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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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[–] 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.