Re: Five technologies you shouldn't bother looking out for in 2016
>Most recently a couple in their 60' s who installed Linux Mint without assistance
Technology illiterate people wouldn't even be able to select a distribution, never mind install one. They'd not have a clue where to find drivers, or how to configure the OS once they'd got it loaded. Patching? Won't happen. Securing? Won't get done.
Mint, like many mainstream distros, attempts to minimise all this by automating updates and detecting drivers, much as Windows does. Usually they do a good job as well unless the PC being used has something particularly exotic or obscure, but then the same thing applies to Windows too.
I know you want LotD to be true, I know you do. But wishful thinking isn't going to make it happen.
> It's Windows gives yer average user grief
It doesn't though, does it. It installs itself if it isn't already installed when they get the computer home, it makes a reasonable fist of securing itself, and it even updates itself. It's pretty bloody far from perfect, but for a home user, there is no substitute. Windows Phone has a greater market penetration than LotD will ever achieve, and that's a rounding error at best.
I've been in the support business for a while and I can categorically state that the problem is ALWAYS between the chair and the keyboard regardless of the OS when dealing with older users. Once they are used to whatever it is they are using they're fine.
You're confusing you pushing Mint onto people you know for it having gained traction in the market. My friend could have named all her children Mildred, but it doesn't mean the name is making a come back.
Now there I've got more sympathy for your argument, especially as I tend to take umbrage with those that insist that Linux == Mint. And I've taken plenty of umbrage.