I'm trying to set up a Linux laptop for a friend who lives in another city. They have only ever used Windows, and likely won't have easy access to fix issues (not that I'm an expert).
First off, is it a good idea to give them a Linux PC at all? Have others had good/bad experiences giving technophobes Linux?
Secondly, if I go ahead with it, what's a good, stable, "safe" OS for a beginner? I'm shy of anything that's a rolling release (e.g. Arch, Manjaro etc) as "bleeding edge" can break things more often than not. I'm leaning towards Debian or something Debian based. But I've also heard good things about Fedora.
If I was the one using the PC, I'd have installed Fedora, as I've heard it's well-maintained. Then again there's been some good buzz about Debian 12. What would your advice be? Thanks!
@piezoelectron It's a bad idea to give someone a "Linux PC", as that'll just panic() on boot.
You should be glad to give freedom to someone by giving them a GNU/Linux PC.
Trisquel: https://trisquel.info/ is an excellent choice as it's easy to use, note that some hardware will refuse to work (although that's usually only really 802.11ac Wi-Fi cards and decent external or internal 802.11n ones are rather cheap).
@Suiseiseki @piezoelectron > (although that's usually only really 802.11ac Wi-Fi cards and decent external or internal 802.11n ones are rather cheap)
And any discrete GPU will also give trouble, specially newer AMD and Nvidia ones.
@sallyNULL @piezoelectron Depends really.
I found Trisquel works fine with even a card as new as the gtx 970 thanks to Nouveau, although the card is stuck at idle clocks as the fans refuse to spin without proprietary software that is cryptographically signed to prevent its replacement.
Even newer AMD ones should work with a native resolution, but you won't get 3D acceleration nor suspend.
Integrated Intel still works just fine.
@Suiseiseki @piezoelectron > Even newer AMD ones should work with a native resolution, but you won't get 3D acceleration nor suspend.
From my personal experience, AMD GPUs from 2017 and newer do not have working 3D rendering support at all without nonfree blobs, only BIOS works, which means you're stuck on tty at 800x600 resolution, I have no clue if Nvidia newer cards also have the same issue as I've not touched an Nvidia card since GTX 10 series nor I have plans on doing so, but I wouldn't be surprised newer cards have the exact same issue.