My grandfather (85 Years Old) is using linux for 5 years now. Never got a call to fix or do something.. (Installed KDE based distro)
My Parents (55) share a laptop at home (about 1 year now), installed Fedora (default GNOME) - never got a call.
My Youger Brother (18, finishing High-School this year) uses Ubuntu, for 4 years I think, I've convinced him that he could still play games there if wanted.. I get calls from him only when he wants to run some game that needs some advanced Wine tweaking and it involves command like (otherwise he is just using Play On Linux I think or whatever - I just don't game).
None of them is computer savvy or computer literate...
They all use different major Linux DE.. And they all seem to just be fine!
My Wife (27) currently uses Elementary OS (With Pantheon DE, which is not a major DE as we call them) - she's also nor computer literate nor savvy, and also using the Linux just fine!
The only problem I see, which rises from my wifes experience, there is no simple Paint alternative, were you'd have very basic options (cropping, rotating and maybe some brush/text) with a decent UI to make changes to a photo/image.. Same goes for easy PDF editing, but I already made her master Inkscape, but still - something easier and more straightforward would be awesome.
So the lack of software is still true for linux in 2016 in certain areas. I could convert a lot of audio/video editing people to linux, but there is just not enough professional grade software for them on linux..
In the end - apparently average Joe can use Linux today for browsing internet, viewing pdfs and doing Libre Office stuff just as well as on any other operating system (Windows, OS X)..
My Parents (55) share a laptop at home (about 1 year now), installed Fedora (default GNOME) - never got a call.
My Youger Brother (18, finishing High-School this year) uses Ubuntu, for 4 years I think, I've convinced him that he could still play games there if wanted.. I get calls from him only when he wants to run some game that needs some advanced Wine tweaking and it involves command like (otherwise he is just using Play On Linux I think or whatever - I just don't game).
None of them is computer savvy or computer literate...
They all use different major Linux DE.. And they all seem to just be fine!
My Wife (27) currently uses Elementary OS (With Pantheon DE, which is not a major DE as we call them) - she's also nor computer literate nor savvy, and also using the Linux just fine!
The only problem I see, which rises from my wifes experience, there is no simple Paint alternative, were you'd have very basic options (cropping, rotating and maybe some brush/text) with a decent UI to make changes to a photo/image.. Same goes for easy PDF editing, but I already made her master Inkscape, but still - something easier and more straightforward would be awesome.
So the lack of software is still true for linux in 2016 in certain areas. I could convert a lot of audio/video editing people to linux, but there is just not enough professional grade software for them on linux..
In the end - apparently average Joe can use Linux today for browsing internet, viewing pdfs and doing Libre Office stuff just as well as on any other operating system (Windows, OS X)..