"Maybe don't use an ancient distro that's stuck in the past? Try a modern immutable distro like Aurora [3] or Bazzite [4] and see for yourself how much things have changed."
This has always been the riposte to Linux-for-normies sceptics - "you haven't tried these modern distros, X, Y, Z".
I've gone down that route several times and they always have issues, from drivers to config settings to just being too different compared to Windows or even MacOS.
Non-tech (and especially older) people will generally have expectations that obscure linux distros (despite their good intentions) cannot meet; they may well suit users who are more confident and curious with sorting things out themselves but this idea that somehow "this time its different" is ultimately on the distro-champions to prove; they've been wrong too many times in the past.
> I've gone down that route several times and they always have issues, from drivers to config settings to just being too different compared to Windows or even MacOS.
You really should give KDE-based distros a try, the UI isn't that much different from the traditional Windows UI paradigm. In fact I'd say KDE is more similar to the Windows 7 UI, than Windows 11 is.
Also, drivers aren't really a problem with compatible hardware. As the person recommending/installing Linux, it is your duty to ensure that they've got compatible hardware. In my experience, anything older than a couple of years, from mainstream brands, work fine. The only couple of cases where I've had to manually install a driver was for printers, but even that is now almost a non-issue these days thanks to driverless/IPP printing.
> Non-tech (and especially older) people will generally have expectations that obscure linux distros (despite their good intentions) cannot meet
I'm surprised you mentioned non-tech and older people, because that's exactly who my ideal targets for Linux are, because their needs are simple, predictable and generally unchanging. It's usually the tech-savvy and younger people who've got complex software needs and specific workflows that find it hard to adjust to Linux. This was also the case for me, I had over a decade worth of custom AutoHotkey scripts + mental dependencies on various proprietary software that I had to wean myself off from, before I ultimately switched.
Older, non-techy folks are mostly fine with just a browser and a document editor. This was the case with my mum, and pretty much most of my older relatives. As long as you set up the desktop in a way it looks familiar (aka creating shortcuts on the desktop), they don't cause too much of a fuss. Initially there may be a "how do I do this" or "where did xxxx go?" depending on their needs/workflow. At least in my mum's case, there wasn't much of an issue after showing her the basics.
I'm curious what needs the older folks you know have, which can't be met with an atomic KDE-based distro like Aurora.
This has always been the riposte to Linux-for-normies sceptics - "you haven't tried these modern distros, X, Y, Z".
I've gone down that route several times and they always have issues, from drivers to config settings to just being too different compared to Windows or even MacOS.
Non-tech (and especially older) people will generally have expectations that obscure linux distros (despite their good intentions) cannot meet; they may well suit users who are more confident and curious with sorting things out themselves but this idea that somehow "this time its different" is ultimately on the distro-champions to prove; they've been wrong too many times in the past.