I had first installed Mint on my Dad’s laptop, but then switched to Fedora KDE after a while 'cause wayland has better security than x11, and then now running an atomic distro called ‘Secureblue’ (KDE) on it while disabling confinement of user namespaces for Flatpak applications. All this while, he didn’t find any trouble switching over from one to another.

PS. I’d have stayed with Mint if Wayland worked on it.

I put my mom on Linux Mint Cinnamon (Ubuntu based) looks a lot like windows with minimal bells and whistles. Mostly just works unless you have bleeding edge hardware. Most Ubuntu flavours should also work. I’m suggesting Ubuntu based distros due to the fact that most media codecs, fonts and drivers are installed or easy to install.

Seconding and thirding the use of an immutable OS. I specifically like Bazzite Gnome. People know it for gaming, but many don’t know it has a fantastic desktop mode, suitable for children, mums and grandmas.

Almost all the software a casual user needs is available from their Flatpak App Store, and it’s pretty as hell (looks very Apple-like and shiny). I have been using it for about a year and I am still impressed how fluid, polished and solid everything feels.

Use the exact same setup you have, then when she calls and asks you how to do something then you either already know or can check on your own machine!

I recommend LFS. It’s the most user friendly distro there Is.

In all seriousness, a Ubuntu derivative is gonna be the easiest, mostly because it’s what you use OP

I moved my mother to Mint a few months ago. I have not had a single tech support call. She uses it daily. About a week in I asked her how it was going. She liked that printing worked more reliably and wished the scroll bars in Facebook were a bit thicker. Her printer used to show as offline sometimes in Windows but that issue has gone away under Mint. I was going to look for a theme with thicker scroll bars but she told me not to bother.

Granted she was a Firefox and Thunderbird user already so that helped with the transition.

Ubuntu. Simply because you use it as well. You will be the primary tech support. So something that you are familiar with is important.

If her router supports it I would set up a VPN and ssh on her computer so that you can help her. Maybe RDP or Sunshine/Moonlight as well.

Zorin OS

My mom was not interested in the surface cause she only need Mail, Browser, Whatsapp web and here Background image. So she used Ubuntu with the side bar as good as with Mint. Same goes for gmy Granny. I propose, Ask what possibilities are important for here - Do not ask about Application - and show here afther that where to do things.

For showing the new PC. Do it with some work she has to do. Learning curve is way better thatway.

I installed Debian on my dad’s laptop recently,

Ubuntu all the way

My grandma got along with Mint for Facebook browsing and KPatience.

If your mom is more into using real apps, plus the Windows UI, and you’re comfortable with some setup, I’d highly recommend Debian 13 with KDE Plasma and Flatpak, with the Flatpak-Discover integration. That’ll allow her to use lightweight, stable apps from apt, or more recent, but larger apps from Flathub, and install it all herself through Discover. Honestly, there should be a distro for that.

I’d be using that myself if it weren’t for some very specific software I need from the AUR.

I would put her on the latest Ubuntu LTS, make a single-user Ubuntu pro account so she keeps gettin gsecurity updates and don’t do major OS updates on that machine for the next decade. You and her can decide which DE, either Gnome (more mac-like) or Budgie, Mate, or KDE (more windows-like. Those are my win-like preferences in that order)

Seconding (or third-ing, or twelfth-ing) the recommendation for Linux Mint, but also gonna throw one in for MX Linux if the hardware is older.

i recommend version 6 😄