Yep! Okular is amazing, and it’s available on Windows too. Install it for someone and they’ll never bother you again about PDFs or EPUB documents, it’s performant and everything works: printing, resizing, selecting text, searching, signing, adding comments. Never worry about paid PDF software or shady slow apps that keep trying to gatekeep features.
Honestly, there isn’t much to it when setting up Linux for elderly people - in fact, I find it less troublesome than setting it up for a teenager.
Most often the issues regular users face with Linux are related to installing packages from external sources or broken updates. Elderly people tend to not do that.
Set up a stable distro like Debian, Linux Mint or Ubuntu LTS with KDE Plasma or Cinnamon, install LibreOffice, Okular and a browser with strong ad blocking, and any other applications you think they might need. Enable a simple firewall, hide the root / folder from the file browser’s sidebar, and you’re done. Perhaps set up scaling to make everything bigger on their monitors, disable mouse acceleration and set the speed slightly slower than usual.
I wouldn’t bother with immutable distros, Flatpaks are nice and all until permissions turn using a simple app a confusing chore with broken interactions.
I use it as a “laptop” a lot, using a case with a stand and Logitech’s mini Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I like it.
Bluetooth controllers actually do behave weirdly on the Deck, the polling rate is sub optimal. You can modify certain system files to help, but you’d have to reset the setting after every update.
But for audio, it’s mostly fine. I really do not have issues using this phone to Deck setup. You could consider a full system reset if it’s that bad on your end, it’s supposed to work well.
I believe you might want to double check your phone and/or headphones. Or even the Deck itself.
I use it daily and apart from the expected latency, the audio is great with no flaws. No interruptions or jank.
Bluetooth 4.0 is capable of handling around 8 connections simultaneously
Bluetooth headphones work well with the Steam Deck, I specially like how you can pair your phone to the Deck and it will mix the phone’s audio with the game audio (so you can have music or a podcast playing, for instance)
For those asking how to do it, simply enable Bluetooth on the phone and then go to the Steam Deck’s Bluetooth page, find the phone and pair it from there.
Apart from all the other benefits, one underrated feature of SteamOS over Windows for a handheld is how GameScope handles windows:
On Microsoft Windows, if a game from 2008 boots a menu for configuration before the game itself, it’s usually this tiny Windows 98 square that you need pinpoint precision to maneuver. Worse still, if a launcher or firewall or whatever decides to pop up a window on top of your fullscreen game, the screen flashes three times, the mouse focus can attach itself to the wrong panel, and it can be super annoying.
On SteamOS, any window will scale to your full screen size - including those ancient ones. There will be no firewall or defender or whatever prompts, but if a game launcher does decide to spawn a new window, focus is not lost and changing between windows using the Steam button is simple, fast and the input will always work on the correct window.
It’s the absolute best way to turn PC software into a console experience. Windows solution to this same “how to make a PC feel like a console?” is adding yet another layer on top of everything with the GameBar, then make it inconsistent by changing the UI on gamepads, then make it even more inconsistent by changing your saved layout after every update. The GameBar fixes zero issues.