[OT] Granny-friendly Linux Distros?

[evilrat]

On Monday, 6 May 2019 at 17:01:21 UTC, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) 
wrote:
>
> - The LTSes are still, what, 3 or so years IIRC? I'm figuring 
> her next machine will probably last her about another decade, 
> so that's well beyond that. So what's the LTS-to-LTS upgrade 
> process like? Is it basically an OS re-install like upgrading 
> Windows traditionally is? Or is it as 
> simple/transparent/painless as 'Uknown' describes Ubuntu's 
> regular day-to-day update process to be?
>

Yep, 3 years I think, but recently some of them are 5 years.

dunno about LTS->LTS updates, but regular to regular is as simple 
as
   - install all available updates (having all updates is a 
requirement, it just doesn't show that upgrade available 
otherwise)
   - click update distro in the same window (what is really sucks 
it doesn't show any progress, or i'm blind?)
       *or*
     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I don't remember if reboot necessary immediately after upgrade.
LTS to regular migration is also possible, can't say the exact 
steps but you only need to mark that you are willing to get 
"unstable" updates and do upgrade.

Updates will show small window on start up showing estimated 
download size (last few times it was just about 50mb for me, most 
of it are kernel stuff and libc), you can close it and do it 
later from updates app, or install immediately. Usually no reboot 
needed and it takes just few minutes.

You can certainly put some older LTS on VM and see how it works 
for yourself. Having fast net connection this shouldn't take much 
time, an hour or two is probably enough to test the process.