My head tells me Linux Mint, but my heart says listen to your head. Why is this hard? 😂
My mom won’t update Mint despite me showing her how, so I switched it to CachyOS since I’d be the one updating it anyway. At least it’s not nearly as annoying for me to work on.
I work in an environment with a lot of people that are not very technically skilled. We run Ubuntu (GNOME) in their Laptops.
If I install Linux for family members etc. I install Ubuntu.
My reasoning is:
Ubuntu/.deb based systems are very wifely supported. If you google “how do u do X on Linux” most likely an answer tailored to Ubuntu may come up. Which is however mostly important if the Users will be doing some stuff themselves.Also, I believe Desktops make a huge difference because that’s how people interact with their Computer. And in my opinion it’s not super important what desktop you start people on, its important it stays cohesive. My parents PC’s run MATE for that stability* (and for the “classic” usage scheme they learned back in the XP days) but even GNOME has a pretty stable usage paradigm these days …
Tl;dr: My reccomendation always is Ubuntu with a Desktop that resembles what they are used to.
* though with the MATE project seeming less active these days I’ve been looking for an alternative with low switching friction
A Fedora variant of some sort since they are up-to-date in terms of features and have a low learning curve
If you want to do the least amount of tech support: Fedora Kinoite.
we have done this before and our go-to is Pop!_OS. it seems to be learned reasonably quickly.
Bazzite for young people, Mint for old people would be my first thought
OK I’m nearly 40 but you don’t gotta remind me I’m old 🤣
Initially I went with Ubuntu for my father in law, but he wouldnt stop messing with it and breaking things. So, last time it broke I installed arch with gnome, and now he doesnt know how to break it. Its been solid for over 2 years now on his 2010 macbook pro.
Hannah Montana Linux, obviously.
This is the only answer, regardless of the question.
My head tells me Linux Mint
my heart says listen to your head
My head tells me Linux Mint
Converted my non-tech wife to Mint without a single hiccup after her laptop crapped out - intuitive af for lifelong windows users - my kids will have never known another OS outside of their school issued chromebooks as they’re only just experiencing desktop environments
There is a good reason Mint is recommended as the no nonsense beginner distro. For someone more technical I might recommend Fedora.
One you get past those two distros you are pretty much in the realm where someone should be technical enough to choose their own distro and know what that means.
I’m on maybe an old version of Mint at work and it is kind of miserable.
Icons don’t work right, the panel is weird, the software center is not very easy to use.
I’m hoping that new versions are better.
I’ve been installing Fedora Silverblue on family member’s computers. No complaints so far. They’re all non-technical users.
Debian
With Mate desktopLikely either mint or popos
They tend to be the most liked by newcomers. Enough so that they don’t miss windows, or want to try something else a week later.
I think popos definitely deserves mention here. Cosmic has come a long way in a short time and the nvidia support is really helpful.
Whenever this question comes up, I think the distro is less important than the desktop environment. If they feel more comfortable in Windows, go with something that provides KDE. If Mac, go with Gnome. Once they get used to it, let them go through the rite of passage that is distro hopping.
That said, and I know everyone recommends Mint or Ubuntu, and they’re fine, but you could do better. I like the immutable distros for people who just want to use their computer without thinking about it. They aren’t able to mess with anything important that keeps the computer running, and as long as they restart the computer, it’s always up to date. It’s like a Chromebook, which is the level most people are with computers.
