In short, my question is “Is there a way to prevent a non-malicious but unknowledgable and clumsy user to ruin their own home directory?”
Say my grandma opens a file browser looking for a picture, finds those dot files or those mysteriously-named directories distracting, sets her mind to deleting them. And assume she somehow finds a way to do so. While I understand that dot files or mysteriously-named directories of a non-privileged user are of no ultimate importance, it is a maintenance nightmare.
Plus, it’s not only mysterious files that are prone to be targetted. She might well delete by accident the picture she was looking for.
Two kinds of solutions that come to mind are: -Restrict file permissions in an adequate way -Implement an easily operable, fool-proof, back-in-time scheme
Is there a mainstream, well-supported distro of GNU/Linux that has figured this use-case out?
I figure it might come in handy when Window 10 is no longer supported and the reports of hacks keep coming in.
My sister’s pretty dumb but couldn’t break ElementaryOS. Hell, it took her a full year before she realize that it wasn’t Windows.
IDK how, cause it looks more like MacOS than Windows; point I’m making is that if ElementaryOS could work for her, it could probably work for your grandma.
Give her fedora silverblue, pretty much impossible to break.
Get her a Chromebook or iPad
That’s not to say that Linux can’t work. It absolutely can but keep in mind you are going to be the only one who can provide support.
I gave a laptop running zorin to the mom of a friend of mine. She’s been using it for over a decade now
my grandparents have a very slow laptop with w10 and it keeps telling them it can’t upgrade to 11, and I’m sick of explaining to them that their pc will not stop working…
i would install mint for them since I use it too, but I’m afraid they will find a way to delete items in the panel…or the whole panel. and there ain’t no way to lock it. I have been considering zorin but wasn’t sure of how stable it is. has ever destroyed itself with updates or anything like that?
The comment reads a lot like zorin has worked fine with updates for 10 years.
Yep, it’s just been auto updating. She needed help from her kids once or twice when her documents left the “recently opened” list though. She does not know what a filesystem is
Aurora, a spin of Universal Blue.
You don’t. You Linux-proof Grandma
An immutable distro that uses flatpak is a must for this usecase, IMO
I have thought about this too, though more in terms of selling it as a service. In my opinion, linux could be the best option for people who cant use computer since we can just make it easy to use for them, that isnt possible with mac or windows since they are so locked down and we just have to make due with what some corporate idiot decided.
Maybe its easier to start by making EVERYTHING forbidden and allowing things that are needed. Then also make somekind of backup system for things that might get ruined so it can be easily restored. Also hide everything from that account that isnt necessary to see. I cant say i’m expert regarding linux though, this is just something i would try starting with.
Pry off the delete key from the keyboard.
Lots of good answers already, but a hidden gem has yet to be mentioned: Endless OS. TL;DR: it’s an immutable distro based on Debian. As for the home directory, please consider one of the many solutions provided by others in this thread. Good luck!
I setup Fedora Silverblue on an old surface for my mom so she can read her mails and browse the web. I also setup Btrfs Assistant for regular snapshots and Nextcloud, in case the wrong file is deleted. No issues so far.
Didn’t have to setup any file restrictions or anything since the dot files are hidden either way.
Yeah that was my first thought too. Automated backups and very few visible buttons. I tend to find that people who aren’t very computer-minded don’t like poking around much, so if you just have a button for internet and a button for email or whatever that should cover things pretty well. And then automated backups that they can’t get to just in case lol.
I think Silverblue is a good call too, anything immutable so all the inner workings are protected.
What about just giving them Immutable/Atomic distros instead? Instead of it be very easy to break, you could go for very hard to break (not on purpose) from the start.
For the file specific issues you can make some files immutable or set user permissions to prevent access
Ok. I have pretty much this use case live and have had for about 4 years. With 5 different elderly users.
My solution: Linux Mint (standard Cinnamon) it’s easy to use and supports pretty much all hardware with no faffing around.
The file browser in default settings doesnt show the dot directories in home. Granny is unlikely to break out any CLI chops but even if she does…
Setup automatic OS updates with automatic timeshift snapshots.
Add the dot directories to the snapshots.
Leave instructions that if they turn it on they have to leave it on for a half hour (so snapshot completes).
That’s it, you’re good. Setup a remote access software if you can’t just walk across the road to provide support.
Real world they’ve never broken anything more significant than deleting an icon they still wanted on the desktop.
Would kiosk mode be any good for her use case? Add the photos etc. as a different user and give Grandma read only access, and automatically reset her home directory on boot / login.
Use an immutable distro to lessen the chance of her deleting something important, and you should be set. Maybe set up Firefox with sync so that she can add bookmarks, and have that log in automatically.
