62
Easiest distro for elderly parent
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
62 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
65905 readers
638 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
I installed Fedora Silverblue on my parent's laptop almost a year ago and I haven't had any complaints or issues.
They're really not tech literate or heavy users so Silverblue is the perfect fit. I installed and configured Librewolf and Bitwarden for them and everything has been running fine. Everything else is vanilla Silverblue.
They don't know or don't care about updating software. But Silverblue does flatpak updates automatically in the background. OS and firmware updates are integrated and handled via the Gnome Software Center, so I'll click the install button every so often when I visit. No terminal required! There is a password prompt, but at least it's a GNOME shell password prompt, not a terminal password prompt.
Additionally, I was able to get LUKS encryption working without my parents noticing: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/encryption-advice-for-silverblue/162810/7
It's not the most secure LUKS implementation, but I'm also not worried about state actors hacking my parent's laptop. Originally, I skipped the disk encryption entirely because the extra password prompt made it harder to use the computer.
I use Aurora for my wife's laptop. It, Bluefin, and Bazzite come from Silverblue.
If you want GNOME: Bluefin or Bazzite.
KDE: Aurora or Bazzite.
Like Silverblue, updates happen in the background automatically. You just have to restart the computer to pick up OS updates.