My parents (both accountants) have been happily using Trisquel for many years
(5-6 years I believe) on their desktop computer. I installed it as well as
the applications they wanted (GnuCash, Freeciv, etc.). I let the default
(very easy to use) desktop environment but customized it to their tastes (my
mother wants launchers for everything). My mother never installs anythings
but takes care of the regular updates whenever the systems indicates some are
to be installed. I do the distribution updates.
For Gravmass, they received a laptop from their kids. I chose it without any
pre-installed OS and I bought a Wifi adapter that is compatible with
Linux-libre. I installed Trisquel 7. I installed the exact same list of
packages as on the desktop computer (Synaptic makes that very easy). I copied
the whole content of /home too. That includes the personal configuration
files. As a consequence, the whole thing was an easy operation.
I configured the NAT router so that I can remotely log in both systems via
SSH... but I basically never needs to do so: Trisquel just works!
Many years ago, I installed Trisquel for my brother too. He recently bought a
new laptop and *asked* me to install Trisquel on it. Like for my parents, I
anticipated that the Wifi would not work out-of-the-box and bought the same
Wifi adapter for my brother. He was however lucky in his purchase: no adapter
required! Ironically, he told me he cannot get the Wifi under Windows 8.1
(which came pre-installed on the laptop and that he did not want me to
erase). I guess drivers need to be found and installed but my politics is
"never help anyone with proprietary software (that would not be helping:
proprietary software is the problem)". :-)
