[rsolva]

These fullscreen messages are so confusing to elderly people, most of my support calls from family and friends are related to the weird and unpredictable updates and invasive popups, or the consequences from these.

I have slowly been moving them, one by one, over to Fedora. I still get support calls, but not related to the OS, more like, "how do I add an attachment to this email, I forgot."

[tapoxi]

I can see it now...

"How do I share my screen?"

"Well grandma, the Google Chrome Flatpak you're using defaults to Xorg so it runs in XWayland, which means it can't see the desktop because the rest of your shell is native in Wayland. If you go to chrome://flags and set prefered-ozone-platform to wayland it might work, but some people in this reddit thread also mention you need to install xdg-desktop-portal-gnome so it can call the screensharing API in GNOME. This also might not work in the Flatpak at all and maybe just the RPM."

[hot_gril]

I usually use my Linux workstation headlessly at work, but maybe once a year I turn on the screen. It's an entirely different GUI each time. Last time this somehow had to do with the Xorg vs Wayland thing, which also partially broke Chrome Remote Desktop. It's hilarious.

[rsolva]

Oh, and for screen sharing for support, I use the built-in Remote Desktop functionality (RDP). I have set up a Wireguard connection from the laptop to my home network which makes it possible for me to jump at any time in without 'grandma' having to do anything. Such an improvement over TeamViewer (which also had trouble with Wayland for a long time, maybe still does?).

Remote support is a breeze now, and we save the usual 30 minutes of guiding an update of TeamViewer over the phone (because of an old and incompatible version) etc.

[rsolva]

Yeah, this used to be a problem, but it has been working fine since Fedora 39. I can share a single window or the whole screen with the video conferencing tools I'm using, mainly Signal, sometimes Google Meet, Teams (both in Firefox running natively on Wayland) and Zoom.

Flatpak has made it so easy to install most common apps, just press the Super key, search for the app, click on it in the list and "Install". Usually takes less than 10-30 seconds from start 'till the app is installed and running. Very grandma-proof, actually!

EDIT: But I will say that the road to where GNOME / Fedora is today has been a bumpy ride, like a car that is under maintenance while driving :) It's the FOSS / Linux way. In the end, the result is actually quite amazing and user friendly.

[hot_gril]

Would've never thought of having a non-tech-understanding person use GNU/Linux before, but nowadays I think Windows has managed to close the gap on its own by becoming horrible. Though there are other options like iPad or Chromebook.

[Delk]

If they're non-tech-understanding enough, it might not matter at all. Someone who's oblivious enough may use the computer as more of an appliance (plus web).

I had my ageing parents set up with a Linux desktop for some years in the past. I just -pre-configured everything they'd likely have needed. Browser, email, instant messaging (as it was at the time), a photos app, possibly something else I'm forgetting.

It's the somewhat tech-savvy (or at least somewhat tech-independent) for whom such a transition might be the most trouble.

(And, of course, those people who use specialized applications or hardware for which support may not be available, or who use workflows that require going somewhat below the "appliance" level and which could require significant relearning.)

[hot_gril]

I agree that the semi-power-user category is the most problematic, but my grandma wasn't there. More like, so non-tech-savvy that she accidentally clicked buttons or hit shortcuts for power users, messing things up in ways she couldn't fix. Like, she deleted the Safari address bar and installed 10 malicious Chrome extensions. Used her mouse upside-down for a while once.

GNU/Linux actually might've been best because it's harder to do anything in it. Chromebook wasn't an option cause the screens are too small, and idk if Chromeboxes were viable back then (~2015). She used to use Windows, which was an unmitigated disaster with viruses.

[Delk]

I guess my parents are/were of a cautious enough sort that, for them, the trouble of navigating the internet turned more into narrower use rather than installing tons of malicious extensions via questionable websites. (I do remember once finding an .exe file downloaded from the website of a magazine to which my father subscribed. Didn't work in Ubuntu, I guess. Probably also not malicious in that case, but I can see how people could end up with crapware.)

As for other issues with basic use, my mother is even older now, and even things that used to be pre-arranged and familiar have become more difficult. But I don't think the OS matters much for that any more, on a grand scale. Touchscreens might help to an extent (and also avoid upside-down mouse issues), and obviously things would need to be set up so that there aren't any unnecessary hurdles. But beyond that it's learned routines rather than any kind of a generalized understanding anyway. She does know how to usually get rid of things by clicking 'x' though.

Did you find something that worked out for your grandma in the end?

(edit: You edited your reply before I finished mine, so I replied to the earlier version. I see the problem with accidentally triggering things. I guess it might be the fairly cautious nature and the limited use patterns that might have saved my parents from them.)

[hot_gril]

Sorry, I wanted to reword my comment to be shorter but say the same thing basically.

Nothing worked. In hindsight, maybe the Mac would've been ok-ish if I'd used Chrome Remote Desktop to help whenever she had issues, which had fewer pitfalls than the other screen sharing options I tried. Last one I remember was Teamviewer, which broke cause her friend "fixed her computer by removing junk" like that, but it also had other issues before.

[Delk]

No worries. Too bad that nothing worked.

Screen sharing for support is probably a necessary problem I didn't think of much since I happen to live close by. It'd absolutely need to be something that requires minimal effort from them.

[belthesar]

I had my grandmother running on Linux since 2008, and she loved it. She wasn't gonna get a virus, she didn't have root/sudo capability on her user, which meant she wasn't going to break anything, and she had ad blocking in her browser. She was told two things: "1. If something wants to install something or update something, say no. If it keeps asking, call me. 2. You can't break this." This removed the fear she had using a computer, and went from "too afraid to turn it on lest she hear the sighs and frustrations of her now late technophile husband" to "doing everything from social media to online shopping". The last machine she had was an Asus Chromebox I bought her when the machine she was using was just not able to keep up anymore. She used Google Apps for word processing, Gmail for email, and had a ball.

Sibling commenters have it right - if a computer is an appliance to them, then going for the simplest, least likely to accidentally mess up option is the best one.

[rsolva]

Linux (in my case Fedora) has been fantastic, especially for the non-techs who have not gotten used to Windows or a Mac! All they need is a browser (with adblock) and maybe a simple word processor. Fedora does not nag about updates, it just chugs along and keeps everything up-to-date in the background. Major OS-updates is a one click in the app store, which I do once a year-ish. Soooo much less hassle then MacOS and Windows!

[hot_gril]

I can see it, OS doesn't nag the user and things stay static aside from automatic updates, which you could even disable if you wanna be around for them. Problem is even some web things will not work the same in Linux, for example Netflix officially only supports 720p, and hardware compatibility isn't guaranteed (bluetooth and wifi especially).