accideath

Dunnily enough, I got into Linux through my grandfather (now in his 70s), who had been on and off using Linux since redhat. Although, by now, my tech and Linux knowledge surpassed his (at least in applications relevant in this century) because he’s scared of the internet

You forget the step of installation though. My mum would be totally able to use Linux but creating an installer usb is probably beyond her capability or at least her comfort zone, let alone opening the bios, setting the usb as boot drive, disabling secure boot, and then installing Linux correctly. Although to be fair, the last step is probably the easiest. That’s why you still have to set it up for non tech savvy ppl. Sure, not much different with windows, but usually it comes preinstalled.

A very American association. Here in Germany for example, macaroni are among the more premium pasta variants (not expensive but not the cheapest around). The cheap (and most common) noodles are actually usually spaghetti, fusilli and penne. Mac n cheese box meals are not really a thing here.

I think the most likely answer would be "what?"

Sure, give a somewhat intelligent person between 20 and 40 a PC with Linux on it and they’ll figure it out. However, that doesn’t mean they have the patience of finding out how to install Linux in the first place. And also, they‘ll figure out how to install apps, sure. Until they try to download the installer.exe for Microsoft Office because why would they know that it won’t work.

The problem isn’t, that they couldn’t figure it out, the problem is most people just want a working computer and not relearn what they already know or learn what an operating system is at all.

(And also, I remember reading some study, that a lot of late Gen Z and younger (the ones that didn’t grow up with Windows XP or earlier anymore) are actually less tech savvy than older generations because they’re used to not really having to troubleshoot tech)

Most people care about neither. Most people want a browser, a place to store their photos and maybe an office application.

Is open office even still in active development?

Although I have to say, kdenlive surprised me very positively, when I tried it out recently. DaVinci is still king imo but in a pinch, I‘d prefer kdenlive over Avid Media Composer any time.

Because if you just set it up for them, they don’t have to think about the million choices of Linux. Tell them „here browser, there office and there files“ and most people above 40 probably won’t care.

While LibreOffice has improved immensely over the years, its compatibility to Microsoft’s file formats is still a bit hit n miss at times, while OnlyOffice is a drop in replacement. It looks like MS Office and handles docx & Co. as well as MS Office, which might be a deciding factor for someone who has been on Windows for a long time and has all their documents in docx.

Also, I personally always get MS Office 2003 flashbacks when using LibreOffice, while file types don’t really matter to me.

It reads like a good starting point for someone who wants to get away from Microsoft but has no experience with Linux, though. While Linux and OpenSource software are getting more and more beginner friendly, the amount of choices can make it difficult for newbies to even find out that Linux programs (be they FOSS or not) exist that can do what they need.

Surround sound didn’t work for me with the Jellyfin player and with the native player language selection didn‘t work. If you don’t have to transcode and spare a few quid, Infuse is great. Sadly can’t recommend it to my friends accessing my server from outside my home network because of said lack of transcoding.