Solved How do i get my grandma to use linux?

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My grandma is about to be 67 years old. How do i convince her to use linux and if she says yes whats the easiest to use distro? I think it might be mint but im not sure.

And she does not even know what a linux is. ive been trying to tell her what it is but she forgets alot. She complains about windows updates and all that and the laggyness of windows.
I really dont know any other way.

Thank you very much everyone
 


How do i convince her to use linux and if she says yes whats the easiest to use distro?

You don't really 'convince' people. You 'encourage' them.

To clarify, you show them the benefits, and they (may) convince themselves to try it. You encourage them to learn more about alternative operating systems, and they convince themselves to try it.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

Also, keep in mind that not everyone dislikes Windows. There might be billions of people who use Windows, and many of them are happy with the experience. The reasons we have for using FOSS don't apply to them. They either know and don't care, or they don't know and don't care to know.
 
You don't really 'convince' people. You 'encourage' them.

To clarify, you show them the benefits, and they (may) convince themselves to try it. You encourage them to learn more about alternative operating systems, and they convince themselves to try it.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

Also, keep in mind that not everyone dislikes Windows. There might be billions of people who use Windows, and many of them are happy with the experience. The reasons we have for using FOSS don't apply to them. They either know and don't care, or they don't know and don't care to know.
thanks man.
 
Mint Cinnamon. Used that for years, only switched to Debian KDE because I wanted a different appearance.
 
Mint Cinnamon. Used that for years, only switched to Debian KDE because I wanted a different appearance.
actually that sound pretty nice ima try and ask my grandma if she would try it for a sec in a VM then give her a USB drive flashed with mint and tell her how to do it and leave her alone so that she could try it out
 
If it was me, I would just boot up an install USB with a "try me" option and let her see it in action.

It's hard to pick the easiest distribution to use but Mint is fairly user friendly. I find that Ubuntu and it's various flavors to be quite user friendly as well.
 
If it was me, I would just boot up an install USB with a "try me" option and let her see it in action.

It's hard to pick the easiest distribution to use but Mint is fairly user friendly. I find that Ubuntu and it's various flavors to be quite user friendly as well.
Good advise!
Seeing Linux Live is believing.:)
 
ima try and show her my current installation and how fast it is and see if she likes it or not
 
If she's anything like my dad, who is in his late 80s, she only needs a browser. My dad has been on Mint for years (10 or more) and never complained about it. Everything he needs just works. Recently I replaced his PC with a mini and installed Debian with KDE. I set it up to look like Cinnamon and he did not even noticed any difference. Make sure to set up automatic updates though unless you visit her very often and is able to do that manually.
 
get her a "new" laptop - something that's got high enough specs to let her do what she wants to do (mostly email and pictures I'd bet, if my grandmother was anything to go by), install whatever your favorite distro is, show her the basics, and tell her that you're her tech support now.

years ago that's what I did for my grandmother - each Saturday I'd call her and we'd chat, I'd remote into the computer & help her do whatever she wanted. this was of course years before I switched to linux but the premise still works.

good luck ;)
 
get her a "new" laptop - something that's got high enough specs to let her do what she wants to do (mostly email and pictures I'd bet, if my grandmother was anything to go by), install whatever your favorite distro is, show her the basics, and tell her that you're her tech support now.

years ago that's what I did for my grandmother - each Saturday I'd call her and we'd chat, I'd remote into the computer & help her do whatever she wanted. this was of course years before I switched to linux but the premise still works.

good luck ;)
this is actually a good idea. thanks man
 
I'd say the DE matters more in a case like this. Mate is pretty straightforward.
I used Mate for years. The main reason that I switched to Cinnamon was because it was more colorful. I don't really remember all the differences.
 
I used Mate for years. The main reason that I switched to Cinnamon was because it was more colorful. I don't really remember all the differences.
MATE is my go-to DE. For years.

Last January I reinstalled my moms PC with Linux Mint (Cinnamon). She didn't want W11 as 10 was nearing end of life.

"John, I hear you speaking of Linux for years now, can I use it too ya think?"
So I made a live USB, plugged it in and let her play with it. After bout 30 minutes of fiddling she said: "It does the same as Windows but faster and it looks so beautiful."

So I installed t, was available for troubleshooting and what not and after 2 weeks she was using it as if she has been using it forever. Granted, it is just basic Internet use and Libre Office stuff and a game or 2 as old people do but she is now comfortable with it.

She's 79.
 
Mate is the only DE I have ever used. When I switched over to Linux I tried Xfce, Cinnamon, and KDE, in addition to Mate. Mate just "fits" me well. And I've never had a reason (so far) to switch.
 
i dont agree with you guys

i think the best eye candy DE is KDE or cinnamon (i dont mention gnome to think he is not like windows, but he is similar to macOS UI)

and i recommended mint or zorin even ubunto if she used the computer to browsing
 
I've always found that, by and large, it's pointless trying to "encourage" family members to switch to Linux. To try and make somebody change how they do things, just because YOU think it's better, is presumptuous at best......and at t'other end of the scale, just downright ignorant. Sorry, but I gotta say it as I see it.

My family are, mostly, firmly wedded to Windows. My younger brother - in his mid-50s - is a confirmed Mac fanboi, and has been for 20 some-odd years. He never wastes an opportunity to take the p*ss out of me for computing "on the cheap".....as he puts it. He'll think nothing of dropping a couple of grand on the latest iPhone every other year, and doesn't even blink an eye at Apple's ridiculous prices. He's of the firm opinion it's worth it... o_O

Your gran is 67? She's a couple of years older than me. My Mum is 92. If MY gran had still been alive, at her next birthday she would now be celebrating her 124th....!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Mama tried Windows out when she was nearly 80. She bought a laptop with Win7 installed......and within a few days, she got hit by one of the very first instances of ransomware. She turned it off, put it away in the cupboard and from that day refused to have any more to do with it. I "rescued" it, cleaned it up, updated it all for her but.....she didn't want to know.

(shrug...)

Different generation, y'know? She didn't find it easy at all.....but she'd had her own skills when she was a lass. Always an office worker, in her day shorthand was the big thing to know about. To us these days, shorthand looks like nothing so much as a bunch of scribbles......but she could take shorthand at up to 140 wpm (words per minute). She could type at 120 wpm.....and this wasn't a computer, or even an electric typewriter, oh dear me no. This was on a manual, mechanical typewriter, where you had to put pressure on each keystroke to make it work at all! 120 wpm was amongst the top 5% of typists in the world in those days. She even had official certificates from the Pitman Institute to prove this; her guv'nor sent her away on a 5-day course specifically to enable her to get them....

The Pitman Insitute - now Pitman Training - is a globally-recognised, UK-based organisation that has been in existence since 1837.....not far off 200 years. Their certificates could be taken anywhere in the world, and your qualification would be accepted at face value......without need of proof, OR even checking up on you. That's rare, even by today's standards.

We can do stuff she couldn't do. But she could do stuff that precious few folks could match, even now. Just think about that. We think we're the bees knees with all this modern technology......yet people had their own highly-skilled fields of endeavour, centuries ago. We're nothing special at all, despite trying to kid ourselves to the contrary.

C'est la vie.


Mike. ;)
 
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