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#1 2020-05-08 00:16:02

Akaya
Member
Registered: 2020-03-23
Posts: 9

Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

Hey, so I got my mom a thinkpad x220 because she needed a computer to work on things and she was going to buy some overpriced laptop that would've been broken in a few months. She's kind of a boomer and only knows how to do basic things in windows so I installed windows 7 for her and she's being doing fine albeit that windows doesn't run that well since she has the nasty habit of having 50 firefox tabs open at once with only 4gb of ram (yes I'm not exagerating).

Anyways since windows 7 looks ugly without aero (those fancy effects), runs suboptimally, is bloated, insecure, and has recently hit end of life I was thinking of installing arch on her computer and getting a nice noob friendly DE where she could do everything she does in windows the same if not easier. The problem is I have no expirience with DEs whatsoever and I can't just try them out for a few days on her laptop because she needs to use it. I could install them on my computer but idk if that would translate well into a laptop and I wouldn't be able to know if it's good enough unless I use it for some time. So if anyone has any good suggestions that would be lovely.

PS: btw would you recommend sticking to officially supported DEs for stability or are AUR maintained DEs just fine?

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#2 2020-05-08 00:23:03

Trilby
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Registered: 2011-11-29
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Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

Do you live with her?  Will you be there to maintain the system?  If not, putting arch on her computer would be more of a disservice than the names and tone you use when speaking about her.  If you will be there to maintain the system, XFCE may be a good option, otherwise I'd suggest linux mint.

And as Mother's Day is in a few days, I think a nice gift for her might be some respect.

Last edited by Trilby (2020-05-08 00:23:54)


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#3 2020-05-08 00:33:10

jasonwryan
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From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
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Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

I installed Linux Mint on my mother-in-law's machine several years ago. My tech support requests flatlined shortly after. Best decision I ever made.

Last edited by jasonwryan (2020-05-08 00:33:29)


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#4 2020-05-08 00:34:12

Akaya
Member
Registered: 2020-03-23
Posts: 9

Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

Trilby wrote:

Do you live with her?  Will you be there to maintain the system?  If not, putting arch on her computer would be more of a disservice than the names and tone you use when speaking about her.  If you will be there to maintain the system, XFCE may be a good option, otherwise I'd suggest linux mint.

And as Mother's Day is in a few days, I think a nice gift for her might be some respect.

Wow never thought someone could get so mad about the word "boomer", let alone about someone they don't even know. I don't see that as disrespectful at all and she doesn't either, I don't live in an authoritarian family and we always joke around with each other.

Maybe you should take a break from the internet and stop getting so mad at strangers, being this rude online just makes you come off as a total asshole. Really immature from you.

Last edited by Akaya (2020-05-08 00:34:51)

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#5 2020-05-08 00:37:46

fukawi2
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From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
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Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

And I'm going to nip this in the bud right here... Trilby, Akaya, you each have your own opinions of family dynamics, and you're each in the best position to evaluate those for your own situations. I'm not going to judge either of you for either opinion, but I'm going to ask you to stay on topic.

Removing my moderator hat, I'm going to agree with Trilby on the technical aspect of this discussion - set your mother up with Ubuntu or Mint or something relatively maintenance free compared to Arch. You'll both go grey a lot slower.

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#6 2020-05-08 00:51:23

Akaya
Member
Registered: 2020-03-23
Posts: 9

Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

fukawi2 wrote:

And I'm going to nip this in the bud right here... Trilby, Akaya, you each have your own opinions of family dynamics, and you're each in the best position to evaluate those for your own situations. I'm not going to judge either of you for either opinion, but I'm going to ask you to stay on topic.

Removing my moderator hat, I'm going to agree with Trilby on the technical aspect of this discussion - set your mother up with Ubuntu or Mint or something relatively maintenance free compared to Arch. You'll both go grey a lot slower.

Yeah sorry I never imagined this would turn out this way but I felt like I had to defend my self.

Anyways I have installed mint on other laptops and it's quite slow, maybe it's just a problem with those specific models? (compaq laptops probably don't like linux very much). I get that arch can be harder than other distros but I feel like once it's setup it's very solid and It doesn't really break. Also wouldn't using the LTS kernel make the system just as stable and easy as something like mint/ubuntu? If I'm wrong feel free to correct me please.

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#7 2020-05-08 00:57:05

jasonwryan
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From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
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Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

Akaya wrote:

Also wouldn't using the LTS kernel make the system just as stable and easy as something like mint/ubuntu? If I'm wrong feel free to correct me please.

No. There is nothing magical about the LTS kernel.

Nor is Arch any "faster" than Ubuntu or anything else. Once you pile Gnome/KDE etc on, speed is all down to hardware.


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#8 2020-05-08 00:58:39

fukawi2
Ex-Administratorino
From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
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Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

Akaya wrote:

...once it's setup it's very solid and It doesn't really break.

True.... Until you leave it for 12 months being nice and stable, then your mother decides she wants to get into genealogy and has found this great Linux program that helps her with that, and it's even in the Arch repos, but she can't install it because her system is so far behind the rest of the repo that you either do a partial upgrade and break everything, or you have to spend hours doing 12 months of updates just to install this new program for her. It doesn't even have to be obscure like that, it could just be a matter of keeping her web browser up-to-date.

Akaya wrote:

Also wouldn't using the LTS kernel make the system just as stable and easy as something like mint/ubuntu?

Using the LTS kernel just reduces your reboot cadence. Everything else in the repos keeps moving forward at the same pace as the standard kernel.

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#9 2020-05-08 01:01:35

Akaya
Member
Registered: 2020-03-23
Posts: 9

Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

I'll just install mint or ubuntu thanks.

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#10 2020-05-08 01:22:24

Akaya
Member
Registered: 2020-03-23
Posts: 9

Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

jasonwryan wrote:
Akaya wrote:

Also wouldn't using the LTS kernel make the system just as stable and easy as something like mint/ubuntu? If I'm wrong feel free to correct me please.

No. There is nothing magical about the LTS kernel.

Nor is Arch any "faster" than Ubuntu or anything else. Once you pile Gnome/KDE etc on, speed is all down to hardware.

Yeah I just thought the LTS kernel would just prevent the system from getting borked by a bad kernel update (which I think is rather unlikely) but I totally forgot about the problems that come with not updating everything else...

About the speed/responsiveness I thought that since Arch doesn't come with so much stuff in it would run better on lower end hardware because the system is more lightweight, (I still think it would) but that totally misses the point for her usecase. My mother needs all her utilities accesible and ready to use at any time which isn't really the case on an arch install. I realized giving her an Arch install would be really dumb even If I set up everything correctly because of the nature of the distro. Linux mint or other similar alternatives are a no-brainer and I was just being silly really.
Now I still don't know if the default DEs on them are the best but I think they will largely do the job since they just look like better windows.

Thanks for the wisdom!

Last edited by Akaya (2020-05-08 01:23:00)

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#11 2020-05-08 04:34:22

Awebb
Member
Registered: 2010-05-06
Posts: 6,271

Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

jasonwryan wrote:

I installed Linux Mint on my mother-in-law's machine several years ago. My tech support requests flatlined shortly after. Best decision I ever made.

I went from Windows over Ubuntu and Mint to Arch and now my mother is trained well enough to find a keyboard and magic sysreq my backup server. Ironically, she has bought herself a Windows box and now competently manages it herself, because using Linux has taught her structure and now she can navigate the chaos.

By the way, @Akaya: The Arch Linux bbs is one of the last places that doesn't annoy folks with boomer vs. millennials kind of posts. You basically use a slang term for an entire age group as a synonym for backwards and incompetent. This is no different than slurs based on ethnicity or race. It doesn't matter, what your mother is fine with being called, you're talking to total strangers, so the language you use will set the sails for the way people will treat you. Your "defense" shows a lack of empathy and going full ballistic on Trilby, who actually gave you a valid answer wrapped in a display of dissatisfaction with your public demeanor. You didn't even consider being wrong and suddenly "asshole" and "childish" was on the table.

Sincerely, an actual millennial who gets called a boomer by gen-z kids on platforms built by boomers and gen-x folks, developed with technology invented by silent-gen people.

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#12 2020-05-08 04:39:56

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

Awebb wrote:
jasonwryan wrote:

I installed Linux Mint on my mother-in-law's machine several years ago. My tech support requests flatlined shortly after. Best decision I ever made.

I went from Windows over Ubuntu and Mint to Arch and now my mother is trained well enough to find a keyboard and magic sysreq my backup server. Ironically, she has bought herself a Windows box and now competently manages it herself, because using Linux has taught her structure and now she can navigate the chaos.

I can't imagine mine ever competently managing any sort of technology, it just holds no interest for her. smile


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#13 2020-05-08 04:52:11

fukawi2
Ex-Administratorino
From: .vic.au
Registered: 2007-09-28
Posts: 6,217
Website

Re: Can any DE replace a windows 7 boomer workflow?

Awebb wrote:

By the way, @Akaya: The Arch Linux bbs is one of the last places that doesn't annoy folks with boomer vs. millennials kind of posts. You basically use a slang term for an entire age group as a synonym for backwards and incompetent. This is no different than slurs based on ethnicity or race. It doesn't matter, what your mother is fine with being called, you're talking to total strangers, so the language you use will set the sails for the way people will treat you. Your "defense" shows a lack of empathy and going full ballistic on Trilby, who actually gave you a valid answer wrapped in a display of dissatisfaction with your public demeanor. You didn't even consider being wrong and suddenly "asshole" and "childish" was on the table.

Sincerely, an actual millennial who gets called a boomer by gen-z kids on platforms built by boomers and gen-x folks, developed with technology invented by silent-gen people.

All excellent points, and well articulated.

OP has their answer to the original question; I'm going to lock thread this to avoid an off-topic bikeshed.

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