Say a friend is looking for a new system, and said person is not particularly savvy with technology, what system would you point them toward?

  • Scott 🇨🇦🏴‍☠️@sh.itjust.works
    212·
    12 days ago

    If this average user doesn’t need to use Microsoft or Apple software, Fedora Workstation Linux. My dad, who is 78 and of average intelligence can use it, anyone can.

    Linux can run on older, used hardware, has no AI, no Apple or Microsoft account required.

        • alekwithak@lemmy.world
          4·
          11 days ago

          I didn’t realize OP’s question was ‘What desktop operating system would you recommend to Scott’s dad?’ I guess I need new glasses.

      • Victor@lemmy.world
        61·
        12 days ago

        I don’t get the appeal of immutability. System files are read-only for users for a reason already. Don’t modify them as root unless you know what you’re doing and you’ll be fine.

        What am I missing?

        (Also gaming for a 78 year old, meh.)

            • Pommes_für_dein_Balg@feddit.org
              2·
              12 days ago

              The updater downloads an updated copy of your root system and saves it next to the one you’re running.
              When you reboot the next time, the bootloader boots from that new system image.
              Userspace applications are installed as flatpaks and sit in a writeable directory.

              • Victor@lemmy.world
                4·
                12 days ago

                And “the updater” is what? A program running as [not root]? How does it have write access if nothing does?

                • Pommes_für_dein_Balg@feddit.org
                  2·
                  12 days ago

                  It’s the package manager. And it doesn’t have write access to your installed root either.
                  It doesn’t change anything on your installed file system at all, it installs a new system next to it.

                  • Victor@lemmy.world
                    2·
                    12 days ago

                    So it installs a whole new filesystem? Interesting. That feels like it sets limitations on how well you can take advantage of the full space of your hard drive.

                    And this action can only be performed by the package manager running under some magical God user that sits above root? Or some other mechanism?

        • gigachad@piefed.socialEnglish
          1·
          12 days ago

          I’m not an immutable guy, but from what I heard it’s more of a way to address programs and dependency hell, less the user modifying system code. Correct me if I am wrong

      • stoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        12 days ago

        Bazzite?

        Really, you would recommend a young, gaming focused distribution for a non-tech person?

        I’d want something stable and trusted rather than something new and hip

        • alekwithak@lemmy.world
          3·
          11 days ago

          Yes. I’ve been switching non-tech people to Linux for 17 years. Ubuntu used to be the go to, but it has a steep learning curve for the average user, sucks, and has gotten consistently worse. Everyone eats their shit over Mint, and Cinnamon is nice, but I’d still field a lot of complaints. Pop! OS is awesome, but still only 90% of the way there (and also people hate the name).
          Bazzite is feature complete, requires zero tinkering on their end or mine, and ‘just works’ the way people expect a modern desktop OS to. I’ve converted just under a dozen people and several of my personal machines and haven’t had an issue yet. So yes, I would recommend a young, gaming focused distribution to a non-tech person. Isn’t Steam OS also young and gaming focused? And yet it’s arguable that most non-tech people start their Linux journey there. bazzite is just an improvement on Steam OS. So yeah, I like it. I don’t understand all the ire in this thread for my answer to the question. Everyone has their opinion, I have field research.

        • hikaru755@lemmy.world
          2·
          11 days ago

          Yes.

          • In my Linux experience so far, Bazzite is the first time things have actually just worked out of the box and I haven’t had to fix a single weird issue
          • It’s immutable with atomic updates, so much lower likelihood of the base system getting messed up, and it’s super easy to roll back to previous versions if something still manages to go wrong
          • Updates happen fully automatically in the background, you don’t even notice it
          • You don’t ever need to touch the terminal in normal usage. Everything is set up so that you can find any software a normie would need through the built-in app store. Flatpaks are great
          • If you object to the gaming focus, there’s a variant that’s just for regular desktop use and doesn’t have the gaming stuff preinstalled, but otherwise comes with all the same benefits

          The one thing I’ll give you is that it’s a young distro and hasn’t proven itself to be reliable and still available in the long term, but honestly, given all the other benefits, I’ll take that chance