Blue95: a desktop for your childhood home's computer room

Lately I've been strongly considering helping migrate my parents to Linux. Their needs are primarily web-based with some basic productivity tools mixed in, and Windows has just been getting more and more hostile. On top of this, they're at an age where they're now more susceptible than ever to various scams/attacks, and shutting down an entire category of problems by removing Windows from the picture is increasingly attractive.

I had forgotten that Chicago95 exists, but this might be exactly the right thing. They'd immediately find it familiar, and while the theme isn't the whole story, this would go a long way in easing the transition I think.

I miss this era of computing.

My parents run linux because mom likes coupon websites and I can't repair the thing every week

A chromebox mounted behind the monitor did the trick for me. Haven't had an emergency wipe/reinstall in years. Also, a tablet with keyboard takes some of the pressure off having a "computer" and you can go with iOS or Android depending on what phone they use.

I've been evaluating a Lenovo ThinkCentre m920q tiny I picked up for not very much money on eBay (the m720q models are even cheaper) and they seem like perfect machines for the task.

My parents use some tools and hardware that require a full OS so the tablet route isn't an option, but I'm starting to really like the idea of deploying a couple of these micro PCs.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Exposing your parents to total surveillance (from one corp to another) is not what I'd characterize as safe or friendly. Linux is fine these days if the hardware is supported, and you can use an immutable distro if extra reliability is warranted.

Why not just iPad?

I may have understated their needs somewhat. Most of what they do is browsing and document editing, but a few key use cases make a real computer necessary (or at least highly desirable):

- Document scanning

- Label printing (my mom buys/sells stuff on eBay)

- My dad still works and writes proposals/manages invoices/does complex taxes

At a minimum, they need a full desktop environment. Most of these things have decent 1:1 Linux alternatives, but one or two might necessitate a single-purpose Windows VM when all else fails.

Two pretty decent used micro PCs will also cost less than a single iPad.

Strong disagree. I mean tracking is what it is, but it's happening regardless and if they are using Chrome to browse and Google services they are being tracked.

ChromeOS seems to work really well though and is dead simple and intuitive. It used to be incredibly awesome with crouton but that's mostly dead. Crostini is acceptable though. I would absolutely recommend ageing people getting a chrome device for security and simplicity.

Plus running any android apps on desktop gives even more software options than any other desktop for most consumers.

Reliability is a commodity these days, and we don't use Google services.

Apparently, ubiquitous surveillance is acceptable to you. Not an uncommon stance, but I'd never recommend it to others. It's a disservice when freedom and privacy respecting choices, that are just as reliable, already exist.

What are coupon websites / you can get free coupons from them(?)

You also can't properly back up the system unless you install a custom ROM and take on the associated maintenance burden. (At least Android. I'm not sure to what extent these things are left up to the whims of the developer on iOS.)

I installed ubuntu for my mother, she just needs to download pdfs and read pdfs, look at images, use gmail. Sometimes she opens a document with LibreOffice, but no power usage.

Seems to work, the maintenance is also now super easy, ssh, update. Something wrong and she needs support? I ssh, open up a tunnel and connect via remina to her desktop to explain.

I had a situation once when Ubuntu did literally not go into the Desktop Environment anymore, but all I did was update and upgrade packages and it started working again.

IMHO, Fedora's Atomic Desktops[^1] are the way to go for that. Automatic upgrades you can roll back if something breaks? Yes, please.

Universal Blue[^2] has some spins that got a glow up, but their dev team gives a bit of the "everything old is bad" vibe.

OpenSUSE's MicroOS[^3] desktops aren't ready for nontechnical people, but their atomic upgrade strategy is much faster and simpler (btrfs snapshots). I'm keeping an eye on it.

^1: https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/

^2: https://universal-blue.org

^3: https://microos.opensuse.org

Good call on Fedora's Atomic options.

My daily driver is NixOS and part of me really wants that level of predictability and rollback for them. For a brief period, I had started thinking through what it might look like to remotely manage this for them. But my ultimately goal is to help them achieve autonomy, and only step in when necessary.

retailmenot, etc. There's some pretty dubious ones that come up in search results, e.g. try searching "levis.com coupon codes" or something.