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Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

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Re: Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

#211

Post by haswell »

cryptoegorophy wrote: post #208
haswell wrote: post #141

Lately I've been strongly considering helping migrate my parents to Linux. Their needs are primarily web-based with some basic productivity tools mixed in, and Windows has just been getting more and more hostile. On top of this, they're at an age where they're now more susceptible than ever to various scams/attacks, and shutting down an entire category of problems by removing Windows from the picture is increasingly…

Why not just iPad?

I may have understated their needs somewhat. Most of what they do is browsing and document editing, but a few key use cases make a real computer necessary (or at least highly desirable):

- Document scanning

- Label printing (my mom buys/sells stuff on eBay)

- My dad still works and writes proposals/manages invoices/does complex taxes

At a minimum, they need a full desktop environment. Most of these things have decent 1:1 Linux alternatives, but one or two might necessitate a single-purpose Windows VM when all else fails.

Two pretty decent used micro PCs will also cost less than a single iPad.

Re: Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

#212

Post by hattmall »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #193
ianmcgowan wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A chromebox mounted behind the monitor did the trick for me. Haven't had an emergency wipe/reinstall in years. Also, a tablet with keyboard takes some of the pressure off having a "computer" and you can go with iOS or Android depending on what phone they use.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Exposing your parents to total surveillance (from one corp to another) is not what I'd characterize as safe or friendly. Linux is fine these days if the hardware is supported, and you can use an immutable distro if extra reliability is warranted.

Strong disagree. I mean tracking is what it is, but it's happening regardless and if they are using Chrome to browse and Google services they are being tracked.

ChromeOS seems to work really well though and is dead simple and intuitive. It used to be incredibly awesome with crouton but that's mostly dead. Crostini is acceptable though. I would absolutely recommend ageing people getting a chrome device for security and simplicity.

Plus running any android apps on desktop gives even more software options than any other desktop for most consumers.

Re: Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

#214

Post by netsharc »

fragmede wrote: post #168
accrual wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Things popping up This is one of my biggest frustrations with modern GUI computing. It's especially bad with Windows and Office, but it happens on iOS and macOS too to an extent. Even though I've had Office installed for weeks I still get a "look over here at this new button!" pop-up while I'm in the middle of some Excel task. Pop-up here, pop-up there. It's insane the number of little bubbles and pop-ups and noise…

Omfg I do not need national political news shoved into my face in on the left side of my taskbar while I'm trying to focus on work, thank you Microsoft, k thx bye!

Google Android phones do so freaking much of this too. Open the Google app (or swipe left from the home screen on the Pixel Launcher), gone are the days where it's a copy of their original homepage and is just a search bar, now it has news... Go to the search bar, and it shows trending searches. Die in a tucking fire!

Re: Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

#216

Post by mixmastamyk »

hattmall wrote: post #212
mixmastamyk wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Exposing your parents to total surveillance (from one corp to another) is not what I'd characterize as safe or friendly. Linux is fine these days if the hardware is supported, and you can use an immutable distro if extra reliability is warranted.

Strong disagree. I mean tracking is what it is, but it's happening regardless and if they are using Chrome to browse and Google services they are being tracked. ChromeOS seems to work really well though and is dead simple and intuitive. It used to be incredibly awesome with crouton but that's mostly dead. Crostini is acceptable though. I would absolutely recommend ageing people getting a chrome device for security an…

Reliability is a commodity these days, and we don't use Google services.

Apparently, ubiquitous surveillance is acceptable to you. Not an uncommon stance, but I'd never recommend it to others. It's a disservice when freedom and privacy respecting choices, that are just as reliable, already exist.

Re: Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

#217

Post by grayhatter »

charcircuit wrote: post #109
grayhatter wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stop spending time on things I don't care about It's ok for people to waste time building stuff they think is cool. Did it need to be a distro? No but it also didn't need to exist. I'm glad it exists though, I think it really whips the llamas ass!

This attitude is why Linux based operating systems have such poor market share on the desktop. Opportunity costs are real. Friction is real. You don't see Windows creating a new OS for a single theme. You don't see macOS do it either.

The reason Linux has poor desktop market share has nothing to do with a fun themed distro someone created as a side project.

> You don't see Windows creating a new OS for a single theme. You don't see macOS do it either.

I'd also consider the behavior of both Windows and OSX to be a warning to avoid, and not an example to emulate.

But the line doesn't always have to go up with every breath everyone takes. It's ok to do stuff just because it's fun. Not every single action needs to increase market share.

Re: Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

#218

Post by corank »

mfro wrote: post #20

Is it really necessary to spin up an entirely new distro for an XFCE+GTK theme?

I wouldn't call it an entirely new distro. It's just an Fedora image bundled with the necessary changes to create the UX. It doesn't provide its own software repositories. It's more like an unofficial Fedora Spin.

Re: Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

#220

Post by veqq »

arcmechanica wrote: post #159
haswell wrote: post #141

Lately I've been strongly considering helping migrate my parents to Linux. Their needs are primarily web-based with some basic productivity tools mixed in, and Windows has just been getting more and more hostile. On top of this, they're at an age where they're now more susceptible than ever to various scams/attacks, and shutting down an entire category of problems by removing Windows from the picture is increasingly…

My parents run linux because mom likes coupon websites and I can't repair the thing every week

What are coupon websites / you can get free coupons from them(?)
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