this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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askchapo
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Just install
I know its a joke, but they don't really seem to understand much about PCs
Thats like asking someone why your car is running badly just for them to start rambling about you not pretiming your camshaft so you can get extra performance
Sorry, who's who in this analogy?
It can be a glib response but I've had old shitty laptops run Windows terribly, and then after installing Linux Mint have them run way better afterwards. I certainly think it's a worthwhile troubleshooting step, unless a hardware problem is indicated by the specific error message
They may not be computer savvy, but I kinda think it's like the bell curve meme, there is a level below which you won't even notice differences.
Game emulators and PC gaming might not make Linux the best choice but it depends on the programs and if a simple compatibility layer can be installed to bridge the gap.
I think you're underestimating modern Linux - Mint is particularly good at it, but a lot of distros have become very simple and user friendly to install. Installing mint to keep a shittop running is exactly what one of my least tech literate friends did, and when I tried similar I was really surprised at how easy they make it.
At worst they can probably find some kind of Linux coop near them that would be happy to install it for them.
do what tech people do when they have car trouble. ask a car person to install the camshaft pretimer for you.
Yes, but thats a different topic entirely
„Bsod by hardware gore” cant be 100% fixed by Linux. It turns out, its a faulty HDD, and Linux would not have done anything
ok but if you have a tech friend they might offer to upgrade your RAM and give you a new hard drive. I knew several guys who did upgrades and just had boxes of parts that weren't valuable enough to sell on ebay.
Yes, but now we arrived back at Helping instead of just yelling switch to linux
The BSOD might be hardware related, in which case no amount of software will fix the problem.
Personally if I was them I'd start diagnosing stuff, but that does take skill.