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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip

Distro suggestions for grandparents? (aussie.zone)

submitted 5 months ago by PetulantBandicoot@aussie.zone to c/linuxquestions@lemmy.zip

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Hello there. Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a Linux distro for grandparents? They are over 70 years old, with an old HP desktop and laptop running Windows 10. All they need is a Web browser, so no need for special software or wine to run Windows programs. Would preferably like something that is low maintenance so I don't have to be constant tech support for them (apart from the initial install and setup). Thanks for any suggestions.

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[–] Vertelleus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure why it's harder than Arch. It basically has it's own app store and you select the stuff from their website to install through the terminal.
Could you expand in your reasoning?

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

They have a GUI package manager? That's news to me. When I tried it out last year, package management was handled by nix-env or configuration.nix.

Anyway, I found it much harder than Arch because it requires learning a completely new paradigm of system management. There is a very high upfront investment in learning multiple new concepts in order to change even the most basic aspects of your system - What are flakes? What are channels? What is home-manager?

Also, the documentation and online support is far more sparse. If you encounter an issue, it's much more likely that you can find the solution for Arch through the wiki or a forum than it is with NixOS. There also tends to be no single way to resolve a problem, and so a lot of the information you find online may appear contradictory and confusing.

[–] Vertelleus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I never said it had a GUI store, but if your installing things for grand parents it's pretty easy through the root account, that the grand parents dont have access to. Go to https://search.nixos.org/packages search for one like Firefox and copy the command.

How is this harder than Arch?

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

And I never said installing packages is harder than Arch. I said setting up, configuring, and troubleshooting the system is harder than Arch.

In any case, the original point was that NixOS is a weird choice for an atomic/immutable system for grandparents when compared to something like Silverblue.