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Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

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Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#1

Post by vvvnnnnvvv »

This is about finding a good linux distro for my parents to use. Apparently, Windows now requires an outlook account in order to log into your computer. Well - his outlook account has been hacked. (In fact, it's the second time he's had a Microsoft account be hacked. He's pretty savvy about scams and phishing, but we can't figure how how this keeps happening.) Anyway, understandably, he's pretty freaked out about what they might have access to on his computer and will probably end up just reformatting it.

He's open to switching to linux, but I've been out of the game for a while and not sure what to recommend. In olden times, Ubuntu was my go to - is that still a reasonable default or is there a new game in town?

They primarily use the internet and I guess they might need to print sometimes (which I'm assuming is going to be a hassle no matter which distro we pick).

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#2

Post by appleorchard46 »

Mint is one you'll often see recommended for older folks, for good reason. The Cinnamon desktop is simple and familiar to Windows users and it has good compatibility. The only real gotcha is being based on Debian (like Ubuntu), so packages will be somewhat out of date, but for browsing and printing and whatnot that's not really an issue.

Anecdotally my experience with printing on Linux has actually been smoother than Windows in recent years, but we're talking about printers here so YMMV.

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#3

Post by theandrewbailey »

I had my mom on Xubuntu for many years. (There was a moment where I put Mint on there, but moved back to Xubuntu because that's what I was using.) It worked enough like Windows that she or Dad never had problems. I showed them how to check email, browse the web, play solitare, and shut down. I expected a call to 'put it back to what it was', but it never happened. Mom called me once about how to get the old solitare back, and guided her on how to change the type to klondike, haha.

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#4

Post by d3Xt3r »

Aurora [1] - it's based on KDE and has a familiar UI, somewhat similar to Windows 7. My mum has been using it for a while now without any issues, and she does everything an average PC user would - web browsing, document editing, file/photo backups etc.

The main reasons I recommend Aurora is that it is immutable, atomic and semi-rolling.

- Immutable means your core system files are read-only, making it resilient to accidental file deletions and corruptions.

- Atomic means updates are done as atomic transactions - they either apply or don't, there's no chance of a partial/failed state, no scary "black screen" after upgrades.

- Semi-rolling means you'll always be on the latest version of the OS, with major versions pushed out every 6 months. The main difference compared to other distros like Mint is that you don't need to worry about doing a big and scary OS upgrade, as not OS updates AND upgrades are image-based and atomic, with no chance of dependency issues or conflicts. So as an end user, a major OS upgrade is treated like just another normal update and it makes no difference to them, providing a seamless update experience.

By the way, I would strongly recommend against Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distros like Mint, because they all tend to fail at upgrades [2]. Atomic distros don't have this problem.

[1] https://getaurora.dev/en

[2] https://ounapuu.ee/posts/2025/02/05/done-with-ubuntu/

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#5

Post by stop50 »

appleorchard46 wrote: post #2

Mint is one you'll often see recommended for older folks, for good reason. The Cinnamon desktop is simple and familiar to Windows users and it has good compatibility. The only real gotcha is being based on Debian (like Ubuntu), so packages will be somewhat out of date, but for browsing and printing and whatnot that's not really an issue. Anecdotally my experience with printing on Linux has actually been smoother than…

Printing on Linux is very nice. The bloatware that is usually unavoidable under windows does not exist.

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#6

Post by reify »

I too install Mint for elderly people to use.

The oldest person currently using mint is my 84 year old female friend.

The trick is to set it up perfectly for them. So they just do all the things out of the box as they would on a wIndows machine.

She particularly enjoys not having to wait days for an update to install.

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#7

Post by bediger4000 »

appleorchard46 wrote: post #2

Mint is one you'll often see recommended for older folks, for good reason. The Cinnamon desktop is simple and familiar to Windows users and it has good compatibility. The only real gotcha is being based on Debian (like Ubuntu), so packages will be somewhat out of date, but for browsing and printing and whatnot that's not really an issue. Anecdotally my experience with printing on Linux has actually been smoother than…

Me and my Arch laptop have been my family's tricky printing consultant for a few years.

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#9

Post by giantg2 »

Does Windows require an account? I've recently set up several windows machines and made them all offline, local-only accounts.

Also, I've seen it for Kali, but I'm guessing it exists for others - it's called Kali Undercover or something. It makes your GUI look a good bit like Windows.

Re: Best Linux distro in 2025 for non-experts

#10

Post by postmaster »

giantg2 wrote: post #9

Does Windows require an account? I've recently set up several windows machines and made them all offline, local-only accounts. Also, I've seen it for Kali, but I'm guessing it exists for others - it's called Kali Undercover or something. It makes your GUI look a good bit like Windows.

They make it seem like it does, but tech savvy people and those who read the screen thoroughly can easily create an offline only account without ever connecting or creating an online Microsoft account.
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