I’m visiting my parents for the holidays and convinced them to let me switch them to Linux.

They use their computer for the typical basic stuff; email, YouTube, Word, Facebook, and occasionally printing/scanning.

I promised my mom that everything would look the same and work the same. I used Linux Mint and customized the theme to look like Windows 10. I even replaced the Mint “Start” button with the Windows logo.

So far they like it and everything runs great. Plus it’s snappier now that Windows isn’t hogging all the system resources.

  • 1984@lemmy.today
    758·
    7 months ago

    It’s so funny that having a different theme makes the computer hard to use for some parents. :)

    Those people drive cars on the road!

    • vsis@feddit.cl
      42·
      7 months ago

      UI/UX 101, my friend.

      If people are used to see specific symbols for years is hard for them to use different ones.

      There’s a reason why floppy disk is still the icon for “save”.

      Those people drive cars on the road!

      Imagine if they change all road signs designs suddenly before you go for a ride.

    • corship@feddit.de
      12·
      7 months ago

      I wouldn’t be overly harsh.

      Some logos/images/designs are simply hardwired to the function that they can’t remember where the apps are if the logo changes. I’m pretty sure I’ll be the same if I use something for 30 years.

    • Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
      8·
      7 months ago

      My wife changed her Windows work laptop last week. Her Desktop is synced to OneDrive so really she just needs to login. Despite that she was panicking that her PDF’s were gone. They weren’t, it’s just that the new laptop has a newer version of Adobe Reader which uses an updated icon.

      Some people are just tech illiterate and the slightest difference can be upsetting. My mum’s the same with her phone. Using Google Maps to navigate is an achievement for her and I’ve been telling her to use it for years. The first time she did she reached her destination literally shaking. She was also amazed with herself that she had done it.

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    451·
    7 months ago

    I did that about 10 years ago because I got tired of removing malware for them. They haven’t had any malware since then.

    • onlinepersona@programming.devEnglish
      22·
      7 months ago

      Same. And also because it kept getting slower for no reason. The only support requests at the beginning were “how do I install this” --> app store, and “it won’t boot” --> that took longer because they had turned off the computer during a system update - by holding down the power button. The last one warranted a sticky note on the screen “NEVER turn off the computer during an update”.

    • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nzM
      151·
      7 months ago

      Same here. Not just my parents, but also some of my aunts and uncles. None of them are particularly tech savvy and none of them have had any major issues.

      People who claim that Linux is difficult to use, or not suitable for newbies, have no idea what they’re talking about.

  • Steve@lemmy.todayEnglish
    391·
    7 months ago

    An excellent choice to use Linux Mint! If my parents allowed me to switch their computers to Linux, I would’ve chosen Linux Mint as well for them. But, I probably wouldn’t give them the Windows 10 look.

  • Grass@sh.itjust.works
    25·
    7 months ago

    Welcome to the club. It’s the don’t need to remove malware from the parents computers every week club.

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
      132·
      7 months ago

      And that’s the thing. It’s great for casual users who do simple computing tasks, and it’s great for the programmers, hackers, and IT professionals. But there’s no middle ground for power users who know a bit more than the average users but can’t be bothered to learn shell scripting.

      • kpw@kbin.social
        8·
        7 months ago

        I’m using Linux ten years now and I never learned shell scripting. Or do you mean running commands in the shell?

      • MiddledAgedGuy@beehaw.org
        2·
        7 months ago

        I don’t agree with your exact reasoning on the middle ground, but I think there’s truth in the underlying sentiment.

        I do think that users that are are competent with technology but unfamiliar with Linux are pretty likely to get frustrated with it. I had this discussion with a friend just yesterday. They want to try out Linux because of frustration with Windows 11’s restrictive hardware requirements. But they also want to ease in to it. I think that’s wise. In this specific case, I think if they tried to dump Windows in it’s entirety and try to use Arch right off the bat, they’d get frustrated and give up. But if they tried a user friendly distro on a secondary piece of hardware? I think that has a good chance of creating a new Linux user.

        I guess the point of that rambling paragraph is that that type of a user is a challenge, but there is middle ground to be had.

        • SterbenDeathGun@lemmy.ml
          3·
          7 months ago

          It was hard for me too, but PopOS made my life easy back in the day when I first tried.

          No drivers needed, everything worked out of the box, including the Nvidia GeForce 2060 Mobile. So I just needed to get comfortable with the OS in general.

  • fhang@lemmy.world
    19·
    7 months ago

    I did the same thing with my Dad. He’s been using Linux Mint for a bit over 2 years now.

    Linux Mint is more than enough for his usage: Email, internet browsing and word processing.

  • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
    18·
    7 months ago

    Got my dad on Mint for a few years now. That me reminds me I have to check which version he is on. He might still be on 20 something.

  • SigHunter@feddit.de
    191·
    7 months ago

    I switched my mothers Laptop to Gentoo with KDE some time ago and she did not even notice, because I placed the firefox icon at the same location it was in windows … 😜 she noticed only that the wallpaper is different