Today at the grocery store a sweet older lady approached me and asked if I knew anything about computers. I said yes I do, and she produced a mouse saying that her son set up Linux mint for her and she was wondering if the mouse was compatible. It needed kernel version 2.6 or newer so I said that the mouse should work, guessing mint itself was probably newer than that kernel. Happy with my answer, we chatted a little, then she thanked me and left.
It was a nice experience, so I thought I should share!
Assuming this story is true, Linux is going to be a nightmare for that woman. It’s come a long way, but it’s still not as dead simple as it needs to be for non-technical elderly people.
tbh: she probably clicks on the thing that says “INTERNET” and thats it. I’ve been setting up a few computers in my family for people 50+ and they mostly don’t even know the name of the program they use and mix it all up. I then just install a program and prefix the shortcut with the service. Like “MAIL Outlook”, “INTERNET Firefox” so they know where to go.