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.

  • Vertelleus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    23·
    6 months ago

    NixOS is an immutable file system if they are disaster prone. You will have to load everything for them ahead of time, browser, email client, Only/Libre Office, etc.

    I had to switch a friend’s mom to this because after switching her to Linux Mint previously, she somehow deleted the UI entirely.

    • aleph@lemm.eeEnglish
      51·
      6 months ago

      Good lord. If you’re not already familiar with NixOS, there are far, far easier ways to go immutable.

      Configuring Nix makes Arch seem like a walk in the park.

      • Vertelleus@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        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.eeEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          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.worksEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            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.eeEnglish
              1·
              6 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.

          • Lichtblitz@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            11·
            6 months ago

            Silverblue/Kinoite

            Those are not immutable, especially on the file system. I’m glad the fedora team switched the term to “atomic”, because “immutable” set all the wrong expectations.

            • yala@discuss.onlineEnglish
              11·
              6 months ago

              So you’re saying that most directories in /usr and (also) some other directories in / are not read-only during runtime (under regular system maintenance/management) on Fedora Atomic?

                • yala@discuss.onlineEnglish
                  1·
                  6 months ago

                  Thank you for clarifying what you didn’t write nor mean. Could you be so kind to explain what you did mean with what’s quoted below?

                  Those are not immutable, especially on the file system.

                  • Lichtblitz@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
                    1·
                    6 months ago

                    Sure. Not all directories are protected and the ones that are, are just protected from immediate write access. A malicious app or a user who copies the wrong snippets can create overlays and apply them immediately without a reboot. Having atomic distros is awesome but it has nothing to do with immutability and it someone needed that for example for PCs that are in random control at least some of the time, then they need a different solution on top, that gives actual immutability.