"SO proof" distro
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eh, gnome is about the same.
i always wait for at least the .1 or .2
Haven't used GNOME for a while, but I guess that's a problem of open source projects in general. Though GNOME at least has Red Hat behind it.
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I’m gonna be the boring guy.
RedHat Enterprise Linux. (Or Rocky)
Most boring distro ever. Install it, turn on all the auto updates and be happy. Install something to take backups. Ignore any new major-releases, that laptop will die before the OS hits EOL.
Benefits:
- Boring. It’s their tool, not your plaything.
- Actually works
- Will be reasonably secure over time with minimal effort and manual intervention.
- If any commercial Linux software is required, it will most likely only be supported on RHEL or Ubuntu.
- Provides web browser and word-processing. And we don’t need anything else.
Drawbacks:
- Boring (for you)
- Not ideal for gaming
If you install anything else than RHEL-derivatives or possibly Ubuntu on a machine that someone else will use, you are both in for a world of pain. It has to ”just work” without intervention by you, and it needs to keep working that way for the next 5 years.
Source: Professionally deploying and supporting multiuser desktop Linux to a few thousand users other than myself.
In the era of Flatpak, I kind of agree with you.
The primary drawback is the complete lack of packages. A home user is going to want something not included and then things fall apart. Flatpaks and Distrobox have made that a lot better.
If you could get away with a RHEL core and Flatpak for apps, you would have a pretty solid setup for a “normal” person.
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Has "non techy" evaded you ?
You can install imperatively using nice profiles. So you the OP can set up the base distro in a way their SO can’t break. Then any extra software can be installed imperatively using nix profiles. Any installed software will work as normals. Checking the normal places for configurations if their SO even needs to go that far
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Any recommendations for a linux distro that i can set up and be reasonably sure my non techy SO won't break accidentally? The set up doesn't have to be easy it just has to not break once I leave her alone with it. My first thought was popOS.
My plan is to have 2 profiles and not give her access to sudo. I just don't want to have to go into it unless she needs a new program.
I've got my wife and 5 year old on slackware. They wouldn't know how to screw it up if they wanted to!
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Any recommendations for a linux distro that i can set up and be reasonably sure my non techy SO won't break accidentally? The set up doesn't have to be easy it just has to not break once I leave her alone with it. My first thought was popOS.
My plan is to have 2 profiles and not give her access to sudo. I just don't want to have to go into it unless she needs a new program.
Any immutable distro would do I guess
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Any recommendations for a linux distro that i can set up and be reasonably sure my non techy SO won't break accidentally? The set up doesn't have to be easy it just has to not break once I leave her alone with it. My first thought was popOS.
My plan is to have 2 profiles and not give her access to sudo. I just don't want to have to go into it unless she needs a new program.
Since less techy people tend to use more the mouse/touchpad anyways, I would pick a hard-to-mess-with desktop environment like mint or gnome. With KDE, XFCE and such you can screw panels really easily if you don't know what you're doing.
Slap Debian under it and there you go -
Any recommendations for a linux distro that i can set up and be reasonably sure my non techy SO won't break accidentally? The set up doesn't have to be easy it just has to not break once I leave her alone with it. My first thought was popOS.
My plan is to have 2 profiles and not give her access to sudo. I just don't want to have to go into it unless she needs a new program.
I prefer Manjaro, super easy.
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In the era of Flatpak, I kind of agree with you.
The primary drawback is the complete lack of packages. A home user is going to want something not included and then things fall apart. Flatpaks and Distrobox have made that a lot better.
If you could get away with a RHEL core and Flatpak for apps, you would have a pretty solid setup for a “normal” person.
I both agree with you, and kinda disagree.
If you venture into installing Flatpaks on such a system, just keep in mind that:
- Auto updates must be on
- The Maintainer of the Flatpak in question must be expected to provide security updates for the next five years or so. Personally, I’d only use it for packages provided directly by project maintainers (i.e. Dropbox from Dropbox Inc. as packaged by Dropbox Inc.).
Keep in mind, like 95% of normal people (we are not normal) don’t know what a package manager is and only use
- ”The internet”
- Webmail
- Google Docs
- Spotify
For that, we need the default desktop install and the Spotify app (probably a Flatpak). That’s about it. It’s a glorified web browser with batteries. Treat it that way and keep it that way, unless your SO has any specific needs and requirements.
The limited and dated package set is kind of a feature. Only packages that should work until the laptop breaks, and only packages that won’t change randomly when you update (mostly).
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I both agree with you, and kinda disagree.
If you venture into installing Flatpaks on such a system, just keep in mind that:
- Auto updates must be on
- The Maintainer of the Flatpak in question must be expected to provide security updates for the next five years or so. Personally, I’d only use it for packages provided directly by project maintainers (i.e. Dropbox from Dropbox Inc. as packaged by Dropbox Inc.).
Keep in mind, like 95% of normal people (we are not normal) don’t know what a package manager is and only use
- ”The internet”
- Webmail
- Google Docs
- Spotify
For that, we need the default desktop install and the Spotify app (probably a Flatpak). That’s about it. It’s a glorified web browser with batteries. Treat it that way and keep it that way, unless your SO has any specific needs and requirements.
The limited and dated package set is kind of a feature. Only packages that should work until the laptop breaks, and only packages that won’t change randomly when you update (mostly).
Really seems like we are agreeing. I get that the limited package set is a feature. I also get that it is both too small and too enterprise to satisfy most people you would describe as a “SO” precisely because they are probably normal people.
You gave the excellent example of Spotify and suggested a Flatpak for that. Honestly, I am not sure where we are in disagreement. Especially since I started by “mostly agreeing” myself. We even agree on that.
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Here's the bazzite attempt at viral marketing, everyone.
Remember when we saw it for MX Linux?
Be careful about what you install on your computers.
Its popular rnow because of all the handhelds I think
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Any recommendations for a linux distro that i can set up and be reasonably sure my non techy SO won't break accidentally? The set up doesn't have to be easy it just has to not break once I leave her alone with it. My first thought was popOS.
My plan is to have 2 profiles and not give her access to sudo. I just don't want to have to go into it unless she needs a new program.
Mint.
I have my mum (67) and my partner using it.
Libre office and Firefox cover 99.9% of all the things mum actually does.
My partner uses blender, krita and audacity also.
Auto updates... Almost no tech support.
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Any recommendations for a linux distro that i can set up and be reasonably sure my non techy SO won't break accidentally? The set up doesn't have to be easy it just has to not break once I leave her alone with it. My first thought was popOS.
My plan is to have 2 profiles and not give her access to sudo. I just don't want to have to go into it unless she needs a new program.
Any of the ostree variants of Fedora, be they Fedora Official or downstream ones like the Universal Blue family
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While I enjoy using Aurora, there were a bunch of issues popping up over the last few months (e.g. display freezes). I guess that's the danger of a rolling release cycle, but I'm not sure it's 100% as foolproof as it needs to be right now.
Aurora is not a rolling release. It's part of Universal Blue, based on Fedora Silverblue.
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I prefer Manjaro, super easy.
I'd rather recommend Manjaro to those who want to start out simple, but then get into the details of Linux.
Unless all you do is browsing, Manjaro starts easy but then has a steep curve because it's still Arch, with the added issue of practically every Manjaro newbie ignoring warnings about AUR.
It will require you to work with the terminal, troubleshoot, and get to understand your system. This is not bad - that's how I got into Linux and never looked back after all - but this is not a bulletproof "SO distro".
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Any immutable distro would do I guess
That is, if you have experience running immutable distros yourself and are able to serve as a tech support for them should they ever need it.
A lot is different under the hood, and general Linux knowledge doesn't always help.
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I've got my wife and 5 year old on slackware. They wouldn't know how to screw it up if they wanted to!
Now that's an extreme choice
Doing a lot of tech support, don't you?
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BLUEFIN.
Or Kinoite, for a more familiar experience
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Has "non techy" evaded you ?
In fairness, there are attempts to make Nix user-friendly, such as SnowflakeOS, featuring a lot of improvements including a graphical app store etc, but those are alpha and not ready for an average user.
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I switched from ubuntu to debian when 12 was released and it's been fine. Only thing i was worried about was running WoW via lutris but had no issues.
So when my SO windows pc died we bought some newish parts and i installed debian on it as well. Also installed chrome since that's her browser of choice. She's still getting used to gnome, but all she needs is browser, WoW, and libreoffice, which is close enough that it hasnt been an issue. She doesn't even know how to update the system.
If she wants a familiar experience and ease of switching, why not consider KDE or Cinnamon? Both are officially available within Debian.
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Aurora by Universal Blue. She will be unable to break it, and it's so freaking easy to use and install.
Depends on the use case. For example, I actually managed to bork Aurora to the unbootable state while trying to make a VPN work properly in a matter of two hours.
