My family is a Linux family: both my parents and my wife use Linux, and so will the kids once they have their own computers. Apart from my Dad, they're all non-enthusiasts.

Yet, none of them use a beginner-friendly distribution. My Wife, who's by far the least technologically inclined of them all, is a very happy and satisfied NixOS user. A distribution that's the exact opposite of beginner-friendly.

How is that possible? None of them maintain their systems. I do that for them. In the past two decades, what I learned from helping friends and family with their computers is that the vast majority of non-enthusiasts have absolutely no desire to install and maintain an operating system, or even programs. They're much happier if someone else does that for them.

Therefore, while I see value in distributions aimed at beginner enthusiasts, I see very little value in distributions aimed at non-enthusiasts.

I wrote a few more words about this topic on my blog too.

#linux #desktop #gnome