Switch your family to Ubuntu Linux, it may be less confusing than Windows

As my family knows, I clearly prefer Linux over Windows, and if we didn’t have the option of using macOS computers, we’d be using Linux, likely Ubuntu.

With that in mind, I enjoyed Simon Frey’s post “How switching my parents over to Linux saved me a lot of headache and support calls“, partly because I switched my mother over to a Linux machine briefly, a couple years ago –

As I am a happy Linux user for over a decade now, I asked myself if it would be a good idea to switch my parents away from Win 10 to a GNU/Linux (I will call it only Linux during the rest of the post. Sorry Richard 😉 ) based system.

I did that and now 2 years later I still think it was a good idea: I have the peace of mind, that their data is kinda safe and they also call me less often regarding any technical issues with the system. (Yes, Win 10 confused them more than Ubuntu does).

Simon Frey

Sure, Windows comes typically comes preinstalled on computers you buy at your local retailer. At the same time, it’s worth opting for something different for various reasons. Simon’s post nicely explains his approach to switching his parents over.

I especially like how he first acclimated them to alternative apps that they’d use on Ubuntu while still using Windows –

Try to not overwhelm them with to much new interfaces at once. Use a step by step solution.

So first of all, keep them on their current system and help them to adapt to FLOSS software that will be their main driver on the Linux later on.

I know a few people in my family who could do everything they need to do with Ubuntu installed on their computers (and likely have far fewer issues, too).

Image credit: A Screenshot of the Latest Ubuntu Desktop (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS) by Mrsinghparmar, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0