Ask Slashdot: What's the Best Linux Resource for a Retired Windows User? 147
Slashdot reader Leading Edge Boomer wants to help "a retired friend whose personal computing has always been with Windows."
But recently, they were gifted a laptop that's running "some version of Linux..." Probably he's not even aware that there are different distributions for different purposes. He seems open to learning about this different world. What recommendations might Slashdot readers have to bring him up to speed as a competent Linux user? I really don't want to hold his hand, and he's smart enough to learn on his own.
"Mint is the answer," argues long-time Slashdot reader denisbergeron. "First make him use Mint, because it's easy and there a lot of documentation and the community is very strong."
But long-time Slashdot reader spaceman375 thinks they can solve the problem with just three letters. "Show him the man command. When he feels confident, or breaks it pretty hard, then I'd agree — install mint and go from there. But start with man."
Is that it? Is it as simple as that? Share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments — along with your learning tools for beginners.
What's the best Linux resource for a retired Windows user?
But recently, they were gifted a laptop that's running "some version of Linux..." Probably he's not even aware that there are different distributions for different purposes. He seems open to learning about this different world. What recommendations might Slashdot readers have to bring him up to speed as a competent Linux user? I really don't want to hold his hand, and he's smart enough to learn on his own.
"Mint is the answer," argues long-time Slashdot reader denisbergeron. "First make him use Mint, because it's easy and there a lot of documentation and the community is very strong."
But long-time Slashdot reader spaceman375 thinks they can solve the problem with just three letters. "Show him the man command. When he feels confident, or breaks it pretty hard, then I'd agree — install mint and go from there. But start with man."
Is that it? Is it as simple as that? Share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments — along with your learning tools for beginners.
What's the best Linux resource for a retired Windows user?
Book (Score:2)
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Books are for old geezers yelling at the kids to get off their lawn. ;) For kids these days its:
- . -
User:
Hey, I want to edit some photos in Linux, but I'm used to using Photoshop in Windows. How can I do this in Linux?
ChatGPT
Editing photos in Linux can be done using various software options, although they might have different interfaces and features compared to Adobe Photoshop. Here are some popular photo editing tools for Linux:
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program): GIMP is often considered the closest o
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Meh...I'm a command line jockey to the core, but I've always found books like that to be more confusing than helpful.
TFS suggests the 'man' command, which is just as problematic if not moreso. Basically man pages assume the user is already familiar with the meaning of all of the assumptions they typically make. In particular, words that are in square brackets, angle brackets, etc. I've been using linux for over two decades and I still can't stand man pages.
I think the best way to do things is and always has
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No, this is about the worst possible thing to give him.
I would suggest instead "Linux for Beginners: An Introduction to the Linux Operating System and Command Line". Or maybe Linux for Dummies, the most basic of all, to begin with. The problem with LfD is that it it is based on Ubuntu and Suse however. If going with this, then consider installing Suse for him. I like Mint better for beginners, but Suse is perfectly usable.
He has no more need to master the command line when using Linux than he had to mas
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For the 0.01% of people who will read the book cover to cover, you've just bootstrap
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Oh? :D
Simply because you didn't pay in money, you think you didn't pay for the privilege to use the OS? Have you read it's EULA?
Riiiiight. No, you have not. Otherwise you would have known you pay continuously by providing Microsoft with data. Assume every click you on your Windows system, goes directly to Microsoft. Yes, even when you "disabled" all that spying.
Oh? You've got an OEM version which came for free with your computer? Why do you think the manufacturer puts all this crapware on the computer?
Yeah,
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Unless of course you're proposing MS is able to hide the connections from your router somehow. Sure they could with great effort hide everything from any connection monitoring done locally, but they'd be hard pressed to
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Not only that, part of the price for that computer is the price of the OS and the license to use it. Add on the price for all of that crapware, and you've come up with a large percentage of the total price. Why do you think that you can't buy a computer without an OS anymore? If that's what you want, you need to buy parts and put them together yourself, or pay
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Not only that, part of the price for that computer is the price of the OS and the license to use it.
Upgrades to Win10 and Win11 were free, unlike previous major upgrades prior to those that were paid. That's what the GP is likely referring to.
Why do you think that you can't buy a computer without an OS anymore?
Going that route you only need to buy Windows once. Get the the Pro version rather than the OEM so you can move it to new computers. So the second and subsequent computers would be free. Of course the old installation is deactivated, but that's what Linux and *BSD are for, those old retired computers.
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Not for me! If I buy a new computer, the first time I boot it it's from a LiveUSB of my preferred Linux distro, Fedora. Once I've made sure it's working properly, I install it to the hard disk, cleaning ou
Its the Year of Linux on the Windows Desktop (Score:2)
Going that route you only need to buy Windows once. Get the the Pro version rather than the OEM so you can move it to new computers. So the second and subsequent computers would be free. Of course the old installation is deactivated, but that's what Linux and *BSD are for, those old retired computers. Not for me! If I buy a new computer, the first time I boot it it's from a LiveUSB of my preferred Linux distro, Fedora. Once I've made sure it's working properly, I install it to the hard disk, cleaning out every single vestige of Windows.
OK Boomer. ;-) The rest of us will enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux and install your preferred Linux distro from the Microsoft App Store. Then run Linux on the Windows desktop next to commercial apps and AAA games. Its the Year of Linux on the Windows Desktop.
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Hell I could probably replace the old retired PC running headless Linux in the corner with a Raspberry Pi 4.
Most of the major FOSS
Win10, Win11 - free upgrades; Pro - movable (Score:2)
Oh? You've got an OEM version which came for free with your computer?
He's likely referring to upgrades to Win10 and Win11. They were free. In the past major upgrades were paid for.
And if you had bought a Pro version (maybe for an upgrade prior to Win10) then that Pro version may be deactivated on the old computer and used on a new computer. The old computer of course can no longer run that Pro version, Linux, *BSD, or the original OEM Windows will have to be installed.
installing a new linux (Score:2)
Replacing the old distribution of Linux with a new distribution of Linux is insanity. Let him figure out what version he's using and search for web resources on how to understand that. Once he gets that, then he can start asking more intelligent questions like what other version might be better for him. Without that, he has no way to evaluate difference versions or how they might differ from something he already has.
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Yup, fresh install of Mint or whatever with a desktop environment that kinda looks like windows (I like the way Mint sets up the MATE desktop). Install Chrome and such, configure the mail client for them unless they use a webmail interface, set it to automatically update on a regular basis, and turn 'em loose with a non-admin type account.
Re:installing a new linux (Score:5, Insightful)
>"Yup, fresh install of Mint or whatever"
I too, would recommend Mint. Unlike gtall who recommends not installing a new distro, I would. It is not difficult, especially if you are helping someone. The only "hard" parts is making the bootable media.
>"Install Chrome and such"
Please don't. Install and use Firefox. In Mint, I believe it is installed by default, and it is a real package (not some SNAP).
Stop giving Google power and control to Google and putting us back into mono-browser danger!
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Ungoogled Chromium
https://chromium.woolyss.com/#... [woolyss.com]
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>"Ungoogled Chromium https://chromium.woolyss.com/# [woolyss.com]..."
You are STILL giving Google control over "standards", mind-share, and market-share when you use ANY Chromium-based browser (which is why I call all of them just "Chrom*"). Which, for the most part, is ANY browser that is not Firefox.
And yes, we need MORE choice than just two- Chrom* and Firefox. Even two browsers is not enough to keep standards actual standards and prevent web control, especially when one of those two now has a small user base.
No way... (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't expect 1% of the users of any product to read the manual of the expensive crap they buy, how can you expect people, especially the elder ones, will have the initiative to look for documentation of commands. Even worse: how do you expect them to know WHICH commands and what capabilities exist in a system they have never used?
The prime fault of most desktop technologies these days - be it an app, a website, an extension, or even an OS - is that they're complex and very sparsely self-explanatory to most users. This is why mobile computing is taking over, not because its mobile, but because the screens force the user experience to be concise and to the point. Which is why I kinda agree Mint may be a much better piece of advice than "just RTFman". But I further posit that a decent desktop/client computing UI that achieves what mobile has achieved and that actually gets popular enough is still to come. And it unfortunately does not seem to be ChromeOS yet, for instance although it does seem to be the OS that is trying, maybe like iOS too a bit.
Re:No way... (Score:4)
You can't expect
That's why you don't. You train them to always RTFM.
We've reached the end of how much people can have their hand held; have everything handed to them on a silver platter. It's time to do what was always needed: to train good habits, like RTFM. It's time to stop pretending that people have no personality failures - and not RTFM is a personality failure. It's the personality of demanding everything be catered to their lack of effort.
If you've made an effort and RTFM still didn't help, THEN you can start discussing how to make the M better.
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their not perfect
Oh, the irony. Guess we'll see if you're a "snowflake" as well.
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Oh, the irony. Guess we'll see
How is it ironic, if the thing you claim hasn't happened yet?
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1. Mint. Give him Mint. Boggle his mind, by telling him he can pick a desktop or none! and windowing system, and from a choice of file systems. Most Windows and retail type (mobile) users don't get this and so don't really want it because they don't know that they can have it. They buy the styrofoam packaged meat slice instead of learning to butcher the cow. That's what they know. Some feel betraye
Re:No way... (Score:5, Interesting)
Been there. Tried putting a couple senior households on linux. It is a trail of tears. It might _seem_ like a linux desktop is a small jump from a Windows desktop to those of us who have been using linux for perhaps decades at this point because "linux X works almost like Windows X with these small differences...". It is not. And you have volunteered yourself as their daily sysadmin answering questions you cannot believe are so trivial. You can save the technical discussion of OSes for when they download that free game and they want you to make it work. If they are successful at using email, Facebook or whatever they will probably ask their friends about how to do something on the computer and it will never really be the same as their friends and so begins descent down the path of frustration, giving up, and probably resentment toward you for talking them into it. I have taken a vow of abstinence from what would seems like this logical idea.
Re:No way... (Score:5, Insightful)
>"Been there. Tried putting a couple senior households on linux. It is a trail of tears. It might _seem_ like a linux desktop is a small jump from a Windows desktop"
I have had the exact opposite experience. And many many times.
Most people don't care about or understand the OS. As long as the computer does most of what they want, and looks familiar they are thrilled to have something that works, is fast, is extremely malware resistant, doesn't require paying for anything, doesn't spy on them and nanny them constantly, and has easy updates/upgrades. Mint checks all those boxes.
As long as they aren't a "gamer" or someone who "has" to run some specific application, Linux is just fine. 90% of what most casual computer users do are easily satisfied by Firefox and LibreOffice. It has never been better.
Now, if you are talking about someone who wants to run intense gaming, some type of college/school stuff that is not web-based, or a business user who has to run application X, Linux is going to be a much more difficult path. Usually not impossible, however.
There are tons of people now who don't even HAVE a desktop/laptop computer and do everything on their phones/tablets. And that shows how less dependent we really are on an MS-Windows device. Many of those people would still greatly enjoy a "real" computer, however. Large screen, great performance, real keyboard and mouse, etc.
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There are still things that manage to cause tech support issues. Take Ubuntu, supposedly one of the friendliest and easiest Linux distros. It occasionally comes up with cryptic messages about updates, and new versions of the OS. Are they safe to click on? Do you want a new version of the OS, and will the computer keep working afterwards?
The only OS I've not had tech support requests for is ChomeOS. It just quietly updates itself, doesn't bother the user with questions they can't answer. It really does just
Re:Confusing questions (Score:2)
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I've installed Linux onto my Dad's old PC. All he uses it is for browsing a few select sites, checking Gmail, and buying stuff off Ebay. Works great for him. I've set up icons on the desktop for him to easily go into his favourite sites, and it's been solid for many years. I do go and upgrade the OS for him every year, but that's all I've needed to do.
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That's basically the differentiator, isn't it? If all you do is use the browser, which does describe a big percentage of users, then Linux is absolutely fine. If you need (or want) to run any Windows-only software, though, you might well have a bad time. IME you need multiple wineprefixes even in the best case when you have more than a few programs, and you can't expect the average person to figure that out. Just getting prereqs installed can be a hassle, even with winetricks.
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You can't expect 1% of the users of any product to read the manual of the expensive crap they buy, how can you expect people, especially the elder ones, will have the initiative to look for documentation of commands.
you missed this part:
He seems open to learning about this different world ... I really don't want to hold his hand, and he's smart enough to learn on his own.
of course op is making a loaded/silly question, probably more interested in collecting "engagement" than in obtaining an actual answer. but his "friend" already has everything he needs to start his voyage into linux: a working linux install plus motivation. nothing can stop him now.
Sorry, you have already failed (Score:4, Insightful)
mak3 him use mint
What like you are punishing a child what's wrong with what is installed? And if you are going to MAKE a grown ass man reinstall an os why wouldn't they install what they want?
show him the man command
Besides the fact it's not a command, that's what every average Joe desktop/google/facebook/email retired user wants ... let's drop to a terminal and man Ed like it's 198 fuckin 7, that will help them
The One True OS (Score:2)
Came from Boston, not Murray Hill. Its origins were with Jay Forrester and the Whirlwind computer, leading to SAGE, history's first PC, each installation of which resided in a medium sized window-less office building. Bill Gates got his start with stolen time on a PDP-10 computer running the TOPS-10, the best OS, ever.
TOPS-10 teaches that the instruction to list all of the files then, now and forever more shall be "dir", not something lame lie, "ls"
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"man teams" isn't going to help you when your colleagues can't hear you for some reason.
It's crap like that which makes people say that the Linux community is hostile. They want to use their computer, not learn how to build one from base software components in order to write their own sound stack that lets them use their headset reliably.
EdX's Introduction to Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
They can take the free course (as being retired I doubt they care about getting the EdX cert).
It's by the Linux Foundation, and should give them a good, all-around understanding of the basics of Linux.
More Information (Score:5, Insightful)
What is meant by "a competent Linux user?" Is he interested in learning Linux command line stuff, or does he just want to transfer his point-and-click launch programs Windows knowledge?
Which brings up the question of how much Windows system administration knowledge he has? There a lot of missing context in that question.
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Most likely the later. Geeks tend to think that all people think like themselves. When a person says they want to learn about computers, the geek hears, "I want to work in an enterprise environment doing cool geeky stuff. That's why Linux is the perfect OS for ordinary people!"
It's really sad how we just keep going in this circle for decades and nothing changes.
any Linux plus Slashdot (Score:3)
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The key to using Linux successfully is at every snag you hit, complain about it on Slashdot with enough detail and "Windows is so much easier" for excellent and ultra fast support. Only slightly kidding.
Windows is no longer "easy" or even easier. I've been running Mint for about 2 years. In all that time I have had exactly one lock condition where nothing would respond and had to kill the power. You know how many times each month Outlook becomes unresponsive? Let's talk about the stupidity of Excel where if you copy something then close Excel you're asked if you want to save your changes. What change? I copied something.
We are constantly having to diagnose monitor issues or Teams audio issues which gener
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>"Windows is no longer "easy" or even easier. I've been running Mint..."
I couldn't agree more. The last time I was forced to do stuff in MS-Windows, it was far from easy. Just because something is popular, widespread, and GUI-centric, doesn't make it "easy." And that is at all levels, be it a novice, intermediate, or experienced user. Perhaps the most frustrating problem with MS-Windows is that it just does all kinds of crap in strange places in a way that is almost impossible to understand or contr
Command reference (Score:2)
Re:Command reference (Score:5, Interesting)
...and no matter what distro he's got there he's going to need to use the command line eventually.
For all those who have been wondering for decades now when it's finally going be the Year for the Linux Desktop...just keep reading that part over and over again, until you have your answer.
Meanwhile, a retired Linux user looking at modern Windows options might have to remember how setup.exe runs. In a GUI.
Re: Command reference (Score:2)
That's a lot of nonsense. You will wind up having to use the command line or regedit on Windows.
I wrote a better response to this comment on my desktop but I got blocked by cloudfucks...
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For what? Give me some real-life examples of instances when a "normal user" would need to use the command line or regedit.
For example, it's one of the ways you can try to fix windows update when it breaks itself [winhelponline.com]. If you've never had windows update break itself, you haven't been a windows user that long and you're just bullshitting us.
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Just yesterday was a high school teacher telling me that teenagers are lost when they need to use a mouse. Because all they know is a touchscreen on the smartphone or tablet. They have problem doing a double-click. Understanding when to do a click and when to do a double-click. Etc. So it seem that year of the desktop is moot when there is going to be no desktop in the future.
To be clear: I'm a linux user, proficient in windows and, compared to my social bubble, a commandline wizard. I just said above that
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>"He can figure out the GUI stuff, and the directory structure he just doesn't need to know very well for general desktop use.
This is key for most users.
Give them something easy and familiar to use (for example Mint/Cinnamon). As long as they are comfortable with that, everything else is gravy. If they choose, they can then learn more about the internals.
>"no matter what distro he's got there he's going to need to use the command line eventually."
Well, that is not really true. I know quite a few Mi
Kubuntu (Score:2)
Not the fastest horse, but really reliable and without too many pestering questions what-not-lib to install.
Easy to keep up2date.
Not what to learn, it's what to UNLEARN (Score:2)
The Linux desktop experience is not that different from Windows (or Mac, for that matter). There's nothing much to learn there. Maybe a couple of YouTube videos and an afternoon of noodling, and you're there. In terms of desktops, ChromeOS is a breeze to learn, by far the easiest of all. It's so easy, they let elementary school children use it. That's not the problem.
No, the real issue is what you have to unlearn, not learn:
- You have to unlearn that configuration is primarily performed through a GUI.
- You
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Most Windows users coming to Linux should be using a major distribution with KDE. It will be the most familiar to them. Even then there will be irritating differences, but at least it will be apprehensible.
Most configuration will be performed through a GUI.
Preferences will be stored in a variety of ways, just like they are on Windows. There will be more flat files, though.
File permissions will still be controlled by both the user and the system, just like they are now.
The average user doesn't know dick abou
oh please (Score:3)
It doesn't really matter where you start.
I would argue that the best distribution for a newbie is Debian on account of the community and documentation. Once I would have said Ubuntu, but snap.
Nothing wrong with mint though, that's really not a wrong answer.
Whatever he starts with, most of the skills will transfer to another distribution.
What? Do you hate this poor man? (Score:5, Interesting)
The minute I retire, I sell my house, buy me a luxury RV and go fishing year round all around the country. Fuck computers...
What's wrong with people? Hasn't he had enough of em? Especially if he's worked with Windows all his life: he must be utterly disgusted by the sight of them damn machines...
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I was thinking something along that line. Maybe not fishing, but smething equally stimulating and relaxing. I may be forced into retirement due to health concerns, so that day may be coming sooner than planned.
I've been using Linux since 1999 starting with Slackware, I've been using Mint since maybe version 13. Unless I'm getting paid, I'm not using the terminal. Jettisoning a computer outright might be a challenge. There is so much medical, insurance and paperwork. So, as long as the drivers on the machi
Linux Mint (Score:3)
I would agree that a Windows user going to Linux would find Linux Mint Mate edition the most familiar. It's Debian based and is capable of just about anything and Debian based distro is.
Man is useless for learning linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, this might be a slightly controversial opinion, but I'm going to come out and say that man is useless for learning Linux.
It's... usually adequate for learning how specific commands work in a pinch. Kind of like drinking from a firehose, and good luck sorting out the 5 options most people use most of the time from the other 200 specialty options most people will never use in their life... but it can be done. If you're persistent enough. Usually. But pretty much any other resource is going to be considerably faster and easier for learning the basics.
However, if you're starting from the position of "I want to do X", man is absolutely worthless. You could spend weeks digging through it and never figure out which command(s) might be relevant to your task.
And if you're a step further back in the path to learning, and just want to know what sort of things are possible that you might want to do? Man is utterly worthless.
It's nothing that a few tens of thousands of hours of intense effort by skilled technical writers couldn't fix - but as it is man is almost useless for anything other than (wannabe) greybeards looking up technical details.
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>"Now, this might be a slightly controversial opinion, but I'm going to come out and say that man is useless for learning Linux."
It entirely depends on what "learning Linux" means. If it means learning enough to log in, customize the desktop some, install applications from a nice GUI and using them to browse the web, writing a letter in LibreOffice, navigating in a GUI file manager, copying files to/from a flash drive, using a nice GUI to update packages, Linux is no more difficult (nor that different)
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Linux is no more difficult (nor that different) than MS-Windows or MacOS or setting up a smartphone
I agree - and that's not actually easy. That's easy to forget, especially for those of us who have developed some level of mastery in multiple systems and begun thinking in terms of the underlying commonalities.
But if you're someone who has used Windows all their life, or MacOS, or whatever... Not even necessarily a serious power user, just someone that has learned a million little things "on the fly" over the course of decades... very little of that will translate to Linux or any other OS. To such a per
Re: Man is useless for learning linux (Score:5, Informative)
Man pages were never even intended to be how you learn about commands. They were designed to be references for people who already understand the commands.
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I agree, and they are (mostly) adequate for that. But it means that pointing someone at the man pages to "learn Linux" is stupid at best, if not willfully malicious.
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Man pages were never even intended to be how you learn about commands.
Man pages are hugely inconsistent within distributions. Some of them have examples, some don't. Some give you some launch options and tell you to look at the info documentation, while some are complete documentation for a command. There is absolutely no standard for what they attempt to achieve. Some of them aren't even useful guides to launch options!
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Agreed, man is not helpful here.
It is a bit the equivalent of "I want to learn English", "Well, here is a dictionary!"
It is not irrelevant, but it is clearly not the way to go!
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it's how i learned linux though, the instructions i got were basically - ls is like dir, and man will show the manual for said command, good luck.
starting with ls and navigating my way through the filesystem, using man to get info on the commands. ok, linux was much simpler then, but on the other hand, these days you don't need much cli, if you don't know how something works, 99% of the time there is an easy gui alternative.
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It can obviously be done, and if you're a kid indulging in exploration and learning how to learn in the process it can perhaps be worth it.
But as someone with limited time in the day, or who is aware that their are a finite number of moments left in their life and they don't wish to squander them? It's pretty much the least-efficient way to acquire the basic competency needed to start digging into the good stuff.
Install Microsoft Windows under Linux Mint? (Score:2)
That would make it possible to run a Windows-only program while using Linux for everything else.
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>"How can Microsoft Windows be installed to run under Linux Mint? That would make it possible to run a Windows-only program while using Linux for everything else."
That kinda defeats most of the point of moving to Linux in the first place. It is not an unreasonable thing for a more advanced user to want to do, but it *is* unreasonable for most people. All the complexity of TWO operating systems now, and the headaches that go along with it.... like having enough resources, not knowing the virtual enviro
Virtual machines make hosting other OS easy. (Score:2)
Virtualbox is simple to use and once he has it set up he can also host Linux VMs to play in and learn. That makes reversion to a clean install easy as rebooting the VM into a clean snapshot.
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VMs are great but AVOID VIRTUALBOX LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!
Why? Because it is nearly unusable without the VirtualBox Guest Extensions, which it will nag you to install, but, if you do, even by accident, then All Your Money Are Belong To Oracle.
And they will catch you, and you will pay, definitely the company you work for, and very possibly you personally.
Please don't ask me how I know this.
It's a lot of the reason why I would not willingly touch any Oracle product, or even any allegedly open-source fork
Linux Mint MATE/Cinnamon desktop (Score:2)
Just give him Ubuntu (Score:2)
Since it's widespread you can google up about any problem.
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>"Just give him Ubuntu. Since it's widespread you can google up about any problem."
And you can do the exact same thing with Mint while leaving the baggage of Ubuntu behind and have a better experience. 99% of the answers you will get for Ubuntu will directly apply to Mint. This is why Mint is rapidly taking over the mind-space of Ubuntu.
With Mint you can have a community-driven distro that updates very well, even between major versions, with a great Firefox browser as default (and being an actual packa
Simple (Score:2)
If it's got an entire GUI tool chain, things should be ok.
If not, give him a book on the Linux CLI and tell him to read it. Make sure to give him a book which deals with generic CLI, and is NOT dependent on a specific distribution.
Show him the website of the distribution which was found on the computer and how to connect to the community, and he should be fine.
There's an even better resource than Linux (Score:2)
For those moving up from Windows, the best resource of all would be a Unix-based OS that has a well-managed graphic interface that is mostly familiar to Windows users, while having a Unix command line available whoever you want one. And yes, with a man command.
A few steps (Score:2)
Teach him where to look for device configs. Depending on the system, this might be a menu, or a launcher where you type what you want, etc.
Teach him how the package manager works. If this requires a command line, go to the next step first.
Teach him how to follow entering commands at CLI. Run through some online examples of setting things up and walk him through how to break up that command into digestible "man" able chunks, so he can tell what's a command, what's an argument, and what's control structure [l
What is the Context here? (Score:2)
This is _such_ an open ended question that is just going to provide a ton of varying opinion that may be a complete waste of time.
Lots of answers already, about the man command and the linux shell.
How do you even know this is what the user wants to learn about or get involved with?
Perhaps they just want to browse the web, write documents and do email.
We don't know that.
However, that's where they should start regardless - as a windows user - to find replacement applications for the ones they have used for de
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People don't use operating systems (Score:2)
People use apps and programs. The operating system is largely irrelevant, and if it's not then it's not a good operating system.
Grab mint, or ubuntu or any one of the user friendly systems out there. If you like the look and feel, great, if not use a different one. If you run into a problem then Google it. No manual can help you solve your problems because they are very often edge cases.
I see a few people here saying using a course or another. You shouldn't need a course to use an operating system. It doesn
Be aware of philosophical differences. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm driving a stick now but it's not because it gives a better driving experience, it's because the ownership experience is superior. Automatics are more fragile and I bought a used car, I didn't want the transmission to fuck it up.
Automatics can do things no human driver can do. Only automated transmissions can shift under power — traditional automatics, CVTs, and DCTs are the "only" kinds (putting series electric aside, and probably some other even less popular kinds of automotive power transmission
What are they trying to do? (Score:2)
The real question is what are they trying to do.
Man pages are for someone who wants to type commands, most people don't want to type commands and be "computer geeks".
I'd consider
1. Try to install windows
If you install Linux, you're their personal tech support forever.
I'd go with any debian based distribution with the default desktop environment.
I've been using Linux a long time, and I still don't think it's an end user OS for people who don't care what the OS is.
I've even switched, my servers and developmen
It depends... (Score:2)
If a user simply wants to do the basics, the linux GUI, a browser and some flavor of open source office suite will be fine. There is no need to learn command line stuff or switch distros
If the person wants to explore the system and learn all of its inner workings, I agree with some of the other comments. Learn the command line, use the man command and prepare for a lot of cunfusion
Re: (Score:2)
Learning standard and a few special CLI commands is important for any operating system.
Knowing commands like SFC /scannow on windows saves a lot of frustration.
Learning how to use mv, cp, cd, etc on Linux takes only 15-20 minutes.
man? (Score:2)
I first used "man" in 1980. It sucked big time because it was totally fragmented and the examples were mainly useless or ambiguous. Today, "man" is ... uh ... duh just as bad as it ever was. At the very least, man is useful only if you already know the name of the command. Even then, it's a chore to understand the syntax if there are a lot of switches and overloaded uses. "man" is the best way to convince a Windows ex-user that he better go back to Windows or Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
man -k
Or apropos
None (Score:2)
There is no such thing as a good Linux resource, because it isn't a good OS. None of them are easy to learn or easy to use when you're old and have been using Windows forever.
Who's the one who wants Linux here? (Score:2)
Who's really asking for Linux here? The friend, or the poster? If the friend is asking, great. More power to him. But the line "He seems open to learning..." makes me think that he's not actually interested. He probably wants to use the computer for email and Internet and doesn't really care what the OS is. That's not someone who's going to be motivated to read a ton of stuff and learn a whole new way to do things. That's someone who wants to use the computer as a means to an end.
If that's the case, the
put windows on it (Score:2)
Unless he wants to become his own tech support, put Windows on it. There is no Linux distribution that is user friendly.
Re: (Score:2)
If you have bog standard hardware running any gnome desktop-based distro is relatively pain free nowadays.
Even Steam with with Proton makes gaming easy for anything except some DX 11+ titles. Some DX 9 titles run better on proton than Windows 11.
https://www.protondb.com/ [protondb.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Arguably Windows isn't user friendly when you hit a "OOPS YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED" message, which is all too common.
Linux Survival is a good overview/game (Score:2)
https://linuxsurvival.com/ [linuxsurvival.com]
I steer my colleagues towards it when they ask what is the best starting point for the linux command line.
The other resources mentioned already are good as well.
First question, nerd or normie? (Score:2)
Second question, is the PC a tool or a learning toy?
Normies should be handed Mint or similar because they have no reason to care about what nerds care about and nerds are born not made. That includes the command line. Very few old people deliberately wire ourselves against thinking like stereotype boomers. I'm old too so this is observation not insult. For ordinary use, turn him loose and do NOT overthink anything. If he can get on the internet he can then choose to learn a little or a lot.
If he's otherwise
Muscle memory (Score:2)
Yea, keep digging man. You will forget command line very quickly, but a good discoverable UI will never let you down. Install Linux, setup everything, leave it alone for a year and you can google everything again.
Linux for programmers and users (Score:2)
Graham Glass and King Abes.
Use ZorinOS as the distro, as the GUI resembles Windows.
Enjoy.
Just install Windows (Score:2)
There is no specific reason for this user to run Linux. and the cost of a license will be nothing compared to the countless lost hours of trying to learn something new.
Also, I am constantly reminded how little power users
understand regular users. Use the man command? By the time you managed to explain how to get a terminal window open and the basics of using a command line, you could have Windows up and running. And man documentation is next to useless for non power users.
probably debian stable (Score:2)
Probably Debian stable would be a good place to start.
NETINST install. Default workstation setup. A mentor that is familiar with Debian, to show them the basics. They should likely also find a local linux user's group to become a member of, too.
https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ [debian.org]
Install ChromeOS (Score:2)
My recommendation: install ChromeOS Flex [chromeenterprise.google].
Linux is a pain for people who are used to Windows. ChromeOS is not. I switched my parents and in-laws to ChromeOS, and I never again had to fix a virus infestation for them.
Why even try Linux as a new user ? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Favtrite color anyone? (Score:2)
The simplest answer (Score:2)
It doesn't matter which distro, give him the FVWM2 - (feeble window manager 2) - and he'll think he's running Win95.