3mo ago

Choosing a distro for a technophobe's computer

I'm looking for recommendations.

I have run Linux on my own computers off and on for the last 10 years. I'm not an advanced user, but I'm comfortable enough playing around with different distros and settings to find a good fit for myself and my own devices, and problem-solve as needed.

But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member's computer to Linux. This device is only used by people whose attitude toward computers is "if it doesn't just work, it's too hard and I can't engage". So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won't be accidentally broken by the users. As well as not being too steep of a learning curve for Windows users. (Their needs are uncomplicated - mostly just LibreOffice and Firefox, both of which they already use.)

Mint is often recommended for inexperienced Windows refugees. But I've had several things break in the process of getting Mint installed and updated on this machine. That wouldn't be an issue if it were my own computer, but it's not filling me with confidence that this is going to meet the ongoing "just works" requirement for this device. There's no way I'm going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.

Which other distros would you recommend for this use case?

Thanks in advance.

65 comments

Any one of the uBlue projects is perfect for this use case.
KDE: https://getaurora.dev/ Gnome: https://projectbluefin.io/ Gaming: https://bazzite.gg/
Install and setup once, run forever. Immutable so impossible to break for a tech illiterate user, no package upgrades fuck-ups because updates are atomic and don't touch the currently running system, are done in the background and are completely invisible for the user, great hardware support, based on Fedora. Users can only install Flatpaks through the App Store.
The only "maintenance" needed is a weekly reboot to move to the latest OS image.
As a personal feedback, I moved my gadget enthusiast but tech illiterate father on Bluefin. He can ruin a Mac in less than a few months. He can generate undocumented bugs on iOS by his mere presence. But somehow, Bluefin is still running perfectly after a year. That's how robust it is.
- thanks, I'm moving my mom's laptop from regular fedora to aurora right now
  
  Far and away the biggest thing I can recommend: Use the same distro yourself. If there ever are issues, you'll almost certainly encounter them first and know how to fix them quickly. Ideally use it yourself for a bit before you put it on your mom's computer so you can find any initial issues too.
- I vote against immutables. Been there and it's not if something breaks it's when. I had to completely reinstall my kiniote. Trust. Go with Mint LMDE to be exact skip ubuntus bullshit.
  
  I experienced that only when doing expert things on my system like trying to install new drivers. I've been using 4 different immutable distros for a few years and literally the only "breaking" thing was when UBlue distros moved to Fedora 42, which no longer allowed you to use the ostree admin unlock --hot-fix hack to directly modify your system and made you build your own modified variant using their GitHub template repo.
  I'm actually moving my wife to a UBlue distros specifically because I set it up remotely and it just auto updates.
  I will warn however that Flatpaks can be a nightmare for basic things like browsers if you want to do things like use a webcam, microphone, or, god forbid, a USB device. Make sure you manually set that up in the (probably flatpak) you're using before handing it over (probably by using Flatseal).
  
  For power users like ourselves sure but for beginners who are not tinkering immutables are perfect.

Just go with Aurora (or Bluefin), that's the way to go for tech illiterates. Most of these recommendations are 5 years out of date, like why recommend Ubuntu or Zorin, when those are almost the same as Mint.

I’ve had several things break in the process of getting Mint installed and updated on this machine
Like what? That doesn't inspire confidence in the PC itself.
- There were some broken package dependencies which I had to fix manually (a non-issue on my own device; a major red flag for this device). And after one set of updates, it needed about three tries to boot successfully (requiring hopping into recovery mode to smooth out the wrinkle - again, a non-issue if it were my own device, but...).
  As best I can tell at the moment, it's working fine with Mint installed. My concern is what happens next time something is updated or installed and I'm not there to resolve an issue.
  
  Maybe something immutable, then. Solid updates, easy rollback.
  What do you do when Windows crashes and you're not there?
  
  TBH once Mint's up & running and all those updates / dependencies are sorted.out, I've not had a problem with it.
  I'm supporting a couple of people that don't do updates, so it just stays static until I get there... when we arrive (ie for a weekend) I'll do a full backup whilst we're all catching up and then at some point I'll do a full update and make sure it's working again well before we leave.
  Agree with the other point on enabling remote access - and also setup something (ie syncthing) to get their data somewhere else.

Linux Mint
- Mint is the easy and safe choice and works fine for anyone who just wants to use their computer with minimal fuss.

Debian Stable. Get it installed, get everything working right and configured the way this person likes it on a reasonable DE with default themes, and more likely than not, you won't have to touch this thing for years.
The setup's not necessarily for noobs, but if you're the one doing the setup, you should be able to get it into a place where it will pretty much never break for them.
You should probably give them KDE or GNOME (probably KDE, as it's more Windows-like and less my way or the highway than Gnome). As much as I love XFCE, it's probably a good idea to give a layman a feature-heavy DE so that nothing is likely to be missing; also, it's way too easy to accidentally delete panel items or entire panels on accident and a little annoying to restore things back to the way they were. KDE's panels implementation mitigates these issues.
- I'm currently playing around with Debian on an old laptop of mine. If I can get the setup to a place where it feels sufficient for me to take my hands off, it could be the answer for this other computer.
  (Thanks for DE recommendations. It does my head in trying to keep straight which ones are suited to which uses.)

I moved my wife's laptop to Debian with Cinnamon as a desktop. She loves it and is as technophobic a person as I know..
Auto login, automated-updates set up, remote backups. She just has to open the lid and firefox is there, which is 95% of what she wants. Libre office is around for the remaining 5%.
This is someone who used to get angry at Windows forced updates and reboots, so not having any of that improved her quality of life.

Since tech illiterate people don't really care what's under the hood as long as it works, I would choose anything with Cinnamon desktop: Gnome is a little alien for newcomers, KDE and XFCE are far too easy to screw up if you don't know what you're doing.
If Mint doesn't work well with you I would suggest either LMDE, stock Debian or the Fedora Cinnamon spin (in this order of priority)
- I would love if there was an atomic Cinnamon spin. Fedoras Atomic Budgie version gets close but I think I still prefer god old Mint Cinnamon. There is hardly stuff to simply break anyhow.
  
  Yeah I have zero experience with atomic distros so I don't feel like suggesting those, but I have seen good comments in this thread about those as well

Zorin OS
- I had Zorin on my own computer for a while and really liked it, but it was crashing every few days and I decided I didn't want to put up with that. I'll give it another try one of these days - the issue may have been resolved, or my hardware my be different by then. But I won't use it on a computer whose user can't do their own tech support.
- This has become my go to OS for less technical users. I've even had a couple go for the Pro version so they could get the pre configured macOS like desktop.

If you(they) don’t mind having outdated software Debian stable might be worth looking into. Otherwise there are immutable distros which are very hard to fuck up, and even if you do there is the option to rollback to the previous version. I’d recommend Aurora or Fedora (fedora doesn’t include some proprietary stuff like some codecs so if you need that it’s probably better to use Aurora).
Linux Mint also has a version based on Debian stable, LMDE, which is could also be an option. It’s not as stable as Debian as it adds its own stuff but has the out of the box experience.
As general advice I’d suggest using less packages and more flatpaks as a faulty flatpak update can only break that flatpak, not your system. For packages be sure to disable online updates, meaning you have to reboot to apply them. This isn’t as convenient but if stability is that important to you I’d go for it

Fedora kinoite for windows-minded users. Fedora silverblue for everyone else.
That’s what I’ve used for the old people I do tech work for and excel for one who thinks Microsoft invented everything and nothing without MS branding is legit, they are all happy.
- Isn't Fedora and these immutable versions on a six month upgrade cycle? Do these update to a new version reliably? As much as immutable is hard to break, I know Fedora's regular distros and spins seem to update to the new version reliably.
  
  Yea fedora does sometime leave them Behind a while but catching them up again is simple. Even when the process breaks, it does so in a simple to salvage way.

Ubuntu is a commercially supported os. That is my bar for recommending an OS to someone.
- Then Mint is Ubuntu refined for technophobe or people too busy to mess with their OS, plus perfect ability to reuse all Ubuntu targeted software and skills.

I would go for mint.
I want to suggest something immutable, but even when I use it, I have just had some issues occasionally or when trying to get the one off software here and there.
Of all the people in my family, even elderly, mint has been the easiest transition and I have very rarely needed to perform any additional maintenance outside of doing updates for them here and there.

These days I just install Aurora Linux for this kind of situations. It's exactly how you described it. Haven't heard complains about it yet and their tech service needs from me almost dropped to zero.

People tend to reccomend the only one theyve tried lol, id say de matters more, most distros will just work in my experience, and most of them use guis for grabbing apps with the terminal being optional, Mint is an obvious pick, with cinnamon de being easy to use, prob wouldn't reccomend gnome with extensions unless you've already used linux for a few months, most other des have a solid default experience and easier (more straightforward) customizability
- Anduin Os is ubuntu gnome themed like windows 11, could be an easier transition
- Ubuntu studio may be a good pico if they are creative and don't know about linux apps, will have many preinstalled, bazzite if they game

I put everyone on LMDE

Hannah Montana Linux
- Lol...I was curious if HML was still going, so I looked it up..
  TL;DR: It's not: Hannah Montana Linux in 2025
  
  But RebbecaBlackOS still is.

Bazzite Gnome- a hidden gem, as many think Bazzite is just for gaming, but it also has a great desktop mode. Pretty much indestructible (immutable), polished, pretty, has a modern kernel (so good driver support) and has Firefox and Libreoffice installable as Flatpaks. Great for kids and grandmas.
- +1 for immutable in general.
- +1 I am installing bazzite gnome (configured to look like windows 10) on my wife and mum’s computers. As long as they have chrome they are good.
  
  i cant believe anyone still uses that garbage
- Seconded, but since they're coming from windows, just do the normal bazzite non-deck, as that uses KDE plasma which is a lot more similar to the modern windows shell

FWIW, you can install Win11 on unsupported hardware with a pretty easy registry edit to bypass the TPM check. I did it for my mom's PC that lives 600 miles away from me, thus far with no issues.
If it has to be Linux, I'd recommend something that's immutable and atomic on a platform you're familiar with so as to prevent careless mistakes by technophobes.
Ubuntu Core, Fedora Silverblue, MicroOS from openSUSE are all pretty stable and have rollback if something gets borked. Unfortunately, nothing is guaranteed to 'just work'. Good luck!

If Mint is misbehaving that badly on that hardware I'd be far more inclined to blame the hardware. What is it?

Maybe SpiralLinux? It's basically just Debian with a few twealks, but the btrfs+Snapper might come in handy if/when you need to do tech support.

All the normal folks I have moved over use Mint. It is not the distro I use. It has worked great for them. No complaints.

The typical recommendation in this case is Debian.
I don't know how hard it is to install since I don't use it myself. There are a lot of people swearing by it's stability, even running it for 10+ years on the same hardware without a reinstall.
- I've always found the installation process of Debian unintuitive for people not used to linux. But I could imagine that it's probably abreally good contender once the packages are installed and the DE setup with any necessary extensions for file browsers and other programs, for example preview of files in Nautilus for GNOME. Unsure if that is automatically installed or not in Debian but could be a good idea to check.
  I'd suggest trying a test install in a VM if you can to check how well Debian will hold after configuration. Package updates for my Debian servers happens every once or so week and with a DEs GUI package manager it could simplify the process of the user actually hitting the update button.
  
  If you want your updates automatically, you can install unattended-upgrades
- The only thing to keep in mind is with Debian, you'll need to upgrade to the next release for them.
  With something like Ubuntu, they can just click the upgrade box when there's a new major LTS release
  Either one can be better depending on how you want to handle maintenance
  
  Linux Mint Debian edition. Best of both worlds.
- Debian Stable is only supported for 3 years really and then 2 more years by the LTS team. The kernel and perhaps a few core libraries can supported up to 10 years by The Linux Foundation.
  You really need to migrate to newer versions every 3 - 5 years. Perhaps by “reinstall” you mean having to wipe and start over.

Windows 10 will still be usable after support ends. Security is the only concern, and not that big of one if you regularly back up. It may be a good idea dual boot with Linux on a separate drive while you hammer out the issues with whatever distro.
I personally think anything with plasma 6 will fit for interface coming from windows. Some sort of distro like Ubuntu or Debian that commonly has pre-packages in the wild would make sense.
- Better install Windows 10 IoT and get support till Jan 2032. As a Bonus the, so I heard, best version of Windows 10 will probably phone home minimally to never, won't rearrange your startmenu, won't install Candy Crush again and maybe not reset settings so aggressively after updates. Can imagine stuff like news, wallpaper of the day or the graphics in the search bar is left out too.
  Find installation instructions here. Seems they're inofficially tolerated by Microsoft, because it's hosted on Github and the iso's come from MS, AFAIK. I want to try it on Proxmox where I installed 10 with GPU pass-through recently. Using Linux for 8 years now after being a long time Windows user.
  IIRC they offer a way to install 11 without the hardware restrictions too on above site. I don't know how the gaming situation on 10 (IoT) is and and how much Nvidia, AMD and Intel will still support 10 from now on.
  Edit: corrected send too early cut off sentence

Biebian

But now with the end of Windows 10 looming, I need to upgrade a family member’s computer to Linux.
Why?
Did they ask for Linux? Do you have authority over them?
So this needs to be something that both is not going to break on its own (e.g. while doing automatic updates) and also won’t be accidentally broken by the users. ... There’s no way I’m going to be able to handle long-distance tech support if things break more than once in a blue moon.
Issues appear. I would be more focused on setting up remote access than choosing a distro.
I'd choose something LTS that has been around for a while (Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL-derivatives, SuSE if there's a freely-available LTS, etc.).
If you are not against the use of Google products, ChromeOS devices are about the best well-designed low maintenance operating systems. (Not Flex, a ChromeOS device.) But you would be sacrificing Firefox and LibreOffice, which might not be an option. (And technically, it's running a Linux kernel, if I remember correctly.)

I've never had Mint having dependencies issues, particularly when updating it. I don't know what you were doing, but I have put Mint in 20 laptops in the last 2 years (both on mine, and other people's), and no one, no one had a single issue like that. So I'd still suggest Mint.

You didn't even declare the hardware specs..
Regardless, Mint...

Debian with the MATE window manager (looks like older Windows) worked pretty well for my mom after I set it up for her. I don't think she ever figured out that it wasn't Windows.

65 comments