> it's far too common to need to grab the man pages, pull up vim, and tweak 30 config files
Well, sure, but the desktop itself is pretty solid.
I've had all my relatives on bog standard Linux desktops for the past decade or so, and the half-yearly questions about it are limited to things like "what does disk full mean?" and "should I press this button that says 'Upgrade'?" (yes, you should).
That's when all your applications are web based anyway. If you have special local software needs you should of course use whatever they support.
Well, sure, but the desktop itself is pretty solid.
I've had all my relatives on bog standard Linux desktops for the past decade or so, and the half-yearly questions about it are limited to things like "what does disk full mean?" and "should I press this button that says 'Upgrade'?" (yes, you should).
That's when all your applications are web based anyway. If you have special local software needs you should of course use whatever they support.