I’m not denying windows 11 is a huge pile of crap. It’s absolutely terrible and not designed for the user. Totally agree with all that.

But there are no hacks required to install it on old hardware. You just have to do a fresh install. If you want to upgrade from 10 to 11 then I agree you need to edit the registry which you could consider a hack, although very basic.

In fact there are less hacks required to install / upgrade to windows 11 then there are to install any Linux distro.

Also your point about risk and non supported hardware is not correct. Microsoft don’t support any hardware. They provide an os and updates, and any device with a genuine copy of windows will receive all and any updates, and it won’t just randomly stop working. Windows is just an os. As long as it is compiled for the correct CPU architecture, it is just as supported as any other hardware. The hardware is supported by individual drivers, normally provided by the hardware manufacturer, not Microsoft.

All my point is don’t push the change on people, give them a fair and informed choice.

I love Linux, and use it on all machines and devices possible, but I would never push my non tech savvy family to use it. My wife has a non windows 11 compatible with an i5 7200u CPU. I installed windows 11 on it very easily. She is happy, and the laptop works perfectly.

I would first ask your relatives if they really want Linux or if they would prefer windows 11.

If they want Linux, mint is probably the best non tech savvy option. Then use tightvnc or similar with an ssh tunnel, tailscale or something similar. Create a desktop shortcut that launches and creates the connection.

Non, I use Linux purely at home. Have no way to use it in the heavily regulated world I work which is very corporate and very locked down windows where I cant even access CMD or pin things to the taskbar.

But at home I run Debian and raspberry pi os on my 2 servers, and arch Linux on my desktop, and Debian with retropie and cinnamon on my laptop.

I have no interest in distro wars, no distro is better than any other, they just all cater to different subset of people and users. I don’t even believe Linux is superior to any other os. I love Linux, and it is perfect for me, but I would never advise my wife to try it, as it offers nothing she would benefit from over her current use of windows.

And I develop and maintain a package in the aur, but it is minimal, and I have published on GitHub a couple of apps, but I would not describe myself as a developer or maintainer, as they are just tiny personal fun projects.

And finally I am a huge proponent of foss and anti big tech where I can be. I believe I currently have all the benefit of the android ecosystem without using it at all. As in everything is backed up and synced to the cloud, but I own my cloud. Everything except Lemmy and email I self host. Calender, contacts, files, photos, music, DNS, search, pdf editor, notes… That’s all I can think of for now.

For me I really want to move over to a Linux phone in the next few years. My current phone doesn’t support any custom ROMs and I’m not willing to risk a gsi build or similar to get lineage working. I think my current Motorola edge 40 neo will last me another 2 years maybe, but once it starts showing signs of death, I will be buying something either pre-installed with Linux or offers a straight forward enough path to flash Linux of some sort. I am happy with a clean experience with a solid web browser and no other apps. As another option, being able to install android apps would be good, but I don’t want that if it compromises the os.