I've been supporting my father's computer for about 15 years now. It's the only machine he uses. He doesn't have root. He doesn't use a command line. I used to have an autossh connection for his machine to talk to one of my servers, and now we use Wireguard instead, for the rare occasions (about once a year) that he needs something looked at.
Support is basically zero these days. He uses Chrome and Firefox and LibreOffice. He occasionally fires up the Simon Tatham Portable Puzzles collection. I have uBlock Origin installed on both browsers. I installed XFCE on day one, spent a couple of hours demonstrating things, and then left.
Every five or six years I buy a new tiny, NUC-like machine, configure it up, pull his home directory across, and then send him the replacement. There's more work on the phone getting him to plug the cables in properly than anything else.
Year of the Linux desktop? It's been more than a decade.
Support is basically zero these days. He uses Chrome and Firefox and LibreOffice. He occasionally fires up the Simon Tatham Portable Puzzles collection. I have uBlock Origin installed on both browsers. I installed XFCE on day one, spent a couple of hours demonstrating things, and then left.
Every five or six years I buy a new tiny, NUC-like machine, configure it up, pull his home directory across, and then send him the replacement. There's more work on the phone getting him to plug the cables in properly than anything else.
Year of the Linux desktop? It's been more than a decade.