are more and more hostile to linux since 5-6 years. Try something like manjaro instead of ubuntu and see if you still experience the same issues.
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What is a "philosophical Cafe"? Sounds awesome. Edit: Google sends me to https://www.cafesphilo.org/ which sounds great but seems to be mainly limited to France.
You found the right thing. It's mostly French and exclusively European. They're places to discuss ideas and theories respectfully and civilly. I don't think the same thing exists in America in any form. The topics can vary from "the nature of choice" to something like what GP posted.
I concur with this experience. A few years before my grandmother died, I installed Ubuntu on a new laptop for her. All she wanted to do was check her email, view her bank account and play solitaire. It was easy to set up shortcuts to any of this, and she never had any problems. Every time I came to visit, I would make sure to check the status of the packages, and run the software updater if any updates were available…
I was going to comment why not get them an iPad, but that would be a big change all at once. I like your approach of slowly introducing them to the new software they'd be running on Ubuntu on their Windows 10 system. That way they get used to all the new programs and the final switch to Ubuntu is pretty much a non-event. Smart! So smart that I don't think transitioning them to an iPad would be that easy.
The iPad way could also work quite well, but as my dad does a lot of writing he needs a keyboard :D
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Try running macos on PC hardware and you'll feel the true pain of incompatibility. Buy hardware supported by your OS of choice. You dont buy an arm computer and expect to run windows. You shouldn't buy a PC for Windows and expect it to function perfectly for Linux.
That's not the point, though. The competitor (Windows) mostly has none of these problems, and that's pretty much what matters EOD. If you cannot expect a generic PC to run Linux, `$currentYear is the year of the Linux Desktop` will continue to be little more than hyperbole. That's a big problem if we're looking for widespread adoption.
But the story ends with OS X.