Welp… My mom is apparently done with windows (yay!) Anf wants me to move her laptop to Linux (oh nooo). I personally use Ubuntu studios but im not sure what to get for her. She is getting her masters in nursing online so it def needs to be able to accommodate that. Do y’all have any suggestions on where to start? TIA

  • Tenderizer78@lemmy.mlEnglish
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    3 hours ago

    Though I’m disappointed at how ugly Cinnamon and all it’s themes are, Linux Mint (with Cinnamon).

    But as someone else said, probably ought to dual-boot or have a Windows VM just to be safe.

  • monovergent 🛠️@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    Linux Mint, as many have suggested, but Fedora would also be a good choice if there’s any bleeding-edge hardware not supported otherwise.

  • zemon@lemmy.ml
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    8 hours ago

    1, Find out whether she needs any specific piece of software that is hard to replace. 2, Regarding distro, you should install her what you use, so it is easier for you to help. Ubuntu is well hated for a reason though (Canonical doing big tech things). I’d recommend either Linux Mint or Debian (if you are not a beginner in Linux and comfortable in the termunal) for both of you, but I’d wait until she passes her exams and may consider setting up a dual-boot on a spare SSD first, so she is able to try Linux and go back to Windows when needed. 3, Desktop environment: GNOME is considered best for ones coming from Apple and KDE from Windows. Both are resource hungry in my opinion, so I use MATE, which looks like GNOME 2 out of the box and uses a bit more resources than Xfce, well configurable though. Note that Ubuntu MATE is its flagship edition, many options are there out of the box (like MATE tweak).

  • WFH@lemmy.zip
    0·
    9 hours ago

    uBlue Bluefin or Aurora. Tested and approved. I moved my dad on Bluefin one year ago, no issues, it just works for his use case (90% of the time in a browser, light photo editing in Krita, some text editing). No maintenance, no updates, no actual knowledge needed as a daily user, just a single reboot once a week to boot the freshest system image.

    And more importantly, it keeps on working despite his talent for fucking up every single piece of software he lays his hands on.

    https://projectbluefin.io/

    https://getaurora.dev/en

    • SunRed@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 hours ago

      +1 for uBlue. I did the same for my mother on her laptop and desktop PC for office work. Chose Aurora in this case. Setting system and flatpak updates to automatic means I hopefully never have to look after these systems again as the distro maintainers basically do the maintenance. Setting up Secure Boot with the shim/MOK method and TPM auto-unlocking for full disk encryption using the ujust scripts is a breeze as well.

    • notarobot@lemmy.zip
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      8 hours ago

      I’ve never heard of these. Which is not a bad thing, but I wouldn’t recommend for beginers

  • MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml
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    11 hours ago

    She is getting her masters in nursing online so it def needs to be able to accommodate that

    Is there any specialist software she needs, or is it browser based?

  • EnsignWashout@startrek.website
    0·
    11 hours ago

    Linux Mint is so nice.

    I would turn off “Secure Boot” in BIOS before doing the upgrade.

    It officially works, but can throw in unnecessary challenges - and Mom probably isn’t traveling with national secrets next week anyway.

  • Brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 hours ago

    My suggestion is to install Ubuntu with whatever desktop environment works for her. Since you’re using Ubuntu too, and you’re essentially going to be her tech support, it’ll just be easier all around to stay on the same distro at least for now.

    More importantly, how Windows-centric is she? Some people may prefer Gnome since using it is just a bit less complicated to use without needing to set a bunch of different settings. But if she’s expecting the Windows style start menus and such then maybe she’ll prefer KDE. Or there’s always installing Linux Mint’s Cinnamon on Ubuntu, Cinnamon would be easier than KDE for a ex-Windows user I suspect (https://ubuntucinnamon.org/ also exists apparently).

  • benjay@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Mint is one of the best options for your mom. People switching from Windows to Linux are their main target if I remember correctly