Switching my parents over to Linux saved me a lot of headache and support calls

Post by Mikeb85 » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 6:39 AM UTC

gotorazor wrote: post #49

dsr_ wrote: post #20

My father was willing to switch, my mother was not. So: my father is now on his third Linux machine in 16 years (two laptops and now a NUC hiding behind a 24" monitor). Normal updates are handled automatically; I do a major upgrade once a year. rsnapshot backs up to an external disk three times a day. Every so often he tells me that he wants to do something new, and asks if it's possible; the answer is always yes. My…

That’s the biggest problem I see to Linux adoption in these scenarios. Unless it is something super geeky, nobody makes client softwares for desktop Linux.

Post by fro0116 » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 7:21 AM UTC

bigbugbag wrote: post #161

rhizome wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's a pain to have to locate and reinstall from scratch all the packages I need. dpkg --get-selections | cut -f1 > ~/installed_pkgs.log cat installed_pkgs.log | xargs sudo apt install

Except it doesn't work that way as some package name have changed and the command fails due to some package not existing anymore. It give something to start with but still requires human intervention from someone who knows how to navigate in this mess.

Post by etxm » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 7:47 AM UTC

chimen wrote: post #6

Switched my father-in-law to ubuntu 10 years ago and I basically ended all his "support" calls to me :). He was constantly getting malware from all sorts of banners and popups while playing chess and rummy online. That, coupled with some good extensions such as mining block + uBlock + Disconnect changed the whole deal in an hour. He's 76 now so yes, linux is a very good option for them.

Post by sbuk » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 7:56 AM UTC

tbiteteitb wrote: post #66

jamiek88 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dissent and sharing opinions and experience is not a campaign of ‘FUD’. There is no cabal ganging up to share misinformation on Linux. Please give more credit to those you disagree with and assume their intentions are like, I presume yours are: to share your opinion and experiences.

I don't want to engage with no one in particular. And You are right, giving Your opinion does not mean it's FUD. But if You pay attention, you'll see that for some folks here Linux it's never an option or solution they will take and are pretty vocal about it.

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Jan 21, 2019, 8:22 AM UTC

int_19h wrote: post #255

city41 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Of course, since that hardware is tested under Windows. 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.