I got my mom a Chromebook. It's the most successful computing experience so far, but I was quite surprised by a few things.
She didn't realize that the password to log in to your computer was the sync'd to her Google password. So she would type some random password 5 times, until the Chromebook said "use your Google password to reset your Chromebook password", and would then log in with that. Every single time.
Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads. Chrome is a little more aggressive about not letting you change the New Tab page these days, asking you occasionally if you still want the extension to control it (even for the new tab page I use, an extension from Google).
But despite that, she got a lot out of the computer, so overall it worked quite well. And we fixed those two issues, so I don't think there are any problems now.
> Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads
I'm not even mad, I'm honestly impressed both that your mom went to such lengths and that a website managed to convince a layperson to do such a thing.
I literally bought my wife's parents a Chromebook yesterday. Their really old computer finally bit the dust, and when I asked them what they did on the computer it was all very simple stuff around the internet. Maps, web, email, and pictures.
Lightroom to me means the user is in the more advanced category. I'm routinely amazed at what Google photos does without any input (tagging, grouping, enhancing), and if I want to tweak pics Snapseed works really well. The only time I startup LR now is if I pull the DSLR out.
That's the biggest concern: being able to use the interface the way you have for ages without having to RE-familiarize yourself. This seems to be a harder hurdle for non-technical older folks. The gmail app interface changing every so often on android tablet would cause parents so much confusion that I finally replaced the tablet with a linux laptop with thunderbird
She didn't realize that the password to log in to your computer was the sync'd to her Google password. So she would type some random password 5 times, until the Chromebook said "use your Google password to reset your Chromebook password", and would then log in with that. Every single time.
Some website managed to convince her to switch to developer mode to install a non-web-store extension that overwrites the new tab page and search functionality with ads. Chrome is a little more aggressive about not letting you change the New Tab page these days, asking you occasionally if you still want the extension to control it (even for the new tab page I use, an extension from Google).
But despite that, she got a lot out of the computer, so overall it worked quite well. And we fixed those two issues, so I don't think there are any problems now.