I just moved to Plasma from XFCE and my first thought was wow, this runs fine on old hardware, why have I been suffering through the 2010 experience when I could have had features all this time!?
I set up Mint for a non-techy relative on their old desktop.
Their use-case is almost entirely web browser, so there was no need to cover installing programs. Click the same browser icon and it should behave basically the same way.
No need to explain the terminal beyond "this is where you can type advanced commands, you don't need to worry about it".
If there's an error message, read it and try to understand what it's actually saying rather than just dismissing it. Do a web search if you're feeling confident, send me a photo of the screen if you're not.
Explain how to install updates (or just configure automatic backups and updates for them).
Explain when and why the computer will ask for a password (e.g. login and updates) and how that password is for the computer, not for their email or whatever.
Explain the basics of folders. This is your home directory, here's where downloads go, here's how to create a folder and drag your files into it.
Tell them not to panic. I've seen a lot of older people terrified of pressing the wrong button, make sure they know how to understand what they're doing and undo their mistakes.
Since I started [email protected] I've not bought a single game but my backlog is growing way faster than I can play through it. Not a bad first-world problem to have, really!
There's [email protected] / [email protected] which often have some interesting chats about projects like PostMarketOS. I've not seen anything that is a viable replacement for a "daily driver" smartphone yet, but if you're keen to tinker then there's probably some cool stuff to try out.
Good point, I've used a Logitech mouse and I think that needs software (FOSS implementation available) for button remapping, could be different for a keyboard though
I just moved to Plasma from XFCE and my first thought was wow, this runs fine on old hardware, why have I been suffering through the 2010 experience when I could have had features all this time!?