HeavyDogFeet

Often times, yes. I don’t want to always have to have a USB key on me, but I always have access to MFA apps via my phone, watch, or laptop. I have no idea why you’re typing the code out instead of copying and pasting.

What a useless headline. God forbid they just give the actual capacity rather than some abstract, bullshit, flexible measure that means nothing to anyone.

This is objectively stupid. There are tonnes of things you learn in maths that are useful for everyday life even if you don’t do the actual calculations by hand.

I don’t mean to be dismissive of your entire train of thought (I can’t follow a lot of it, probably because I’m not a dev and not familiar with a lot of the concepts you’re talking about) but all the things you’ve described that I can understand would require these tools to be a fuckload better, on an order we haven’t even begun to get close to yet, in order to not be super predictable.

It’s all wonderful in theory, but we’re not even close to what would be needed to even half-ass this stuff.

That remains to be seen. We have yet to see one of these things actually get good at anything, so we don’t know how hard that last part is to do. I don’t think we can assume there will be continuous linear progress. Maybe it’ll take one year, maybe it’ll take 10, maybe it’ll just never reach that point.

Writer here, absolutely not having this experience. Generative AI tools are bad at writing, but people generally have a pretty low bar for what they think is good enough.

These things are great if you care about tech demos and not quality of output. If you actually need the end result to be good though, you’re gonna be waiting a while.

This shit seems like the perfect basis for a discrimination lawsuit.

Maybe it’s time for a grown up CEO.

You can absolutely contact Microsoft (or Apple) for support, plus basically any computer store will happily charge a small fee for basic tech support, or you can call the computer manufacturer or reseller. On the Linux side, unless you bought from something like System76, the chances of you finding an official support network that an elderly person would find usable and accessible are pretty slim.

That’s absolutely not the idea I have in my head. If you read most of my replies here, I think I explain pretty clearly that the main issue I see with Linux is not actually the software itself, it’s that there’s not a good, normie-friendly support system for when things do go wrong or things aren’t immediately obvious.

I also tend to advocate for MacOS more than Windows. Although I’ve used both my whole life, I find macOS a lot more intuitive than windows, and I would generally never recommend windows unless there’s a specific need for it.

Mid 60s and up, around retiring age (or at least that’s retiring age where I am).

I have, but that’s not the point. There are places you can take a computer and say “hey, I’d like one Windows installation, please.” There are exceedingly few places that would help an old person set up a Linux installation, at which point theyre at the mercy of whatever nerd in their life will do it, and then just hoping they don’t move or die.

Im specifically not expecting them to do it themselves, which is why I think Linux is not a good option.

I don’t get the point of playing what if.

If Linux somehow grew its market share to 80% of all users then there probably would be some form of support-based business or companies forking off their own version and building their own supported platforms, and the we end up with a bunch of closed platforms competing for all the money by offering a more polished experience for a premium.

Or none of that happens. I don’t know, this is all just make-believe because it’s a scenario that’s never going to happen.

To be clear, I didn’t say Linux is never suitable for elderly people. I said it’s not the best, which is the claim the original article made.

Because it’s hard to support employees and compete with corporate behemoths like Microsoft and Apple when your product is a free, open-source OS?

But you get that not everyone has you on speed dial to fix things, right? That’s my point.

Also, you can get a used MacBook Air in great condition for that price. Or a slightly older Pro. You just can’t get the absolute latest and greatest, but for that price you were never going to anyway, so it’s sort of moot.

It’s not because it’s not used by the common public, it’s because there aren’t normie-friendly resources and or a company help desk that average people rely on when they need assistance. It’s all well and good for people to say these things are easy to learn and they don’t break, it in the real world, for people who don’t really care about this stuff but have to use it for a few random tasks, it’s nice to know there’s a place that will help you. Not everyone has a techie friend or relative.

The issue is not with the software itself (although there are issues there) as much as it is with non-commercial nature of Linux. It’s great that there’s a thriving community of people who are passionate about this stuff and get great use and enjoyment out of it, but many of the reasons people love it are also reasons why it will probably never be a viable mainstream option.

Im not saying it’s impossible, but it’s not “the best”. Even in your example, you set everything up. But if something goes wrong, will you be there to fix it? With a Mac, which is lately idiot-proof, if something breaks there’s an easy number to call or places you can take your machine.

Again, not saying it’s unusable, but just being usable wasn’t the claim.

Hilarious. In what world is a Linux a good choice for “Elderly people who are not familiar with advanced technology and prefer clean and simple computer usage”.

The elderly people I know already struggle with the systems they’ve used for years. And when something goes wrong, they can ask basically anyone and someone will be able to help them.

Now insert Linux (which “flavour”? Who knows, pick one) and see who can help with even basic tasks or problems. This is fantasy shit.

Yeah, it’s really not good, especially because the people I’ve seen use this stuff the most are the ones who would rarely ever question the quality of the work it does or bother to make sure it’s accurate.

And because managers and business owners see “productivity” increase, they expect that that’s the new standard, and AI will essentially just have made doing quality work harder for everyone involved.