Today at the grocery store a sweet older lady approached me and asked if I knew anything about computers. I said yes I do, and she produced a mouse saying that her son set up Linux mint for her and she was wondering if the mouse was compatible. It needed kernel version 2.6 or newer so I said that the mouse should work, guessing mint itself was probably newer than that kernel. Happy with my answer, we chatted a little, then she thanked me and left.

It was a nice experience, so I thought I should share!

  • ColorcodedResistor@lemm.ee
    428·
    1 year ago

    i worked in sales long enough to know that No, No sweet older lady ever spoke those words to you “setup on linux mint” and include the capacity for understanding hardware compliances? did everyone in the store clap too? but…it would be a nice fantasy ngl

    • Zabby [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      39·
      1 year ago

      With what I’ve been through, I’m beginning to wonder if OP is telling the truth 😂

      About 7 years ago I got a call from some random lady in her 70s. Turns out her husband passed away not long ago and every computer in the house had Linux Mint installed. She needed someone to help her with some various simple techy things that her husband used to handle.

      I couldn’t help but wonder how this random lady got my phone number. Turns out that one day, my Grandfather went on a walk down the road and this lady was outside tending to her garden. I have no clue how the conversation shifted to the topic of Linux, but it did. And my Grandpa knew I was in college for Computer Science, so he just volunteered me for this task.

      Fast forward to today and I still help her out once or twice a year with whatever random questions pop up.

    • phx@lemmy.ca
      71·
      1 year ago

      Uh my grandparents have Linux on their machine (set up a decade or more ago after I got sick of cleaning out malware/incredimail installs). They know enough to ask if stuff works on Linux though might not know to ask about Mint/Ubuntu specifically.

      TBF they usually ask me first but they’ll also ask the salesperson.

    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
      51·
      1 year ago

      Do you find it impossible for an older lady to have the capacity to understand hardware compliances or use Linux?

    • Lifted_lowered@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Some sweet older ladies used to work for the NSA like my grandma, and she only had me get rid of her Linux mint partition because she wasn’t using it much