I saw the End of 10 campaign on other parts of Lemmy and wanted to get involved:
I also do some tech support work on the side helping people at an aged care facility with their devices. I see people using their Windows computers and I just feel they would have such an easier time using Linux.
I reached out to my local Repair Cafe about End of 10 to help people switch over if they don’t want to get a new device. They’re happy to talk about so I want to make sure I clearly explain the value of switching to Linux, both to hold on to existing devices and move away from corporate spyware.
Here are the things I thought I’d bring up when I talk to them: -Linux is free, but not in the ‘you’re the product’ way -Linux Mint is made to look and work similar to Windows to make the switch easier -It works on older hardware and takes less resources, so can often feel like a performance boost to an existing PC -No tracking or telemetry so what you do on your computer is private -Linux can cover the general computer use case of using a browser, word processing, image viewing, and maybe some light graphic design -There are free software equivalents to just about all major software you use on your PC -The package manager makes it easy to download and maintain software -You can give Linux a ‘free trial’ by bootloading into it before installing -You can dual partition so you can still run windows if you don’t want to make the full switch -Games and Windows software can run on Linux with WINE if necessary -There’s a huge community you can reach out to if you’re stuck with anything Linux
I was thinking of using the analogy that software on Linux is a bit like shopping at Aldi. It doesn’t have the major brands but there are free alternatives that do the same thing, and are often better than the paid versions you’re used to.
I’d also bring an old laptop I put Mint on for my kids to play with. It’s from 2012 and Windows stopped supporting the wireless drivers. It could connect to the internet with Mint right out of the box so that’s one device already saved from e-waste with Linux.
Is there anything else you’d mention? I know there’s deeper technical reasons why Linux is better but I want to keep it high level as I’m not sure of the technical proficiency of the people I’ll be talking to.
It’s a great idea, but don’t forget about how these people are going to get support in the future. If something breaks, most helpers (computer shops, kids friends etc) are going to be Windows users.
Mint can do automatic updates, but both my laptop and PC have had serious issues with version upgrades. My laptop, which is Mint only, asked me to remove a load of software before upgrading, then booted with loads of errors and had to be reinstalled. My PC was mostly fine, but had no sound. It turned out that Mint switched from Pulse Audio to Pipewire, or vice versa, and the old audio manager left config files behind.
They were both annoying issues more than anything else, but would be difficult for the people in your scenario to get fixed.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to put you off, just checking that you’ve thought of the downsides :)
This is something I’m willing to accept and will help out people initially if the workload isn’t too much.
The other guy that does the tech support sessions also uses Linux so I could get him on board if it gets too much for me. We’ll just have to see what the response is and how much support people need.
That’s brilliant, I hope it all works out 😊