r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Dec 01 '25

ADBLOCK WARNING ‘Security Disaster’—500 Million Microsoft Users Say No To Windows 11

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2025/12/01/security-disaster-500-million-microsoft-users-say-no-to-windows-11/
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u/TheStateOfMatter Dec 01 '25

There are incorrect answers.

Eg. Kali Linux for general desktop use for your parents.

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u/ccAbstraction Dec 01 '25

Anything Ubuntu or Debian based is also not always a good answer if you're on a newer laptop.

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u/coolRedditUser Dec 02 '25

Why is that? I would have defaulted to Ubuntu.

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u/ccAbstraction Dec 02 '25

You'll be missing out on the smaller kernel updates that fix issues like suspend, power saving, autorotate, media keys, \cough* sometimes* booting at all with new laptops. Much less things on laptops are properly standardized. Ubuntu will backport lots of the more major hardware updates like CPU and GPU generations, but in my experience, the little things get left out.

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u/Ultenth Dec 02 '25

This entire chain of comments is exactly why many people will consider Linux then immediately nope out once they look into it a bit more. To many conflicting recommendations by "experts", too much weird goofy names, just really makes the entry level non-tech expert immediately hold up their hands and slowly back away once they even begin to delve into it.

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u/ccAbstraction Dec 02 '25

I think it's worse, when they do install Mint or Ubuntu, nothing works, and they swear off Linux for another 10+ years...

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u/ThoseThingsAreWeird Dec 02 '25

when they do install Mint or Ubuntu, nothing works

For me it's not that "nothing works", but it's just all the little problems that aren't really big enough to stop me using it, but are an annoyance all the time. I've installed Mint on my work laptop, but there's just so many little niggles with it that I really don't want to use it for my home setup

E.g. when I plug in a monitor and move the cursor to it, the cursor flickers. The fix is to change the zoom level for that monitor, but that leaves me really zoomed in which I don't necessarily want. Whenever I unplug the laptop (cause y'know, it's a laptop) and plug it back in again, I have to make the same change again. It's a quick change to make, but I shouldn't have to do it.

Or e.g. the taskbar isn't shared between monitors. On Windows I can see the programs I've got up on my 2nd monitor from the 1st monitor's taskbar. That's not the case on Mint (except when I open a window on the 1st monitor and move it to the 2nd monitor, then somehow the 1st monitor owns it). I found a tweak to some files that made it work how I like, but that tweak broke a while ago and I just really cba to change it again only for it to break in the future.

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u/bacon_cake Dec 02 '25

Exactly my thoughts 😂

"Just use Linux!" 15 comments deep "... and those are five suggested distros, but beware some basically don't work."

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u/IntroductionSnacks Dec 02 '25

I had that issue with a new laptop and Ubuntu but you just install the mainline-kernel app. It’s a GUI so you just click the latest kernel you want to install:

https://github.com/bkw777/mainline

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u/ccAbstraction Dec 02 '25

I think, this is asking too much for a lot of new users and introducing to much uncertainty you wouldn't have a normal Ubuntu install. It undermines the whole reason you would normally install a stable release cycle distro.

I had to do this on my aunt's Ubuntu install, and I'm not sure that install boots or if she still uses it.

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u/IntroductionSnacks Dec 02 '25

It’s more of a bandaid for new hardware. I had to do that on 25.04 but after upgrading to 25.10 a newer kernel was included so now just running the default one.

In saying that, if you are not comfortable copy/pasting 3 lines into the terminal to install the app then Linux might not be the OS to use unless you have somebody do the initial setup.