<![CDATA[I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works.]]>I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works.

I checked her laptop just now and it's fully up to date on fedora 43, so she's done like 20 version upgrades autonomously too. The battery has degraded a little but the whole thing still works fine and she's very happy with it.

This is how things should be, this is peak computing tbh.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/873aa51d-b079-4d2a-be63-6274e3a34003/i-still-can-t-even-that-my-now-nearly-80-year-old-mom-has-been-on-fedora-on-a-thinkpad-e520-2011-for-a-decade-and-it-all-just-works.RSS for NodeSun, 12 Apr 2026 06:03:43 GMTSat, 14 Mar 2026 11:57:56 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:50:06 GMT]]>@anthropy that's an impressively long service history for that machine and that install!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://rage.love/users/Byte/statuses/116230442624854068https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://rage.love/users/Byte/statuses/116230442624854068Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:50:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:15:48 GMT]]>@anthropy @mainframed767 Fuck yeah it is. Tech that gets out of the way so you can just use it. Amazing.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/andrewdwilliams/statuses/116230307765841397https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/andrewdwilliams/statuses/116230307765841397Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:15:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 23:59:07 GMT]]>@anthropy Fedora - especially with KDE - is indeed fairly wonderful.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mas.to/users/drewtowler/statuses/116230242143698582https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mas.to/users/drewtowler/statuses/116230242143698582Sat, 14 Mar 2026 23:59:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 23:13:24 GMT]]>@anthropy

Clearly not broken. Do not replace.

I'm talking about your mom.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/SpaceLifeForm/statuses/116230062375353303https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/SpaceLifeForm/statuses/116230062375353303Sat, 14 Mar 2026 23:13:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 21:56:26 GMT]]>@anthropy I gave my mum a used dell laptop with debian for her 70th birthday, which was over a decade ago, and I can say the same thing. Does everything she needs (web browsing and text processing). The battery's toast, but she only uses it at her desk anyways.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/cm/statuses/116229759708821562https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://chaos.social/users/cm/statuses/116229759708821562Sat, 14 Mar 2026 21:56:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:20:21 GMT]]>@anthropy Moms rock!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/users/arosano/statuses/116229381933175681https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/users/arosano/statuses/116229381933175681Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:20:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:09:46 GMT]]>@anthropy Your story is even better than mine ❀️ My then 70-year-old dad wanted to get on the Internet a decade ago. I got him a 16-inch Dell laptop and installed Ubuntu on it. He has been using it to this day even though the battery is cooked. Only had one upgrade that failed on me in the mean time. I am grateful to my younger self for all the bullets dodged.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/JaggyJeff/statuses/116229340308664355https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/JaggyJeff/statuses/116229340308664355Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:09:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:01:10 GMT]]>@radundtat @anthropy

πŸ€·β€β™€οΈ

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/rustoleumlove/statuses/116229306488482572https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/rustoleumlove/statuses/116229306488482572Sat, 14 Mar 2026 20:01:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:59:51 GMT]]>@anthropy Life as it should be! πŸ˜πŸ€“

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://retro.pizza/users/unicandun/statuses/116229301328987548https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://retro.pizza/users/unicandun/statuses/116229301328987548Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:59:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:42:37 GMT]]>@rustoleumlove @anthropy Wouldn't that be solvable with the right permissions?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://berlin.social/users/radundtat/statuses/116229233568479082https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://berlin.social/users/radundtat/statuses/116229233568479082Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:42:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:39:04 GMT]]>@anthropy Mum finally let me install Mint on an old laptop when Windows 11 drove her crazy. Works like a dream and I expect I'll be allowed to install it on the new laptop before the year is over...

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://berlin.social/users/radundtat/statuses/116229219572043774https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://berlin.social/users/radundtat/statuses/116229219572043774Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:39:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:28:36 GMT]]>@anthropy My mom hated how Windows programs kept "switching the buttons around." So I switched her to Linux. That was 20 years ago. She loved Linux. Her computer just worked. My dad and my sister wanted to switch her to Windows so many times and she wouldn't have it.
She used Linux for nearly 20 years and was happy with it. We started with Linspire, then went to Suse, then Vector, Fedora, and finally Ubuntu, and it always just worked.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/ned/statuses/116229178437485491https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/ned/statuses/116229178437485491Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:28:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:27:14 GMT]]>@anthropy My wife is still using her 2008-ish ThinkPad, onto which we installed LUbuntu when its Windows version became "obsolete". I think it lacks video encoding hardware because Zoom and friends are not working well, but for basic use it's still doing its job.

Oh and we installed a second hand SSD at some point. Not sure if it would still be usable on a spinning rust hard drive, with software being the size it is these days.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.gamedev.place/users/thomastc/statuses/116229173024226300https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.gamedev.place/users/thomastc/statuses/116229173024226300Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:27:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:16:43 GMT]]>@anthropy hehe, my mom as well. On Linux Mint singe around ten years. I live like 6 hours away and no Problems.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://rollenspiel.social/users/armando/statuses/116229131693159006https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://rollenspiel.social/users/armando/statuses/116229131693159006Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:16:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:15:10 GMT]]>@paco @anthropy

You're being a bit lame, don't you think.

It's a long time ago that you needed to be a nerd or to have knowledge of programming to comfortably use .

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/sibrosan/statuses/116229125600234271https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/sibrosan/statuses/116229125600234271Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:15:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:10:59 GMT]]>@spaceinvader @anthropy ive been a big fan of Silverblue and Bazzite for this reason, updates are even more reliable, and if for whatever reason the updated image doesnt work right you can select the old one in grub and run on it indefinetly until whatever problem in the update is fixed, you should *never* be locked out of your working computer due to a software/distro bug

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/raven667/statuses/116229109135779729https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/raven667/statuses/116229109135779729Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:10:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:06:20 GMT]]>@dazo @bekopharm @anthropy ive had trouble with the Zoom flatpak, and exclusively use Zoom in Firefox. There was a (small) link on the we page when you join a meeting that was recently hidden behind a toggle in the settings, but i was able to find it, and its always worked perfectly in a browser for me on Fedora

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/raven667/statuses/116229090857244233https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/raven667/statuses/116229090857244233Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:06:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:00:20 GMT]]>@anthropy
Nice πŸ‘Œ congrats

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://framapiaf.org/users/sebsauvage/statuses/116229067295372281https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://framapiaf.org/users/sebsauvage/statuses/116229067295372281Sat, 14 Mar 2026 19:00:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:53:33 GMT]]>@anthropy@mastodon.derg.nz yeah i don't really understand where the meme of linux being unreliable is

it's more reliable than windows for sure
macos is very stable but only targets one type of machine and architecture so yeah i would hope so

a distros like fedora have always worked amazing ime

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://irlqt.net/notes/aju9058wpovu01dthttps://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://irlqt.net/notes/aju9058wpovu01dtSat, 14 Mar 2026 18:53:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:49:33 GMT]]>@anthropy My 85-y-o mum is visiting and got a call from a good friend in Queensland yesterday. She made it a point to tell her to download Signal so that they could stay in touch effortlessly.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nz/users/phil_stevens/statuses/116229024848636148https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nz/users/phil_stevens/statuses/116229024848636148Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:49:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:47:20 GMT]]>@anthropy Pretty much the same situation for my mother, except Ubuntu, an we had to get her a new ThinkPad at one point.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.art/users/liebach/statuses/116229016126325260https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.art/users/liebach/statuses/116229016126325260Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:47:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:41:56 GMT]]>@anthropy We look forward to her first open source contribution. 😜 Does she prefer emacs or vi? Tabs or spaces? You did inform her that she can’t use without having opinions on these things, right?
πŸ˜‚

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/paco/statuses/116228994918553370https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/paco/statuses/116228994918553370Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:41:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:57:46 GMT]]>@anthropy

that's so awesome.

i built a PC for my parents in 2004 and my father started randomly deleting files from the hard drive whenever he perceived anything was going wrong with it. so by like 2005 he had destroyed the computer's OS beyond my capabilities to repair

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/rustoleumlove/statuses/116228585300080043https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/rustoleumlove/statuses/116228585300080043Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:57:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I still can't even that my now nearly 80 year old mom has been on Fedora on a thinkpad e520 (2011) for a decade and it all just works. on Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:38:21 GMT]]>@benfulton everything from watching DVDs/Netflix to email/internet, managing her photos with Shotwell and making small presos and docs and stuff with Libreoffice for e.g her garden club and what not else, honestly impressed with how advanced her usage of it is given her age

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.derg.nz/users/anthropy/statuses/116228508990516017https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.derg.nz/users/anthropy/statuses/116228508990516017Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:38:21 GMT