this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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How to grandma-proof Linux? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by stefounet@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.world
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In short, my question is "Is there a way to prevent a non-malicious but unknowledgable and clumsy user to ruin their own home directory?"

Say my grandma opens a file browser looking for a picture, finds those dot files or those mysteriously-named directories distracting, sets her mind to deleting them. And assume she somehow finds a way to do so. While I understand that dot files or mysteriously-named directories of a non-privileged user are of no ultimate importance, it is a maintenance nightmare.

Plus, it's not only mysterious files that are prone to be targetted. She might well delete by accident the picture she was looking for.

Two kinds of solutions that come to mind are: -Restrict file permissions in an adequate way -Implement an easily operable, fool-proof, back-in-time scheme

Is there a mainstream, well-supported distro of GNU/Linux that has figured this use-case out?

I figure it might come in handy when Window 10 is no longer supported and the reports of hacks keep coming in.

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[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Would kiosk mode be any good for her use case? Add the photos etc. as a different user and give Grandma read only access, and automatically reset her home directory on boot / login.

Use an immutable distro to lessen the chance of her deleting something important, and you should be set. Maybe set up Firefox with sync so that she can add bookmarks, and have that log in automatically.