[adjejmxbdjdn]

I’ve faced far more issues with relatives with Macs than when they had Linux.

The key with Linux was giving them an LTS Ubuntu but not messing with it at all.

The problem with macOS recently has been that it keeps changing how things work which would result in the relatives messing around and messing up the system.

Ubuntu has been pretty rock solid and reliable, while not changing anything drastically enough to lead them to try and mess with it.

[wl]

I recently had an experience with a family member's Ubuntu LTS machine where it was stuck on an old release, /etc/apt/sources.list needed to be edited because of Ubuntu's obnoxious habit of breaking old repositories, and then I needed to debug apt issues to get do-release-upgrade to actually work.

The Macs and iPads have their own problems, but nothing like that.

[imp0cat]

But how old exactly?

https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle

The 16.04 is still supported and it was released in 2016! So it must have been an even older system, right?

[fragmede]

Eh. You just install codex or Claude code and tell it to fix it for you.

[pdimitar]

Hell, you can install the gemini/antigravity CLI and use Gemini's free tiers and it will still fix it for you.

[juancn]

The issue is when it updates.

The moment it runs an update all bets are off. It's always audio for me, it breaks in the weirdest ways.

Mac updates are the best in the industry, period.

Close to zero chance of having an issue (unless you're messing with third-party kernel extensions).

[b212]

Sounds nearly impossible it took me 3 years to figure out how to properly use my Bluetooth headphones with LTS Ubuntu a few years back. The solution: bought a Mac after 3 years.

There were millions of other annoying small things in Ubuntu itself as well. I’m sorry to say but as much as I love nix systems Ubuntu wasn’t really for general public - maybe it’s better today, not sure. Heard the story over and over again - that it’s superior, and every time I try it I’m utterly disappointed.