• Gabadabs
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    fedilink
    31 year ago

    I’d say it can be, if they’re running something incredibly stable that you can guarantee won’t break on them… Which involves an amount of research and effort that most people simply won’t put in as long as what they are familiar with continues to work. Windows might have it’s fair share of issues, but at least a lot of people are already familiar with it, same w/ Mac os.

    • @azuth
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      41 year ago

      Nope. Install a distro like Ubuntu and it will not break with auto updates. Nvidia drivers included.

      Much less maintenance than when they used windows.

      You also overestimate the non tech enthusiast ability to use or fix issues with windows. They usually download the first program that promises to fix their issue, or increase their RAM.

      • Gabadabs
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        fedilink
        31 year ago

        I mean… that’s simply incorrect. If you read my original post, I talked about that, exactly. Twice in the last month I’ve had running updates via the “updates available” notification in Kubuntu break the system, and require chrooting into the system via a live usb to fix it. That’s without any changes or messing around with the system, on a very recent install.
        When I used normal Ubuntu, there were rampant gnome shell crashes. Hardware compatibility is far from perfect, as well - case in point I’ve done clean installs of Linux Mint on computers for others in the past, only to find out that there simply aren’t working wifi drivers for the device.
        Linux CAN be less maintenance, but it’s ultimately more work to actually make the jump and completely relearn how to use a computer. I’m fully aware of the capabilities on people who aren’t enthusiasts, I do tech support for my whole family all the time. My stepfather’s solution to the wifi being slow was to make more networks on the same router, it was hosting like 12 wifi networks at once. However, windows is already familiar to them. They could technically learn to use linux, but they have zero interest because if windows has an issue they’ll just call me and I’ll fix it (and that’s usually not needed because it rarely breaks on them).

        • @azuth
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          01 year ago

          Well our experiences differ then. I never had any issues on vanilla Ubuntu systems. After all if there was I 'd have to be on the phone to fix it while also reminding the fam that any non specified click us a left click.

          To be fair I rarely had issues with Windows myself, at least post xp. But windows do fail, especially on updates and in quite bizarre ways. I ve had to solve quite a few over the years.