[OT] Granny-friendly Linux Distros?

[Vladimir Panteleev]

On Sunday, 5 May 2019 at 23:32:46 UTC, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) 
wrote:
> We've got a lot of very reasonable, level-headed Linux folk on 
> this board:
>
> I'm helping my mom look for a laptop to replace her ~10 year 
> old one, and given all the mess Windows Update has been making 
> of things since about Win7 onwards, I'm temped to just stick 
> her on Linux (especially if I can't find anything still using 
> Win7). Heck, 90% of what she does is just web browser anyway, 
> with the other 10% being pretty much Linux compatible stuff 
> (Hmm...although come to think of it, only possible exception 
> might be her iPhone...I'll have to look into that, I'm not an 
> iOS guy...).

For all of my relatives (mom, dad, sister, pretty much anyone who 
comes with me with a problem requiring installing an OS), I have 
been installing Xubuntu LTS. It works great. The UI is simple, 
the UI stays always the same (unlike Gnome/KDE), and it's fast 
even on very old computers.

I would not recommend a rolling release distro. A major upgrade 
of desktop environment can unexpectedly disrupt their day-to-day 
workflow. Ubuntu LTS releases have a very long support period, so 
even if you turn off automatic upgrades, you need to manually 
update/reinstall once every 6-8 years.