mmarcott 🐡6d ago
Anthropy

I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works.

I checked her laptop just now and it's fully up to date on fedora 43, so she's done like 20 version upgrades autonomously too. The battery has degraded a little but the whole thing still works fine and she's very happy with it.

This is how things should be, this is peak computing tbh.

#Fedora #Linux

Mar 14 at 11:57amWeb
Show threadJulesMar 14

@anthropy

Truly the best way to reduce ewaste is to not fall into the marketing trap of buying the latest gadget every year. A good laptop on Linux can last decades, even longer if the parts are modular.

Happy to know your mom is a long time Linux user. Much love! 

Show threadMaj - 🇨🇦Mar 14
@anthropy ugh I wish I had done that.
Every time we visit I have to troubleshoot a bunch of Microsoft bullshit and deal with their wacky tablets..
Show threadschrotthaufenMar 14
@maj @anthropy I started switching my family over last summer. “Y’all gonna have to buy new hardware for Windows 11, or you could keep your devices and try a Linux distribution.” Let them try different distros and DEs on distrosea.com, installed dual boot. (Just don’t let them choose a distribution you can’t actually support.)
Show threadBeko PharmMar 14
@anthropy only thing I have to manually kick from time to time is Zoom. That's on Zoom tho because they can't be bothered to offer a repo like and it has to be downloaded manually. Ah well. There's probably a snap available nowadays.
Show threadschrotthaufenMar 14
@bekopharm The zoom download URL is stable. You could write a small systemd timer, or a cronjob to fetch the package, and install it. Twice a month or something like that.
Show thread🐈‍⬛David SommersethMar 14
@bekopharm @anthropy zoom is available on flathub.
Show threadRaven667Mar 14
@dazo @bekopharm @anthropy ive had trouble with the Zoom flatpak, and exclusively use Zoom in Firefox. There was a (small) link on the we page when you join a meeting that was recently hidden behind a toggle in the settings, but i was able to find it, and its always worked perfectly in a browser for me on Fedora
Show threadOregon Pacifist Mar 14
@anthropy that’s really awesome!
Show threadkookie 🍋Mar 14
@anthropy I installed Fedora on my dads iMac (that stopped getting security updates) and I'm very curious how he'll be getting on with it. But this gives me hope!
Show threadBaa 🐑Mar 14
@anthropy stop upgrading hardware.
Computing peaked 20 years ago
23,000 versions of windows can go to hell
Show threadVictoria🏳️‍⚧️Mar 14
@anthropy out of curiosity, what desktop did you went for?
Show threadAnthropyMar 14
@tragivictoria KDE! even back then it hit a nice middle between Windows-like UX and Linux flexibility and stability
Show threadBarry Cook 🇨🇦Mar 14

@anthropy - it's the nearly - and over - 80 year old moms and dads and uncles and aunts (and sometimes weird neighbours in their garage) who essentially created the personal computer and the OSs and software that run on them.

They probably know better than the rest of us what 'just works', and what are simply "Squirrel!" products.

Show threadSpace InvaderMar 14

@anthropy This is legit good news. I tried 20 years ago to repurpose my grandpa’s old tower into a Fedora machine. An OS update broke it, and the advice on forums was to SSH in and do some hand-wrangling of files.

Got a gentle chiding from him every so often until Alzheimer’s took his memory about how good I am with computers except his, and he hoped “that Linex thing” wasn’t still causing trouble.

Show threadRaven667Mar 14
@spaceinvader @anthropy ive been a big fan of Silverblue and Bazzite for this reason, updates are even more reliable, and if for whatever reason the updated image doesnt work right you can select the old one in grub and run on it indefinetly until whatever problem in the update is fixed, you should *never* be locked out of your working computer due to a software/distro bug
Show threadTyrone SlothropMar 14

@anthropy I’ve had both my non-techy sister and my 80+ father in law on Debian for close to a decade now.

No problem at all. Any questions they have are for the kind of stuff that would give them trouble on Windows just the same.

Show threadBen FultonMar 14
@anthropy What does she use it for?
Show threadAnthropyMar 14
@benfulton everything from watching DVDs/Netflix to email/internet, managing her photos with Shotwell and making small presos and docs and stuff with Libreoffice for e.g her garden club and what not else, honestly impressed with how advanced her usage of it is given her age
Show threadNormanDunbar6d ago
@anthropy @benfulton Brilliant.
Show threadAnne OminousMar 14

@anthropy

that's so awesome.

i built a PC for my parents in 2004 and my father started randomly deleting files from the hard drive whenever he perceived anything was going wrong with it. so by like 2005 he had destroyed the computer's OS beyond my capabilities to repair

Show threadRad und TatMar 14
@rustoleumlove @anthropy Wouldn't that be solvable with the right permissions?
Show threadAnne OminousMar 14

@radundtat @anthropy

🤷‍♀️

Show threadPaco HopeMar 14
@anthropy We look forward to her first open source contribution. 😜 Does she prefer emacs or vi? Tabs or spaces? You did inform her that she can’t use #Linux without having opinions on these things, right?
😂
Show threadSibrosanMar 14

@paco @anthropy

You're being a bit lame, don't you think.

It's a long time ago that you needed to be a nerd or to have knowledge of programming to comfortably use #Linux.

Show threadPaco HopeMar 14
@sibrosan No, I don’t think it’s lame. It’s gentle fun at nobody’s expense. Maybe you don’t think it’s funny. That’s ok. I don’t think it is harmful at all.
Show threadLIΞBΔCHMar 14
@anthropy Pretty much the same situation for my mother, except Ubuntu, an we had to get her a new ThinkPad at one point.
Show threadPhil Stevens Mar 14
@anthropy My 85-y-o mum is visiting and got a call from a good friend in Queensland yesterday. She made it a point to tell her to download Signal so that they could stay in touch effortlessly.
Show threadcrowMar 14
@anthropy yeah i don't really understand where the meme of linux being unreliable is

it's more reliable than windows for sure
macos is very stable but only targets one type of machine and architecture so yeah i would hope so

a distros like fedora have always worked amazing ime
Show threadsebsauvageMar 14
@anthropy
Nice 👌 congrats
Show threadArmandoMar 14
@anthropy hehe, my mom as well. On Linux Mint singe around ten years. I live like 6 hours away and no Problems.
Show threadthomastc | frozenfractalMar 14

@anthropy My wife is still using her 2008-ish ThinkPad, onto which we installed LUbuntu when its Windows version became "obsolete". I think it lacks video encoding hardware because Zoom and friends are not working well, but for basic use it's still doing its job.

Oh and we installed a second hand SSD at some point. Not sure if it would still be usable on a spinning rust hard drive, with software being the size it is these days.

Show thread Ned HairstonMar 14
@anthropy My mom hated how Windows programs kept "switching the buttons around." So I switched her to Linux. That was 20 years ago. She loved Linux. Her computer just worked. My dad and my sister wanted to switch her to Windows so many times and she wouldn't have it.
She used Linux for nearly 20 years and was happy with it. We started with Linspire, then went to Suse, then Vector, Fedora, and finally Ubuntu, and it always just worked.
Show threadRad und TatMar 14

@anthropy Mum finally let me install Mint on an old laptop when Windows 11 drove her crazy. Works like a dream and I expect I'll be allowed to install it on the new laptop before the year is over...

#Linux

Show threadCalcaneoMar 14
@anthropy Life as it should be! 😍🤓
Show threadJaggyJeffMar 14
@anthropy Your story is even better than mine ❤️ My then 70-year-old dad wanted to get on the Internet a decade ago. I got him a 16-inch Dell laptop and installed Ubuntu on it. He has been using it to this day even though the battery is cooked. Only had one upgrade that failed on me in the mean time. I am grateful to my younger self for all the bullets dodged.
Show threadarosano 🇩🇰 🇮🇱Mar 14
@anthropy Moms rock!
Show threadchristian mockMar 14
@anthropy I gave my mum a used dell laptop with debian for her 70th birthday, which was over a decade ago, and I can say the same thing. Does everything she needs (web browsing and text processing). The battery's toast, but she only uses it at her desk anyways.
Show threadSpaceLifeFormMar 14

@anthropy

Clearly not broken. Do not replace.

I'm talking about your mom.

Show threadWaitman GobbleMar 15
I have old laptops too, it's a concern that the battery will explode and burn down the house
Show threadSpaceLifeFormMar 15

@hello

This. I have an old laptop that I noticed the battery was getting hot. I stopped using it for this reason.

When I find my round tuit, I will get an OEM battery.

Show threadWaitman GobbleMar 15
There are a few videos on youtube that are a bit worrisome
Show threadLaurensMar 15
@SpaceLifeForm @anthropy 'Person installed Fedora on 80 year old mother, who will turn 154 next week.'
Show threadDrew 🇵🇭 ♾️Mar 14
@anthropy Fedora - especially with KDE - is indeed fairly wonderful.
Show threadInfosec V'gerMar 15
@anthropy @mainframed767 Fuck yeah it is. Tech that gets out of the way so you can just use it. Amazing.
Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 6d ago

@anthropy

If she uses it plugged in a lot, show her how to set the charging threshold to protect the battery from wear. 👍🏻

Show threadjohn r red-horse5d ago

@anthropy

What this highlights in my mind is just how straight forward, well documented, and reliable the #Fedora upgrade process is.

I used #Debian stable for several years on my personal computers, and I did not have a similar experience with upgrades on it. It is true, though, that those only happened every two years.

Show threadJohn4d ago
@anthropy Similar experience - My mother (83) has been on a Linux desktop for 5-6 years.
A real beautiful thing happened when a phone scammer called the house and wanted her to install remote software.
"Oh I am using this Linux thing"
<clunk>
She loves it, and hardly ever needs help.