Linux

Win10 or Win11? :p

Oh yeah that would be great. I hope it’s really coming🤞

Don't tell me it is law already!

these types of laws usually come from the most technically illiterate people ever

Instrumenting a fascist society while pretending to protect children...

Since it is impossible to implement on Linux, it may just be flagged as adult-only software.

But, there is still hope. What if Snaps and Flatpaks get properly flagged, allowing Ubuntu and/or Fedora to be legal?

My mother, 80 years old, uses Linux Mint.

It is a myth that Windows is easier to use than Windows. It is just what you know and it came with your computer.

We already have those. Arguably Windows is much more of a hassle to use than your average "works out of the box" distro. And don't start talking about the terminal, that's comparing apples and organges. A more apt comparison to the need of using the terminal on Linux is the need to apply registry tweaks or use powershell on Windows. As if "average users" would need to do that. They install software via the "app store", change settings via the GUI and run updates when prompted, all of which are seamless on most of these distros. If something breaks, they can't fix it themselves, but then they just go to someone else to help them, just like on Windows, which they also can't fix by themselves. Maybe they manage to reinstall, which isn't any harder than on Windows, if not easier these days.

The group you're actually talking about (and likely belong to) are the Windows power-users that would need to rethink things, and would be capable of rethinking things, if they wanted, which they don't. I know some of these people myself, complaining all day about Microsoft and the privacy nightmare that they put in huge effort to mitigate, but sadly they absolutely need to rely on this one "critical" piece of freeware from the 2000s that they are sure won't run on wine (not that they've tried) or a cracked copy of Photoshop they use for cropping and changing the brightness of desktop backgrounds, but it's the industry leader, so they obviously won't use "inferior" software for that, face the facts Linux users. They think package managers are much harder than downloading and clicking through Setup.exe for the 100th time in a row, and they've had this one bad experience with "rm -rf /" 10 years ago which is why they don't "trust" the terminal, yet routinely double-click on downloaded .bat files without thought. 🤷

My MIL is a grand mother and uses Linux Mint. She's about as illiterate as you can get.

Do you think you could teach Linux to your grandmother?

My 50+ yo mother uses Linux Mint daily with fewer problems that when she used Windows. Her crowning achievement in IT is learning how to use email.

I helped my 93 yo friend switch from Windows 10 to Linux 2 years ago. He called me 3 times in the first 2 weeks to ask how to do something, but hasn't had a single problem since that's related to the OS.

Linux Mint, Bazzite, Fedora, and several other Linux distros are already easier to use than Windows. The only thing holding most people back is fear of change.

There are some people who have specific setups in Windows or a large number of "Windows only" apps, but these people are in the minority. The average person can't even tell you which operating system they're currently using, and wouldn't notice the difference if you swapped the OS but kept the same web browser.

Teaching people without computing skills to use linux is actually easier than teaching windows. Most trouble people have with linux comes from being used to windows and having difficulty to adapt.

Actually, my mother knew how to use Debian before she could use Windows. Her first pc came with Windows XP, switched that for Debian as its been my main OS since 2000.

Yes, you can teach your grandmother to use Linux.

Do you think you could teach Linux to your grandmother?

Yes. Set automatic package updates, Install firefox with ublock and put it on the taskbar, and bookmark Facebook and Youtube for her. It is the same thing as under Windows.

I would argue that for the most "tech illiterate" users the Linux experience can be made even easier than the windows experience, because you have to set up everything for them anyways.

Both of my grandmothers are dead, but I did teach my aunt to use Linux. She had a laptop that "ran" Windows 10. It would take 30 seconds to open the Start menu. One SSD, one RAM upgrade and one install of Mint later it's a whole new machine. She can Firefox and Mahjongg just fine.