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This rant means YOU if you are one of those people that "fix" their family's computers.

I was visiting my family over the holidays and while I managed to stay away from fixing their computers for the most time, I offered to help my grandfather to update the Garmin navigation device he wanted to gift my father. (They do not use smartphones for navigation, and my father doesn't want "these modern shitty phones".)

When booting up my grandfather's laptop, I realized something odd: Linux Mint boot screen. Wut?

And immediately I said: "It could be impossible to update your navigation device on this laptop."

As true enough, the Garmin Express update software requires either a Windows PC or a Mac; and even though I vaguely hoped it might be possible to upgrade through Linux, I just could not be bothered to find out that day.

What I wondered though is why did my grandfather of all people ran Linux!?

Don't get me wrong, I use Linux myself on my work machine and I never want to work with something else when coding; yet my grandfather is an end user of the show-me-where-and-what-and-how-often-to-click-kind.

What could he gain by it?

As it turns out, the computer nerd's friend of my uncle managed his PC. And my uncle and he decided unanimously my grandfather should better run Linux. Is it something my grandfather needs? No. BUT IT'S RIGHT! Suck it up! (My father's laptop therefore also runs Linux Mint. So he can't upgrade his new device either.)

This is the ugly kind of entitled nerd-dom I truly detest.

When discussing things further, my grandfather told me that he had problems ever since with his printer. Under Windows, he knew how to print on the special photo paper. Under Linux, all he can barely manage is to print on normal papers. Shame, printing photos was the only thing he liked doing on that device. What did my uncle's friend tell him?

"Get a decent printer!"

Fuck that guy.

It's fine if Linux works for you, but before you install it on a PC of a relative, you better make sure it fits their needs! If you have that odd member that only wants to write letters, read emails, use facebook, and wants to play that browser game, feel free to introduce them to Linux.

Yet if they have any special wish, don't stand in their way.

If they want to do something that requires a certain OS, don't just decide for them that their desire is wrong, but help them achieve their goal. If you can't align that with your ideology, then get the fuck out of my way and stop "helping".

For some people, a computer is a device to achieve a certain goal, a work. They only get hindered by your ill-advised attempts at virtue signalling.

Comments
  • 11
    The people that act like Linux fits everyone's needs and therefore needs to be ran by everyone are assholes. They can go fuck themselves too, tbh.
  • 8
    On the other hand.. I switched my grandparents (who barley understood how to use a web browser) over to Linux And sat down with them to explain things. Now they are actually getting quite good with their computer and have started surprising me when they can do basic things without me explaining any more.

    I think it really depends on the person.
  • 0
    Had a Ubuntu laptop I was getting set up but didn't have another working computer for my mom when she came to visit. She did just fine with Ubuntu much to my surprise so now that is her laptop. Linux will do just fine for FB, browser games, email, web browsing etc. Does what she needs.
  • 0
    Isn't Garmin nav software updated by just uploading a special archive file to its SD card, though? That's how I've updated mine, always. Or was this just for the maps?
  • 1
    I completely agree. As a Linux fanboy I admit I have been tempted to do these kinds of things to my relatives computers, but in the end I always reach the same conclusion as you did.
  • 1
    @CodeNoir Possible. As I've said, I could not be bothered as any documentation pointed to the Garmin Express software. That day, I wanted the update to just work instead of wasting half a day looking for an answer that might not even exist.
  • 0
    @k0pernikus Yeah, you are absolutely right about that.
  • 0
    @dejaime The problem with stating "it's the device's fault" is that you have to add this to the total cost of switching to Linux. And unless you presuppose that running Linux is a valuable thing in itself, my grandfather needs to invest a lot for no appearrant gain. My grandfather would need to buy both a new printer and a new navigation device. The cost would surpass the cost of a Windows license easily, oh wait, he bought one already with his laptop. All in all, he has too invest money to appease his Linux system even though he was fine with Windows in the first place. Furthermore, he has to now look for Linux support before he buys a new device, whereas he could trust any device to run on his Windows machine. (You can criticise the market power of Microsoft, yet that plug and play is user friendly.)
  • 0
    @dejaime The problem isn't the Linux friend. He knows Linux. It's also not the device.

    The problem is assuming Linux works for my grandfather.

    As I've stated, Linux might work for some as it did with your mother. My mother on the other hand likes working with Photoshop. I have asked her to try Gimp in order to find out if a switch to Linux is feasible. It wasn't, hence I let her stay on Windows in order for her to be able to use Photoshop.
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