Linux

My grandma got along with Mint for Facebook browsing and KPatience.

If your mom is more into using real apps, plus the Windows UI, and you're comfortable with some setup, I'd highly recommend Debian 13 with KDE Plasma and Flatpak, with the Flatpak-Discover integration. That'll allow her to use lightweight, stable apps from apt, or more recent, but larger apps from Flathub, and install it all herself through Discover. Honestly, there should be a distro for that.

I'd be using that myself if it weren't for some very specific software I need from the AUR.

Seconding (or third-ing, or twelfth-ing) the recommendation for Linux Mint, but also gonna throw one in for MX Linux if the hardware is older.

I would put her on the latest Ubuntu LTS, make a single-user Ubuntu pro account so she keeps gettin gsecurity updates and don't do major OS updates on that machine for the next decade. You and her can decide which DE, either Gnome (more mac-like) or Budgie, Mate, or KDE (more windows-like. Those are my win-like preferences in that order)

i recommend version 6 😄

Something immutable with VNC for tech support

Though I'm disappointed at how ugly Cinnamon and all it's themes are, Linux Mint (with Cinnamon).

But as someone else said, probably ought to dual-boot or have a Windows VM just to be safe.

uBlue Bluefin or Aurora. Tested and approved. I moved my dad on Bluefin one year ago, no issues, it just works for his use case (90% of the time in a browser, light photo editing in Krita, some text editing). No maintenance, no updates, no actual knowledge needed as a daily user, just a single reboot once a week to boot the freshest system image.

And more importantly, it keeps on working despite his talent for fucking up every single piece of software he lays his hands on.

https://projectbluefin.io/

https://getaurora.dev/en

Depends from her hardware but generally Linux mint I install for everyone who is not familiar at all with linux.

She is getting her masters in nursing online so it def needs to be able to accommodate that

Is there any specialist software she needs, or is it browser based?

I would choose Mint.

Linux Mint.

Linux Mint, as many have suggested, but Fedora would also be a good choice if there's any bleeding-edge hardware not supported otherwise.

Linux Mint Debian!

Another vote for Mint.

1, Find out whether she needs any specific piece of software that is hard to replace. 2, Regarding distro, you should install her what you use, so it is easier for you to help. Ubuntu is well hated for a reason though (Canonical doing big tech things). I'd recommend either Linux Mint or Debian (if you are not a beginner in Linux and comfortable in the termunal) for both of you, but I'd wait until she passes her exams and may consider setting up a dual-boot on a spare SSD first, so she is able to try Linux and go back to Windows when needed. 3, Desktop environment: GNOME is considered best for ones coming from Apple and KDE from Windows. Both are resource hungry in my opinion, so I use MATE, which looks like GNOME 2 out of the box and uses a bit more resources than Xfce, well configurable though. Note that Ubuntu MATE is its flagship edition, many options are there out of the box (like MATE tweak).

i use mint as my first and im planning to get my mum on it too. its super user friendly

Linux Mint is so nice.

I would turn off "Secure Boot" in BIOS before doing the upgrade.

It officially works, but can throw in unnecessary challenges - and Mom probably isn't traveling with national secrets next week anyway.

Zorin or Mint.

Zorin is a bit more dumbed down, so there is no way for normal people to do anything wrong and a lot of things work just like they would expect them to. What really shocked me is when my dad downloaded some exe from the internet, double clicked it, installed and ran the software... No other distro supports that I think. On the other hand, when he had a specific wish, there was no way to change that, even though there are other distros/de's where I know you can. You mostly have to take it as it is given. Streamlined might be the appropriate word.

But mint is also very good for people that come from windows. No personal experience with it though.

Personally I prefer KDE over what my other two suggestions offer, but I've noticed that there is a lot of fiddling around involved when setting it up for specific personal preferences. If I do a fresh install, I have to go through all the kde apps and into their settings and change some behaviour here and there, which takes a whole weekend. I don't like the defaults, but at least everything can be configured to nearly perfectly suit me. But I would not want to do that for a relative, who is not tech-savy and patient enough to do it thenselves. Thats like a constant part-time tech support job.

Anything KDE. My mom and stepfather are using Kubuntu and it’s working out great.

My suggestion is to install Ubuntu with whatever desktop environment works for her. Since you're using Ubuntu too, and you're essentially going to be her tech support, it'll just be easier all around to stay on the same distro at least for now.

More importantly, how Windows-centric is she? Some people may prefer Gnome since using it is just a bit less complicated to use without needing to set a bunch of different settings. But if she's expecting the Windows style start menus and such then maybe she'll prefer KDE. Or there's always installing Linux Mint's Cinnamon on Ubuntu, Cinnamon would be easier than KDE for a ex-Windows user I suspect (https://ubuntucinnamon.org/ also exists apparently).

Either Mint or Ubuntu. Both are gui and user friendly compared to Arch or Fedora imo

Mint uses a outdated Desktop, Cinnemon, so wouldn't recommend Mint. A think you should choose a immutable distro like Fedora Silverblue och some of the Blufine disto.

slackware