Any recommendations for a linux distro that i can set up and be reasonably sure my non techy SO won’t break accidentally? The set up doesn’t have to be easy it just has to not break once I leave her alone with it. My first thought was popOS.

My plan is to have 2 profiles and not give her access to sudo. I just don’t want to have to go into it unless she needs a new program.

  • Gayhitler@lemmy.mlBannedEnglish
    0·
    5 个月前

    Does she want this?

    If so then just set her up exactly what you have so you can easily help when there’s a problem.

    If not then get her the computer she actually wants.

      • Gayhitler@lemmy.mlBannedEnglish
        0·
        5 个月前

        Consider 0patch before you give up on windows. They do good work and it’s real affordable.

        No matter what you do, in this circumstance it’s worth keeping that windows partition around.

        I do think whatever you use is the right choice though.

        • mumei@lemmy.world
          0·
          5 个月前

          Aren’t there ways to patch the whatever-it-is that is “required” by W11 that older PCs don’t have so that you can bypass the check and have W11 on older machines? I feel like that’s a better solution than paying for Microsoft’s garbage, if one was bent on not moving to Linux

        • asap@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          5 个月前

          Consider 0patch before you give up on windows

          Unless there’s a very specific application need, I think the most sensible thing would be to ditch Windows. Better for security, better for privacy, better for the world to increase the mainstreaming of Linux.

          • Gayhitler@lemmy.mlBannedEnglish
            0·
            5 个月前

            Yeah wouldn’t it be nice…

            But the most considerate thing for the user is to help them use what they want to use. There’s also a real benefit to keeping ahold of that windows because people often have their own ways of doing things and it may be more expedient to boot back into 10 than to figure out how to complete some task in Linux.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
      0·
      5 个月前

      Might end up in dumb annoying situations like setting up wifi requiring root and such

        • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
          0·
          5 个月前

          Surprising amount of stuff requires root (or used to). It reminds me of this glorious rant from Linus from his less domesticated times (that he made on Google Plus hah). https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/linus-to-opensuse-devs-kill-yourself-now.30414/

          The highlight:

          So here’s a plea: if you have anything to do with security in a distro, and think that my kids (replace “my kids” with “sales people on the road” if you think your main customers are businesses) need to have the root password to access some wireless network, or to be able to print out a paper, or to change the date-and-time settings, please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place.

          Oof.

          • just_another_person@lemmy.world
            0·
            5 个月前

            This is old as hell, and on a locked down account. You don’t need restrictions like this for a personal use machine, and a base install of any distro wouldn’t have this type of issue whatsoever. It is not a modern concern.

              • 🄰🄴🄷🅀🅉🅈@awful.systems
                0·
                5 个月前

                Oh wild, I thought “No way!”, but apparently yes way as I (Tumbleweed/KDE/Standard User) get all of this which I imagine would be disorienting to non-Linux users. Just going to Wi-Fi & Networking, not attempting to make any changes even.

                • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
                  0·
                  5 个月前

                  Don’t have this issue on archlinux. I think there is a group, which if you are part of, you can change networking settings.

                  [moonpie@cachyos-x8664 ~]$ groups moonpie
sys network wheel audio kvm lp storage video users rfkill libvirt docker moonpie
    • ClipperDefiance@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 个月前

      This is what I do with my mom and her boyfriend. I’ve had them on Linux for a few years now and neither have managed to break anything.

  • EarlGrey@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    5 个月前

    Fedora Silverblue.

    Or really any immutable OS; they would have to go way out of their way to even edit system files, much less break the system. I just recommend Silverblue because gnome is really hard for an inexperienced user to break.

  • ReallyZen@lemmy.ml
    0·
    5 个月前

    Debian is good at being basic, generic, stable AND has an automatic security-update-in-the-background feature

    The whole amount of instruction to give to Dear SO is just to reboot the machine if it ever seems to misbehave

  • kittenroar@beehaw.orgEnglish
    0·
    5 个月前

    An immutable distro would be a good choice. They are distros designed to be more resilient against failure. For a gamer, bazzite is a solid choice; otherwise, silverblue.

  • Xanza@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    5 个月前

    Use btrfs snapshots. Bring the PC to a state that you like, make a snapshot. Then on shutdown set the profile to reload to the specific snapshot.

    Any issues? Just restart. Might take a minute, but it ensures the exact same environment every time.

    • jamesbunagna@discuss.online
      0·
      5 个月前

      Why don’t you try to be useful instead? Is there anything wrong with Bazzite? Are there other distros that are better suited for what OP needs?

      Honestly I’m not expecting much from ya. Though, I hope you can surprise me.

    • Hozerkiller@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      0·
      5 个月前

      I honestly had never heard of it till I posted this. To be fair there are a billion linux distros at this point.

      I honestly was expecting everyone to say mint.

    • asap@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 个月前

      Explain how you can shill for a free product which makes no money?

      I don’t use Bazzite, but I’m glad to see immutable distros being mentioned as they’re the only sensible option for OP’s use-case

    • Darohan@lemmy.zip
      0·
      5 个月前

      Zorin is a good shout, but it’s definitely not “trending”, it’s been a staple recommendation for over 5 years now.

  • lilith267@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    5 个月前

    Linux mint is a good, “click first” distro that won’t break without root + will be easy for her to use. For something with a more modern desktop and more recent updates, Bazzite is really good at just working and (in my experience) has never broken

        • commander@lemmings.worldEnglish
          0·
          5 个月前

          Here’s the bazzite attempt at viral marketing, everyone.

          Remember when we saw it for MX Linux?

          Be careful about what you install on your computers.

          • asap@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            5 个月前

            You know the build scripts which turn Fedora Kinoite into Bazzite are all open on GitHub, right… 🤦

            • commander@lemmings.worldEnglish
              0·
              5 个月前

              I never mentioned perfection.

              I hope people reading this can start to recognize shilling when they see it.

              • fenndev@leminal.spaceEnglish
                0·
                5 个月前

                “Someone mentions a distro they like” ≠ shilling. I use Bazzite and have been for months. Before that, used Nobara, EndeavourOS, and vanilla Fedora, along with a number of others I tried when I was distro-hopping. Wholeheartedly believe that Bazzite is currently the best generally-available Linux distro for gaming and is up there for general use. It’s not perfect, but nothing is - it gets close for the use-cases I mentioned, though.

            • kusivittula@sopuli.xyz
              0·
              5 个月前

              I tried mx for 7 minutes. it installed nvidia drivers and that killed it. off to the next distro I hopped, knowing the problem could have been easy to fix. shame, it seemed interesting.

          • quarterlife@lemmy.sdf.org
            0·
            5 个月前

            Bro I’m the lead developer and I’m just now seeing this, just accept you called the viral marketing wrong.

            We’ve grown to the point that when I market something, I tell people not to listen to me because I’m biased.

    • kusivittula@sopuli.xyz
      0·
      5 个月前

      I have tried most known distros but not bazzite, yet. might be the next one on my distrohop journey since everyone recommends it. hope it works better than fedora kde, it does not get along with my hardware AT ALL

  • dogsoahC@lemm.ee
    0·
    5 个月前

    Semi-serious suggestion: Guix or NixOS. They’re not break-safe per se, but if they do break something, you can use the OS’ previous generations to go back to an operational state. Just… don’t let them use the commands that delete older generations.

    (Semi-serious because they’re both not exactly mainstream and not eactly conventional in their setup.)

    • balsoft@lemmy.ml
      0·
      5 个月前

      Yep, NixOS as a base + some Flatpak store for installing apps. In fact, use impermanence to just drop all OS state apart from logs, network settings and flatpaks. That way, “turn it off and then on again” will almost always work to fix the OS.

  • Duckytoast@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    5 个月前

    I’ve installed popOS to a couple of relatives, haven’t had anty issues for a year so far. Can definately recommend!

  • gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com
    0·
    5 个月前

    Any of the ostree variants of Fedora, be they Fedora Official or downstream ones like the Universal Blue family

  • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nzEnglish
    0·
    5 个月前

    Mint.

    I have my mum (67) and my partner using it.

    Libre office and Firefox cover 99.9% of all the things mum actually does.

    My partner uses blender, krita and audacity also.

    Auto updates… Almost no tech support.

    • Dark_Dragon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      5 个月前

      Linux mint makes sense. Auto updates and its hastle free for non techy person like me.

      Even if I’m doing something crazy , chatgpt to the rescue.