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.

  • aleph@lemm.ee
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    5 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.works
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      5 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.ee
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        5 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.